Resistance and Feminism: Indigenous Women’s Perspectives

1. Resistance and Feminism: Indigenous Women’s Perspectives Johanne Brar, Carly Santos, Catharine Kendall, Mila Sharma, Jess Clayton & Kaeleen Foote “A nation is not conquered Until the hearts of its women Are on the ground Then it is done, no matter How brave its warriors Nor how strong its weapons” -Tsistsistas (Cheyenne), Traditional Saying

2. How and where does feminism fit for and with Indigenous women’s perspectives? “We must be both decolonizers and feminists.” (LaRocque in Green, 2007: 68)

3. Feminism fits for and with Indigenous women’s perspectives: • By considering women’s experiences, especially through social and cultural practices. • By providing tools to critique oppressive traditions • perpetuated by patriarchal processes and systems. • By providing an ideological framework for theoretical engagement with history and politics. • By engaging contemporary social, economic, cultural, political and environmental issues. • By promoting self-determination for individuals & communities. • By leading to praxis – theoretically informed, politically self-conscious activism. • By offering models and concepts of gender equality that can enhance woman-centered notions of equality and valuation. • By offering methodologies for deconstruction of negative stereotypes and internalizations. (Anderson, 2000: 111; Green, 2007: 25, 68)

4. Who am I? The six directions ideology is how Feminism fits for & with Indigenous Women’s Perspectives. The Universal direction portrays this aerial slide where Feminism fits for and with Indigenous Women’s Perspectives in the UNBC FNST 306 Indigenous Women’s Perspectives Collective Medicine Wheel. The “personal to the plural”… becomes a “social movement”.At this juncture, we as active participants are supplemented to hear, “Who are we?... What is an Aboriginal woman?”… which also leads us to collectively utilize cognition towards “questions” such as “Where are we going?”and “What are our responsibilities?” (Anderson, 2000:16) ACT RESIST What are my Who I am not? responsibilities? CONSTRUCT RECLAIM Where am I Where have I going? come from?

5. Feminism fits for and with Indigenous women’s perspectives where it : • struggles to end sexism and gender-based inequality in society. • combats patriarchal structures of power and entitlement. • links sex and race oppression in order to address colonialism. • acknowledges asymmetrical but mutually constitutive histories, relationships, and responsibilities. • recognizes that power can flow in more than one direction within multiple systems of domination and stratification. • is willing to acknowledge and address the processes and effects of white privilege. • decenters white middle-class women as the central historical agents of feminism. • sees and values traditional indigenous respect for the role of motherhood. • dismisses absolutes of the white/other binary and conceptualizes identities as multiply, fluidly, and relationally defined. (Anderson 2000: 23,57,71, 274-277; Green 2007: 56, 61; Hoy 2001: 17,18; McIntosh 1990; Susurro 2008)

6. What have been the struggles of Indigenous Women? Jessica Biel as Pocahontas Constructions of Negative Identity • It has become fashionable to “enjoy racial difference” by “eating the Other.” • Advertising has picked up on this trend and uses people of colour to sell products. • There is a continual struggle on the part of Indigenous women to resist crass, sexualized • interpretations of their being. (hooks qtd. in Anderson, 2000: 107; Anderson, 2000: 108)

7. Struggles Continue Today Loss of belongingness: “People call it all “progress” but to the Indian it is a set-back. We can’t hang onto our values and live this new way too. Eventually you have to chose. You can’t be traditional and live in the white man’s system at the same time because you are helping to destroy the earth” (Silman, 1994: 225). Living in abusive relationships and raising children alone “I think the feminist movement has too easily accepted the idea that because you need a certain degree of economic control over your life in capitalist society, that having children can weaken you in that respect” (Anderson, 2000: 273). Women [were] degraded by colonialism, traded and bought [in exchange for] alcohol and other Europeans goods, by their own people (Silman, 1994). Family Violence Loss of control Poor health status Loss of status

8. “Today, there are northern communities in which the entire female population has been sexually assaulted by males who are living in community with them. These men are their brothers, cousins, uncles, fathers, and grandfathers. Some of these abusers hold powerful positions on band councils--most of them are held unaccountable for their assaults against their female relatives. Often women feel powerless to effect change, and are threatened with further violence if they attempt to stop the abuse” (Lynne, 1998).The historical impact of the political system, church, and colonization have created sexual oppression for First Nations women as a class condition.

