Indigenous Gender Research Articles

“Someone Who Is Going to Preserve Your Surname and Clan Name”: A Sesotho Cultural Perspective on Male Partner Involvement in Maternal and Newborn Care in the Free State, South Africa

In the global public health discourse, involving men in maternal and neonatal health is regarded as crucial for positive outcomes in both health and development. In South Africa, health interventions designed to promote male partner involvement among low-income indigenous populations have been framed within social constructivist notions of masculinities and have produced mixed outcomes. This has necessitated calls to explore alternative approaches, including the need to decolonise men and masculinities studies in Africa. As part of one phase of formative research for a mixed-method project aimed at adapting a male involvement intervention for the context of Sesotho-speaking men and women in the Free State, we applied a multi-site case study research design and collected qualitative data using focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Verbatim-recorded transcripts were translated, transcribed, and thematically analysed with NVIVO 14. The results indicate that customary practices in pregnancy, delivery, and newborn care are not static and vary between families based on belief systems, socioeconomic status, geographical setting (peri-urban/rural), and kinship networks of care. Therefore, these practices and beliefs should be understood, affirmed, and contested within the complex African-centred material and immaterial worldviews on personhood in which they were generated, transmitted, rejected, or adopted. It is recommended that a decolonised approach to male partner involvement in this context must be cognisant of the intersections of racial and gendered power relations, contestations in beliefs and practices, the resilient effect of colonialism on indigenous gender systems, as well as contemporary global entanglements that inform North–South power relations on the best practices in maternal and newborn health in the public health sector in South Africa.

Threads of Rebellion: Indigenous Gender Dynamics among Nahua, Purépecha, and Totonac women in the Mexico State, Mexico

This comprehensive research investigates the complex nexus of agency, power dynamics, cultural nuances, resistance, and indigenous perspectives, with a particular focus on feminist theories and insights from Sherry Ortner. This research focuses on the perpetuation of traditional gender roles among Nahua, Purépecha, and Totonac women and girls migrating to rural-urban areas in the State of Mexico, specifically San Francisco Tepojaco, Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico State, Mexico. It examines how ethnic cultural frameworks and the prevalence of gender-based violence contribute to these roles, utilizing Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus theory. The study advocates for contesting and reforming entrenched gender norms to achieve genuine gender parity. Adopting a materialist and transnational lens, the study underscores the critical need to redefine notions of agency, tethering them to a critique of neoliberal capitalism and confronting the entrenched gender binary prevalent in the neoliberal epoch. It underscores the paramountcy of active and quotidian agency, advocating for an intersectional approach that grapples with the multifaceted dimensions of gender oppression, inclusive of the unique experiences of Nahua, Purépecha, and Totonac communities. Moreover, it underscores the efficacy of collective agency in challenging habitus and reshaping deeply ingrained cultural norms. Within this framework, the paper delves into the perpetuation of traditional gender roles among Nahua, Purépecha, and Totonac women and girls migrating to rural-urban areas in the State of Mexico.

Global Indigenous gender concepts, gender-based violence and resilience: A scoping review

Background & objectiveThe legacy of colonialism includes ongoing trauma and disruption of traditional teachings on relationality, which has contributed to Indigenous populations being disproportionately exposed to gender-based violence (GBV). GBV in Indigenous populations is explored to consider gender-specific findings and points of resilience in relational networks. Participants & settingIncluded articles sampled Indigenous groups in Canada, US, Mexico, Guatemala, and Israel. All participants self-identified as Indigenous, and were either GBV survivors or service providers working in GBV contexts. MethodsA scoping review was conducted in OVID Medline, Embase, APA Psycinfo, and Informit Indigenous Collection, using keywords for Indigenous peoples, gender concepts, and GBV. Articles were screened and extracted by two reviewers; a third reviewer resolved conflicts. ResultsOur search yielded one mixed-method study and seven qualitative studies, all published since 2016. North American studies identified colonial, patriarchal disruptions (e.g. residential schools) to positive pre-contact gender norms (e.g. non-hierarchical roles) that contribute to emerging GBV. Studies conducted in Guatemala and Israel also described local patriarchal cultures contributing to GBV. Lack of understanding of the Two-Spirit identity (i.e. supra-binary gender identity used by Indigenous persons) led to harmful attitudes and stigma. Interpersonal support and return to traditional matriarchal practices were identified as key resilience processes. ConclusionsThere is limited literature on Indigenous gender concepts and GBV, particularly regarding GBV against males and Two-Spirit persons. Colonization-related violence and/or patriarchal gender norms were identified as precursors for GBV. Decolonization processes should be further explored to address GBV in Indigenous populations.

