An Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis Examining the Complexities of Access to Wild Game and Fish for Urban Indigenous Women in Northwestern Ontario

The destruction of Indigenous food systems is a direct consequence of the settler-colonial project within Canada and has led to decreasing access to Indigenous foods, disproportionate rates of food insecurity and disconnection from Indigenous food systems and environments. We interviewed Indigenous women, non-Indigenous staff of Indigenous-serving organizations, and policymakers (i.e., those who develop, interpret, or implement wild food policy) to explore how the policy context has impacted Indigenous women and their communities’ experiences of accessing Indigenous foods in urban northwestern Ontario. We applied an Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) Framework to shape our research questions and guide the thematic analysis of the data. We found that stakeholder groups had differing understandings of the issue of accessing wild foods and Indigenous food security and their actions either supported or disrupted efforts for access to wild food to promote food security or Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Policymakers cited necessary barriers to promote food safety and support conservation of wildlife. Staff of Indigenous-serving organizations approached the issue with consideration of both Western and Indigenous worldviews, while Indigenous women spoke about the ongoing impacts of colonial policy and government control over their lands and territories. The main policy areas discussed included residential school policy, food regulation, and natural resource regulation. We also investigated community-level strategies for improvement, such as a wild game license. Throughout, we tied the colonial control over ‘wildlife’ and the Western food safety discourse, with infringements on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, experiences of racism in food settings and on the land, as well as with broad control over Indigenous sovereignty in Ontario. This work contributes to an increased understanding of how Western discourses about health, food, and the environment are perpetuated through systemic racism in government policy and reiterated through policymakers' views and interpretations or actions. Government institutions must develop culturally safe partnerships with Indigenous leaders and organizations to facilitate a transfer of power that can support Indigenous Food Sovereignty.

Assessing the Efficacy of a Cultural and Artistic Intervention for Indigenous Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence

nato’ we ho win is a trauma-and-violence-informed artistic and cultural intervention for Indigenous women who have experienced intimate partner violence. The results of this study provide evidence that engagement in nato’ we ho win had a positive impact on participants’ well-being. Participants completed self-report questionnaires at intake, post-intervention, and at one-year follow-up. Multilevel modeling analyses assessed for within-participant changes over time. There was a statistically significant increase in participants’ self-reported sense of resilience ( p < 0.001), personal agency, connectedness, and post-traumatic growth ( ps < 0.05). There were statistically significant decreases in participants’ self-reported anxiety and depression ( p s < 0.01) from intake to one-year follow-up.

Mothers’ Darlings of The South Pacific: The Children of Indigenous Women and U.S. Servicemen, World War II, Judith A. Bennett and Angela Wanhalla (eds) (2016)

Review of: Mothers’ Darlings of The South Pacific: The Children of Indigenous Women and U.S. Servicemen, World War II, Judith A. Bennett and Angela Wanhalla (eds) (2016) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 379 pp., ISBN 978 0 82485 152 1 (hbk), US$65

Coalition as a counterpoint to the intersectional critique of The Second Sex

The analogy Simone de Beauvoir draws between “les femmes” and “des Noirs d’Amérique” is a key part of the intersectional critique of The Second Sex. Intersectional critics persuasively argue that Beauvoir’s analogy reveals the white, middle-class identity of The Second Sex's ostensibly universal “woman”, emphasizing the fact that the text does not account for the experiences of black, Jewish, proletariat or indigenous women. In this essay, I point to multiple instances in The Second Sex in which Beauvoir endorses a coalition between workers black and white, male and female. When Beauvoir writes on economic injustice, she advocates for an inclusive workers party where racial and sexual differences become immaterial as workers come together in a collective struggle. I thus propose that Beauvoir’s Marxism is an overlooked, yet important, counterpoint to the intersectional critique of The Second Sex.

Combating Physician-Assisted Genocide and White Supremacy in Healthcare through Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies in Canadian Medical Schools to Prevent the Coercive and Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Women

Coercive and forced sterilization of Indigenous Peoples are acts of genocide that are rooted in colonialism and white supremacy and require fundamental changes to undergraduate medical education. I (Erika Campbell) draw upon the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 24th Call to Action, which calls for “skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism” in medical schools. Additionally, I draw upon Call for Justice 7.6 from the Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl, which calls upon institutions and health service providers be educated in areas including, but not limited to: the history of colonialism in the oppression and genocide of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations Peoples; anti-bias and anti-racism; local language and culture; and local health and healing practice. I analyzed the responses of all 17 undergraduate medical programs in Canada to determine how they incorporated anti-racism within their medical education to meet the Calls to Action and Justice. All undergraduate medical programs include some form of cultural learning, which I argue does not directly challenge racism and colonialism. As such, I advocate for the implementation of anti-oppressive pedagogies within curricula to facilitate the unlearning of colonial rhetoric. I further argue the implementation of anti-oppressive pedagogies within education will contribute to the eradication of the ongoing genocide of Indigenous Peoples and white supremacy within our healthcare systems.