9. Past and Present Struggles The difference between “women in the past and those today is that they tend to be valued more for their utility as mothers, wives, or potential sexual partners than for what they were, or are, as individuals” (Mandell, 1995: 99). “.. Indian is our heritage – it’s in our blood. I think that is our determination right there – it’s because we are Indian. We are fighting for our birthright” (Silman, 1994: 217).

10. Who are some indigenous women who are role models as feminists or as resisters? I am an Indian Gypsie from the place behind the ice walls. A place where reflections are false and where reality crumbles. And the cement beneath makes it more difficult. The invisible light in the darkness, Leads the way to the clockwork of my beliefs; Where the squares connect And the gate never opens. Whenever I take myself My soul follows with a pack of wolves. And I try to keep my balance Over the crossing of the clouds. I crawl, I hang, I float, I fly, In the dark space that is mine. A buckle, a tick, a tear, And I'm still here. Marybeth Westman is a Northern Tuchone Native from Carmacks, Yukon, Canada. ‘Strong Earth Woman’ drawing by Wabimeguil

11. Buffy Sainte-MarieSinger. Songwriter. Artist. Activist. Woman. • Has made 18 albums. Newest 2009 album “Running for the Drum” just won her 3rd JUNO award. • Received 2 metals from Queen Elizabeth II. • Has a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame. • Has written protest songs and love songs for artists such as Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Janis Joplin, Neil Diamond and more. • Besides raising a son, Buffy Sainte-Marie worked on Sesame Street for 5 yrs, performed at Grassroots concerts, helped found Canada’s Music of Aboriginal Canada JUNO category, taught Digital Music, and won an Academy Award Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for the song “Up Where We Belong” which was recorded by Joe Crocker and Jennifer Warnes in the film An Officer and a Gentleman. • Born February 20th, 1941 on a Piapot (Cree) Reserve in Qu’Appelle Valley Saskatchewan. Adopted and raised in Massachusetts. • PH.D. in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts with degrees in Oriental Philosophy and Teaching. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLCk066o9sU (“Buffy Sainte-Marie, biography”)

12. Buffy Sainte-MarieSinger. Songwriter. Artist. Activist. Woman. • Her concern for protecting Indigenous intellectual property and her distaste for the exploitation of Native American artists and performers has kept Buffy Sainte-Marie in the forefront of activism in the arts for forty years. • She has operated the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education since 1969 • During the 90s, Buffy focused on the Cradleboard Teaching Project, “using her multimedia skills to create accurate, enriching core curriculum based on Native American cultural perspectives.” • Buffy says, “It was startling in the Sixties to hear anyone speak out publicly concerning corporate land grabs of Indian land; the fact that the speaker was a woman was even more startling.” • Although you could say her career was a success, Buffy faced discrimination and censorship. There was one point where she was told that “Native issues and the peace movement had become unfashionable.” Her records were not in stores and had little to no air-play. Buffy was requested to not bring up Indian issues on TV appearances. During this time she claims to have felt “too weird for America.” • Yet, this did not discourage her. Buffy wanted her people to have fun and step out of depression and doubt, and to see, hear and feel the beauty of their culture. Buffy’s digital art/electronic painting, using technology, colour and light to create art (“Buffy Sainte-Marie, biography”)

13. Susan Aglukark – Inuit A Native Voice in Canadian Music This Child Album • Susan Aglukark is a feminist who sings words of suicide, pain, hope, grieving, personal strength, love of community, and optimism for the future. She also explores the issue of poverty in Canada. She states in Macleans Magazine, “I know what it’s like not to be part of the rest of the world.” • According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Susan Aglukark, singer, songwriter, was born at Churchill, Manitoba on January 27, 1967”(7). She was one of seven siblings born to a Pentecostal minister and his wife. She spent 12 years of her childhood moving with her family to different communities throughout the Northwest Territories. • Susan attended high school in Hudson Bay at a town called Arviat. She then went to work for Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada (INAC) in Ottawa where she began her professional music career in the early 90s. (Berman, 1995; Bateman, 2009)