Indigenous gender and wellness: a scoping review of Canadian research

ABSTRACT This scoping review examined research publications related to health and/or wellness along with gender among Canadian Indigenous populations. The intent was to explore the range of articles on this topic and to identify methods for improving gender-related health and wellness research among Indigenous peoples. Six research databases were searched up to 1 February 2021. The final selection of 155 publications represented empirical research conducted in Canada, included Indigenous populations, investigated health and/or wellness topics and focused on gender. Among the diverse range of health and wellness topics, most publications focused on physical health issues, primarily regarding perinatal care and HIV- and HPV-related issues. Gender diverse people were seldom included in the reviewed publications. Sex and gender were typically used interchangeably. Most authors recommended that Indigenous knowledge and culture be integrated into health programmes and further research. More health research with Indigenous peoples must be conducted in ways that discern sex from gender, uplift the strengths of Indigenous peoples and communities, privilege community perspectives, and attend to gender diversity; using methods that avoid replicating colonialism, promote action, change stories of deficit, and build on what we already know about gender as a critical social determinant of health.

Situating the S-Slur Within the Colonial Imaginary: The Shaping and Shaming of Indigenous Un/Womanhood in Western Canada during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

This paper charts the shifting connotations, uses and impacts of the s-slur, a derogatory term used by colonizers to refer to Indigenous women, in archival Western Canadian newspapers. It aims to demonstrate the influences of hetero-patriarchy, racism, and capitalism on the perception of Indigenous ‘un/womanhood’ during the expansion of the settler state. It draws upon feminist and linguistic frameworks to examine the coloniality of gender, naming, and slurs. By examining how the use of the s-slur fluctuated between insinuations of victimhood (in relation to Indigenous gender roles, traditions, and marriage) and threat (in association with sexual deviancy and sex work), this paper aims to demonstrate how the term represented both sides of the racialized gender dichotomy, depending on how it could best serve the colonial project. This research is an attempt to understand the legacies of violence inflicted by, and encapsulated in, the use of this word towards Indigenous women, and to argue for the necessity of de-normalizing its use.

Hybrid gender colonization: The case of muxes

AbstractThis study explores what can be learned from listening to and engaging deeply with muxes, the third gender of Mexico's indigenous Zapotec community. We examine indigenous peoples' forms of gender organizing, work, and activism through extensive fieldwork in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico and intellectual engagement with scholarship on gender, coloniality, and third space theory. The empirical case showcases how muxes organize and defend their gender identity vis‐à‐vis processes of colonization and hybridity. The findings reveal unique forms of indigenous knowledges, gender activism, and gender organizing and are categorized into six themes: language and subjectification; work, social structure, and sexuality; religion and myth; esthetics and beauty; work discrimination and gender‐based violence; and emancipation and queer activism. The analysis explains the possibility of becoming of different gender/ethnic identities and multiple hybrid representations of agency and repression. We critically examine novel insights on how indigenous gender organizing is paradoxically appreciated and revered while also inciting discrimination and violence. The empirical findings help us reconsider theoretical discourses of ongoing (de)coloniality and the third space of gender organizing.

