In pursuit of self‐determination: Indigenous women's challenges to traditional diplomatic spaces

Abstract

Due to colonization and on‐going imperial influences, Indigenous women have had to create new diplomatic spaces at the global, regional, state, and local levels to pursue simultaneous negotiations and assertions for both their individual rights as women and collective rights as members of Indigenous nations. Through a series of case studies, such as the recent Haudenosaunee re‐occupation of Caledonia and Indigenous women's narratives of their own work and positions, we argue that Indigenous women engage in a politics of intersectionality as well as multi‐layered citizenship in framing their diplomatic engagements. These frameworks reveal that spirituality and politics are interconnected and Indigenous women's multiple and intersecting roles and responsibilities, i.e., as family members, clan mothers, leaders, etc. are an integral part of any examination of Indigenous diplomatic strategies, thus challenging the traditional definitions of state‐based diplomacy as well as a purely collective rights understanding of Indigenous self‐determination.