14. Susan winning the Juno Award for "Arctic Rose” in 1992 • The winter 2000 issue of First Nations Drum magazine states, “Through her music, Susan Aglukark spreads uplifting messages to her own community and the nation at large”. In her song, “Unsung Heroes”, she sings about herself growing up as an Inuk and trying to find herself in the world. • Susan states in the First Nations Drum magazine: • “My ultimate message is to learn to be yourself and believe in that person,” says Susan. “It’s a constant fight, an everyday process. If by example I can relay this simple message, that would be great.” • This is Susan’s hit song, “This Child”, sold over 3000,000 copies. Click link below, and left click and press hyperlink. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33u3fZtbVzc (“Susan”, 2000)

15. "Now the women are rising up. And when the women rise up from a nation, they are the strongest voice that can be heard and it's a voice that cannot be silenced." -Diane Reed, President of the Cree Society for Communications

16. Resources • Anderson, K. (2000). A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood. Toronto: Sumach Press. (p.73) • Bateman, J. (2009). Aglukark, Susan. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 10, 2009, from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010270 • Berman, B. (1995, February 13). Aglukark, Susan (Profile). Maclean’s in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 10, 2009, from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010270 • Buffy Sainte-Marie, biography. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2009, from http://www.creative-native.com/biography.php • Creed, D. (1995, December). In Indigenous Women: Taking Control of their Destiny. United Nations Department of Public • Information. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/indigens/dpi1717e.htm • Green, J. (Ed.). (2007). Making Space for Indigenous Feminism. Black Point, NS: Fernwood. • Hoy, H. (2001). How Should I Read These?: Native Women Writers in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. • Langford, J. (n.d.). First nations women leaders in community development. Canadian Woman Studies. 14(4), 34-36. • Lynne, J. (1998). Colonialism and the sexual exploitation of Canada’s First Nations women. Retrieved from Prostitution Research and Education http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/raciscm/000017.html#more • Mandell, N. (Ed.). (1995). Feminist issues race, class, and sexuality. Scarborough,ON: Prentice-Hall Canada Inc. • McIntosh, P. (1990). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Independent School, 49 (2), 31. • Silman, J. (1994). Enough is enough: Aboriginal woman speak out. Toronto, ON: Tobique Woman’s Group. • Srinivasan, M. (n.d). A Dalit and a First Nations Canadian speak of the women in their bones. Retrieved October 3, 2009, from http://epress.anu.edu.au/aborig_history/indigenous_biog/mobile_devices/ch09.html#d0e6886 • Susan Aglukark – A Leading Voice in Canadian Music. (2000). Biography in First Nations Drum. Retrieved October 10, 2009, • from http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/biography/wint00_aglukark.htm • Susurro, P. (2008). Indigenous Women/Indigenous Women without Apology. Like a Whisper. Retrieved October 8, 2009, • from http://likeawhisper.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/indigenous-feminism-indigenous-feminism-without-apology Picture Credits: Slide 1 “Raven Women.” Painting by Roger Simon - http://www.firstnations.eu/indian_land/sovereign_owners.htm Slide 2 “Woman Medicine Wheel” Painting by K.A. Foote, 2009, acrylic on paper. Slide 4 Medicine Wheel http://www.sagegrovecoven/Portal/index.php?limitstart=45 Slide 6 Jessica Biel as Pocahontas - http://julieluongo.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/biel-as-pocahontas.jpg “Concrete Indian” Photo by Nadya Kwandibens - http://www.redworks.ca/# Slide 7 Owls and young image – www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=d2f9370f-2 Native American women/children image - www.bcr.org/.../native-americans-colorado.html Slide 8 “The Chosen Child” Drawing by Axe Peterson - http://www.firstnations.eu/indian_land/sovereign_owners.htm Slide 9 Hwy of Tears/Bernie Williams image - missingwomen.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html Wordle created by Mila Sharma and Catharine Kendall Slide 10 “Strong Earth Woman” by Wabemeguil - http://www.geocities.com/chapleaucree/21mig02/CCFN_Migration_Vol2-01.html Slide 11 “Buffy Sainte-Marie” Photo by Trevor Brady - http://www.creative-native.com/photogallery.php Slide 12 Photo - http://www.creative-native.com/index.php Slide 13 Susan Aglukark, “This Child” Album Cover - http://www.heroines.ca/people/aglukark.html Slide 14 Photo - http://www.canab.com/mainpages/events/archive_files/music_awards/2004ceremonyPhotos.html Slide15 “Future is Female” Painting by Schar Freeman - https://fineartamerica.com/featured/future-is-female-schar-freeman.html?viewall=true