Writing themselves in: Indigenous gender and sexuality diverse Australians online

There has been limited exploration into the online engagements of people who are Indigenous and gender and sexuality diverse. There are, however, two separate bodies of literature that provide substantial insights into the digital involvement of Indigenous Australians, and gender and sexuality diverse people. Each has identified a myriad of complex negotiations, interactions and resistances that take place through the affordances of digital spaces, along with identifying impacts on well-being. This scoping review discusses dominant themes within existing research on these topics, and documents research that discusses an online blog entitled Archiving the Aboriginal Rainbow that is designed to foreground representations of Indigenous gender and sexuality diverse people. To contextualise this discussion, the paper begins with a review of scholarly literature that articulates and challenges the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous peoples’ gender and sexuality. The literature reviewed exposes new research directions. Namely, the importance of exploration into Indigenous gender and sexuality diverses peoples’ online engagements, and their interrelationship with well-being.

The Influence of Indigenous Identity and Gender in Perceptions of Behavior in Response to Racialized Police Communication

The Influence of Indigenous Identity and Gender in Perceptions of Behavior in Response to Racialized Police Communication

The Role of Living Traditions in Decolonizing Indigenous Gender in an Urban Environment1

This article elucidates the role of living traditions in decolonizing indigenous gender in an urban environment. “Living traditions” are perspectives and practices that emerge organically over time to account for the shifting needs of indigenous communities impacted by enduring structures of settler colonialism. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted over 2 ½ years, I explore gendered power dynamics in two urban pan‐Indian communities—one comprised of people who relocated from reservations and maintain ties to tribal nations (relocators) and another comprised of people reclaiming indigenous identities despite dislocations from tribal nations (reclaimers). By interrogating the mutual construction of indigeneity and gender across communities, I illustrate how relocators’ and reclaimers’ different relationships with tribal nations influence strategies for decolonizing gender. Reclaimers’ weak ties to tribal nations result in dogmatic efforts to reject their (socialization into) whiteness and enact what they perceive as indigenous complementarian gender—gender roles that are horizontally but not hierarchically distinct. Reclaimers’ strategic though misbegotten gender behaviors inadvertently reify settler‐constructed gender norms affirming men’s dominance over women. In contrast, relocators’ ongoing relations with tribal nations facilitate the emergence of “living traditions” that support fluid and adaptable gender strategies necessary to resist colonization and challenge hegemonic gender norms.

Knowledge versus Education in the Margins: An Indigenous and Feminist Critique of Education

This article highlights the perceptions and expectations of knowledge that many people, including educators and policy makers, take for granted. Our focus of understanding is Indigenous studies and gender studies. Our aim is to show how modern education undermines these fields of studies. We use an autoethnographic method, reflecting more than 75 years as pupils/students and more than 90 years as educators. We have carefully chosen narratives of exposure to knowledge outside the educational system, as well as narratives of limitations posed upon us by the educational system. This narrative approach makes it possible for us to investigate and discuss our grief about areas of knowledge that society cries for, but the educational system continuously finds ways to resist. Our conclusion is that crucial knowledge is located outside the educational system, where individuals, groups, and communities cherish, protect, and guard knowledge that the educational system marginalises or excludes. As this knowledge is fundamental for life, our message is that the educational system needs to re-evaluate its strategies to stay relevant.

Troops and Tribes: Masculinity, Playing Indian, and the Social Politics of Ernest Thompson Seton's Expulsion from the Boy Scouts of America

Troops and Tribes: Masculinity, Playing Indian, and the Social Politics of Ernest Thompson Seton's Expulsion from the Boy Scouts of America

The Colonial Project of Gender (and Everything Else)

The gender binary, like many colonial acts, remains trapped within socio-religious ideals of colonisation that then frame ongoing relationships and restrict the existence of Indigenous peoples. In this article, the colonial project of denying difference in gender and gender diversity within Indigenous peoples is explored as a complex erasure casting aside every aspect of identity and replacing it with a simulacrum of the coloniser. In examining these erasures, this article explores how diverse Indigenous gender presentations remain incomprehensible to the colonial mind, and how reinstatements of kinship and truth in representation fundamentally supports First Nations’ agency by challenging colonial reductions. This article focuses on why these colonial practices were deemed necessary at the time of invasion, and how they continue to be forcefully applied in managing Indigenous peoples into a colonial structure of family, gender, and everything else.