Mujeres, poder y comunalidad: testimonio oral de Marcelina Bautista Bautista, primera mujer agente municipal de la Región de San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, México

El objetivo de la investigación es comprender el acceso a espacios políticos de las mujeres indígenas, mediante la historia oral de la primera mujer agente municipal de la Región Triqui Alta, Oaxaca, México. Se traen como referencia teórica los conceptos de poder, comunalidad y resistencias, así mismo posicionamos la crítica desde una lectura del feminismo comunitario, que reconoce los procesos por los cuales las mujeres indígenas resisten las múltiples opresiones derivadas de diversas intersecciones como clase, etnia y género. El diseño de la investigación es exploratorio-descriptivo, utilizando un enfoque cualitativo basado en el método de casos que recupera la historia Oral de la primera mujer agente municipal de la región Triqui Alta en Oaxaca México. Una de las características de las comunidades indígenas es que rigen por el sistemas de usos y costumbres en donde la asamblea es el máximo órgano para la toma de decisiones y, fue en 1992 que se decidió que fuera Marcelina la primera mujer Agente Municipal de Santa Cruz Progreso, uno de los catorce pueblos que pertenecen a la Región de San Andrés Chicahuaxtla. Para Marcelina, estar en un espacio de poder desarrollando roles asignados culturalmente a hombres, negociando con toda la comunidad y realizando gestiones sociales para el bien común, ha sido un proceso difícil pero que a su vez deja claro la capacidad de mujeres de ocupar estos puestos que les han sido negados por mucho tiempo. The objective of the research is to understand the access to political spaces of indigenous women, through the oral history of the first female municipal agent of the Triqui Alta Region, Oaxaca, Mexico. The concepts of power, communality and resistance are brought as a theoretical reference, likewise we position the criticism from a reading of community feminism, which recognizes the processes by which indigenous women resist the multiple oppressions derived from various intersections such as class, ethnicity and gender. . The research design is exploratory-descriptive, using a qualitative approach based on the case method that recovers the Oral history of the first female municipal agent of the Triqui Alta region in Oaxaca, Mexico. One of the characteristics of indigenous communities is that they govern by the system of uses and customs where the assembly is the highest decision-making body and, it was in 1992 that it was decided that Marcelina would be the first woman Municipal Agent of Santa Cruz Progreso, one of the fourteen towns that belong to the San Andrés Chicahuaxtla Region. For Marcelina, being in a space of power developing roles assigned culturally to men, negotiating with the entire community and carrying out social efforts for the common good, has been a difficult process but which in turn makes clear the ability of women to occupy these positions that have been denied them for a long time.

Sister Are You out of Place on Top?: Indigenous Perspectives on Women in Top-Management from New Zealand and South Africa

<p><b>This thesis examines the interactions between issues of race and gender as they affect top-management positions. Specifically, it asks how these issues affect access to top jobs and experiences in those positions for ethnic „minority‟ women. In response to this question, I conducted empirical research with Māori and Black indigenous women in two former British settler States, New Zealand and the Republic of South Africa. I investigated issues, lessons and strategies for indigenous women entering top-management roles. I investigated the experiences and perceptions of these women within their own historical and political contexts to interpret my findings.</b></p> <p>I drew on the management literature which theorises issues of race and gender for women in top-management positions. In the broad context of theorising the interactions of race and gender in top-management, I focused in particular on studies which developed the metaphor of the „concrete ceiling‟ to explore the issues facing ethnic „minority‟ women trying to reach top-management roles and to succeed in them. To carry out this research in a way that was culturally appropriate, I developed a combination of methodologies, which drew on Māori and African cultural protocols, as well as western paradigms. I explored the experiences of 15 Māori women (10 in the public sector and 5 in the private sector) in New Zealand, and 12 Black women in the private sector in South Africa through qualitative interviews.</p> <p>My findings added new perspectives to the „concrete-ceiling‟ literature, while also confirming some familiar themes. The „concrete-ceiling‟ theory focuses on barriers to accessing top positions, but, by contrast, the women in my study were actively recruited. In my findings I discuss how my participants used strategies, such as mentoring, which are familiar in the literature, from new perspectives based on their cultural and political backgrounds. The lives of the women I interviewed were part of a historical and political moment of change in both countries, where political struggles led to new opportunities for indigenous women. These changes included the post-apartheid Broad-Based Economic Programmes (BEE) in South Africa and the ratification of the Treaty of Waitangi as well as Government sponsored Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) programmes in New Zealand. The effects of these policies were that my participants were „head-hunted‟ in South Africa and „shoulder-tapped‟ in New Zealand without actively seeking new roles. My participants entered their initial top-management roles through these initiatives and they believed that they were perceived as tokens by their organisations, upon initial entry. They encountered familiar „concrete-ceiling‟ challenges based on negative stereotyping in terms of „racialised-gender‟. But in most cases my participants were able to go beyond token positions to become genuinely influential as top managers.</p> <p>My project contributes primarily to studies focusing on ethnic „minority‟ women in top-management. The existing literature is based mainly on studies conducted in the United States of America and Europe. These studies therefore embed historical and political contexts of issues such as slavery and migration, present in these countries. In contrast, by studying indigenous women in Settler States, my project provides different perspectives and also highlights the importance of local context for any such research.</p>