Self-Determination and Violence against Indigenous Women

Indigenous feminist discourse links the realities of multilayered violence faced by Indigenous women to questions of self-determination, self-government, and the survival of Indigenous communities. This chapter considers how Indigenous political institutions and leadership address gendered violence. Nearly all interviewees agreed that violence against women is a self-determination issue, but pointed out that existing self-government institutions do not address the problem as such (if at all). Another problem, also mentioned by some interviewees, is the limited resources. There are, however, increasing attempts to address violence against Indigenous women by Indigenous political institutions, including self-government bodies, although there is considerable variance between the three regions examined here. Building on existing considerations of gendered violence and gender justice in Indigenous contexts and using interview data, the author advances a theory of Indigenous self-determination that affirms Indigenous women’s rights and gender justice.

Indigenous Self-Government Structures in Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi

Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the related (but distinct) concepts of self-government, governance, and autonomy and how they differ from the concept of self-determination. It then examines in detail the scope and structures of the existing self-government arrangements in three regions: Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi (the Sámi region in Scandinavia) through participant discussions. In Canada, the focus is not on a specific First Nation or self-government arrangement; instead, Indigenous self-government is approached in broader terms with the focus on the discrepancy between aspiration of Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty and the structure and scope of self-government sanctioned by the state. Each section begins with a brief overview of the colonial history and political context leading to self-government arrangements.

Gendering Indigenous Self-Government

Chapter 4 examines the gender power dynamics of existing Indigenous self-government institutions, cultures, and discourses in Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia. Employing feminist institutional analysis, the author investigates how Indigenous political institutions are gendered. Gendering refers to a multiplicity of interacting processes shaped by the distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine, which create and conceptualize social structures and privilege certain groups over others. Gendering occurs through the construction of various divisions along gender lines and through interpersonal interactions that enact gendered hierarchies. Institutions and organizations are also gendered through the construction of symbols, images, and ideologies that legitimize institutions generally conceived as gender-neutral. Using interview data, the chapter analyzes the gender regimes of Indigenous political institutions and women’s participation in the existing self-government institutions. Also considered are alternative forms of advancing Indigenous self-determination by examining Indigenous women’s grassroots leadership and the growing movement of reclaiming Indigenous women’s authority.

Implementing Indigenous Self-Determination

Indigenous self-government is the political theory and practice of the right to self-determination. It is a political arrangement that enables a group to govern themselves according to their own will and through their own institutions. This chapter considers the degree of Indigenous self-determination in the three regions through participant discussions. In spite of increasing participation of Indigenous women in formal politics and their involvement in self-determination struggles from the outset, literature and scholarship especially from a comparative perspective on Indigenous women’s views on self-government remains next to nonexistent. Yet there are a number of similarities globally between Indigenous women’s struggles for political voice, representation, and rights and against the imposition and internalization of colonial patriarchal policies and laws. This chapter fills the gap by examining Indigenous women’s views on the current efforts of implementing indigenous self-determination and the ways in which the efforts have a connection to the everyday life of individuals. It begins with Greenland, with the most extensive self-government arrangements, and concludes with the Sámi Parliaments, whose authority is largely limited to consultation with the state and administration of state funding to Sámi language and culture.

Self-Determination

Chapter 1 examines the conceptions of Indigenous self-determination. It begins with an overview of the global political discourse of Indigenous self-determination as a foundational right articulated especially within the UN framework since the 1980s. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork and building on Iris Marion Young’s concept of nondomination and Jennifer Nedelsky’s theory of relational autonomy, the chapter develops a theory of Indigenous self-determination that posits it as a foundational value that seeks to restructure all relations of domination, including gender, governance, colonial social and material relations, and unequal relations of justice. The chapter argues that an exclusive focus on the rights discourse provides a limited legalistic and state-centered conception of Indigenous self-determination that does not reflect the breadth of Indigenous self-determination, nor pays adequate attention to relations of domination beyond the state. In the participant interviews, Indigenous self-determination was defined in much broader terms than political autonomy construed as having control of one’s own affairs and decision-making powers as a distinct entity. Instead of focusing on politics and international law, the participants typically discussed the underlying values shaping their conceptions of Indigenous self-determination such as relationality, the paramount significance of the land, and freedom from domination.

Indigenous Gender Justice as Restructuring Relations

The concluding chapter argues that there is no Indigenous self-determination without Indigenous gender justice. Whatever is put in place in the name of Indigenous self-determination (or sovereignty) without interrogating gender and gender regimes of existing political organizations will be a smokescreen for upholding the status quo, and the subordination of groups and individuals whose interests and concerns do not correspond with the established agendas. The author proposes an approach of Indigenous gender justice based on key issues and concerns raised and discussed by the research participants in the three regions. To some extent, there is an overlap of concerns and priorities with non-Indigenous feminist considerations of gender justice, but there are also a host of issues that standard gender justice theories do not consider. The theoretical starting point is Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional theory of gender justice based on distribution, recognition, and representation, which is built upon drawing from the interview data. This concluding chapter returns to the idea of self-determination as a foundational value and explores it in relation to Indigenous gender justice. The author focuses on three issues that Indigenous women considered most pressing with regard to the quest for self-determination: the welfare of children, violence against women, and the legitimacy of Indigenous political systems vis-à-vis existing self-government institutions.

Introduction

The introduction outlines the main themes and explains the theoretical and methodological framework of the book. The author introduces the Indigenous communities in which the fieldwork was conducted, explains the methodology and case selection and discusses the rationale for the comparative approach. It considers the complexity of the concept of gender from an Indigenous perspective. Secondary literature on Indigenous feminist analyses of self-determination is also discussed, especially that produced in the United States. The original research is also framed and contextualized in the broader, ongoing conversation on Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous feminist analyses in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.