Articulating women's bodies: Montesquieu, Diderot, and the imperial and settler-colonial politics of gender and sexuality

ABSTRACT In this essay I develop a feminist anti-colonial critique by reading two eighteenth-century literary texts that discuss Middle Eastern and Indigenous gender and sexual practices at length: Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes (1721) and Diderot's Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville (1772). While Montesquieu and Diderot are often heralded as anti-imperial European Enlightenment thinkers, the specific ways in which Montesquieu and Diderot use gender and non-European women's bodies to construct their political-theoretical arguments show us two distinct colonial logics, one imperial and the other settler-colonial. I show that whereas Montesquieu uses Persian and Muslim sexual and gender practices to put forward an imperial vision premised on the superiority of French political order over a despotic ‘oriental’ order, Diderot uses Indigenous sexual practices to denote a settler-colonial logic premised on the erasure of conquest and pacification of Indigenous women's bodies. In doing so I build on existing feminist and post/anti-colonial scholarship to develop gender and sexuality as central analytics of imperial and settler-colonial politics.

Social and emotional wellbeing of indigenous gender and sexuality diverse youth: mapping the evidence

There has been little exploration of the social and emotional wellbeing of young Indigenous populations who identify as gender and sexuality diverse. Given the vulnerability of this cohort in settler colonial societies such as Australia, Canada and the USA, wider investigation is called for in order to respond to their needs and aspirations. Using a scoping review, this paper maps existing research on the intersections of youth, gender and sexuality diversity, Indigeneity and wellbeing. The evidence points to the importance of historical and contemporary experiences tied to colonisation and intergenerational trauma. For young Indigenous gender and sexuality diverse peoples, heteronormative colonial value systems converge to produce environments characterised by racism, phobia and marginalisation. The evidence base includes deficit models based on trauma and negative outcomes. However, there is also an emerging body of research highlighting the resistance and resilience of Indigenous gender and sexuality diverse youth.

A Southern encounter: Maternal body work and low‐income mothers in South Africa

This article explores the maternal body work practices of black low‐income mothers from resource‐poor urban spaces in South Africa. Using Southern Theory to open our analytical lens, we recognize that location has implications for how we understand the embodiment of gender and the lactating body in the global South. We argue that maternal body work, as one form of gendered embodiment, must be understood in a postcolonial landscape where histories of colonization and indigenous gender orders continue to shape how women respond to work conditions and how they manage the competing demands of work and breastfeeding. Our analysis from 51 in‐depth interviews conducted in Cape Town, demonstrates that maternal body work practices are interpreted through the entanglement of embodiment and work and non‐work spaces. By emphasizing contextual specificities relating to low‐income workers' living, working and family realities, we advance studies on maternal body work and employment from the global South.

Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Joanne Barker (ed.) (2017)

Review of: Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Joanne Barker (ed.) (2017) Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 260 pp., ISBN 978-0-82236-365-1, h/bk, £79.00, p/bk, £30.99

Thunderbird Women


 
 
 Indigenous gender roles have been distorted by colonialism, both through imposed systems of patriarchy and redefining gender roles within Indigenous communities. In Canada, the Indian Act of 1857 initiated a system of patriarchy which resulted in the loss of matrilineal family lines and Indigenous women’s rights to represent their community in leadership roles. This system still exists today, and despite numerous attempts to modify the law, the Indian Act still exerts patrilineal bias on Indigenous communities. In spite of this, there exists a large volume of research and literature by Indigenous women which investigates Indigenous feminism and the agency of Indigenous women in their communities. Examples include the writings of Sherry Farrell-Racette (Farrell-Racette 2010), Lee Maracle (Maracle 1996), Beverly Singer (Singer 2001) and Carol Rose Daniels (Daniels 2018) as well as online campaigns such as Rematriate (Rematriate 2018). Moreover, many Indigenous women in Canada are now stepping forward to address patriarchal systems in Indigenous institutions, such as the Assembly of First Nations, and outdated laws favouring male representation over female in meeting with governmental institutions.
 My research considers decolonization methods in relation to Indigenous feminist perspectives in research practice. Through an Indigenous research paradigm based on the teachings of the Indigenous Cree medicine wheel, this paper aims to decolonize homogenous forms of research by promoting Indigenous women’s knowledge. The medicine wheel in Indigenous teachings is a philosophy and a practical method of interpreting the physical, mental and transcendental domains. For research purposes, the medicine wheel offers a unique representation of Indigenous epistemology, ontology, axiology and methodology for use in research. Furthermore, following decolonial theory and Indigenous methodologies this research investigates the intersections of Indigenous feminism in decolonizing knowledge production and dismantling paternalistic affects in educational institutions.
 Including Indigenous approaches to listening, participation and storytelling as opposed to standardized interviews, as well as observation and document analysis, this thesis opens space for generating community-based definitions of Indigenous feminism. Focusing on the Canadian context, Indigenous women in Saskatchewan possess a vast amount of traditional knowledge and ways of knowing which have been devalued since the enforcement of the Indian Act. One vital way of Indigenizing cultural revitalization is by reclaiming Indigenous women’s epistemologies as a means of decolonizing gender roles and negating the impacts of the Indian Act.
 
 

Joanne Barker, editor. Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies

Joanne Barker, editor. <i>Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies</i>

Indigenous Gender Relations - The Woman Who Turned into a Jaguar, and Other Narratives of Native Women in Archives of Colonial Mexico. By Lisa Sousa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017. Pp. xv, 404. $65.00.

Indigenous Gender Relations - The Woman Who Turned into a Jaguar, and Other Narratives of Native Women in Archives of Colonial Mexico. By Lisa Sousa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017. Pp. xv, 404. $65.00. - Volume 76 Issue 4

Gender differences among Indigenous Canadians experiencing homelessness and mental illness

BackgroundIndigenous people are over represented among homeless populations worldwide and the prevalence of Indigenous homelessness appears to be increasing in Canadian cities. Violence against Indigenous women in Canada has been widely publicized but has not informed the planning of housing interventions. Despite historical policies leading to disenfranchisement of Indigenous rights in gender-specific ways, little is known about contemporary differences in need between homeless Indigenous men and women. This study investigated mental health, substance use and service use among Indigenous people who met criteria for homelessness and mental illness, and hypothesized that, compared to men, women would have significantly higher rates of trauma, suicidality, substance dependence, and experiences of violence.MethodsThis study was conducted using baseline (pre-randomization) data from a multi-site trial. Inclusion in the current analyses was restricted to participants who self-reported Indigenous ethnicity, and combined eligible participants from Vancouver, BC and Winnipeg, MB. Logistic regression analyses were used to model the independent associations between gender and outcome variables.ResultsIn multivariable regression models among Indigenous participants (n = 439), female gender was predictive of meeting criteria for PTSD, multiple mental disorders, current high suicidality and current substance dependence. Female gender was also significantly associated with reported physical (AOR: 1.52, 95% CI = 1.10–2.23) and sexual (AOR: 6.31, 95% CI = 2.78–14.31) violence.ConclusionsOur analyses of Indigenous men and women who are homeless illustrate the distinct legacy of colonization on the experiences of Indigenous women. Our findings are consistent with the widely documented violence against Indigenous women in Canada. Housing policies and services are urgently needed that take Indigenous historical contexts, trauma and gender into account.Trial registrationThis trial has been registered with the International Standard Randomized Control Trial Number Register and assigned ISRCTN42520374; ISRCTN57595077; ISRCTN66721740.