Young Indigenous Women Research Articles

An Assessment of Indigenous Innovations in Wet Fufu Paste Production: Prospects, Constraints and Processing Risk Implications

Immense opportunities in cassava-tuber value addition have resulted in the development and application of indigenous innovations by small and medium scale cassava processors across the country. This study examines the prospects and challenges faced by indigenous wet fufu paste processors; highlighting waste generation and handling, processing techniques and inherent processing risks. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire administered in 50 processing clusters scattered across the study area (Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria). Target oral interviews were used to validate the questionnaire and elicit information on the processing clusters, adopted processing techniques, processing equipment, wastewater generation and disposal techniques, and processing risk factors. Wastewater quality parameters were also obtained to assess the level of compliance with permissible limits and the risk implications of disposed of effluent. Processing operations were entirely manual and dominated by young indigenous women working in organized groups of 2-6 people depending on the expected output. About 47% of the tested wastewater parameters were above local (NESREA - National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency) and international (WHO - World Health Organization) limits. Inorganic constituents like sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphate and heavy metals were found in low quantities. However, heavy metals (cadmium, lead and chromium) exceed the permissible limits. Open land disposal (50%), nearby streams/rivers (13%) and open drains (37%) are the predominant wastewater disposal technique adopted by processors. The risk implications of these techniques were highlighted, and alternative solutions were proffered to mitigate the identified risks and encourage the development of improved innovations among processors.

Recurrence patterns identify aggressive form of human papillomavirus-dependent vulvar cancer.

Vulvar cancer is rare and, as a result, is understudied. Treatment is predominantly surgery, irrespective of the type of vulvar cancer, and is associated with physical, emotional and sexual complications. A cluster of human papillomavirus (HPV)-dependent vulvar cancer patients was identified in Arnhem Land Northern Territory (NT), Australia, in which young Indigenous women were diagnosed at 70 times the national incidence rate. To assess whether women from the Arnhem Land cluster differ from women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) and vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) resident elsewhere in the NT in recurrence after treatment, disease progression and mortality. A retrospective cohort study of NT-resident women diagnosed with VIN or invasive vulvar cancer (VSCC) between 1 January 1993 and 30 June 2015 was undertaken. Time to recurrence was assessed using cumulative incidence plots and Fine and Gray competing risk regression models. Mean cumulative count was used to estimate the burden of recurrent events. Indigenous women from Arnhem Land experienced more recurrences after treatment than non-Indigenous women, the cancers recurred faster, and Indigenous women have worse survival at five years. In characterising the epidemiological features of this cluster, we have identified a particularly aggressive form of vulvar cancer. This provides a unique opportunity for elucidating the aetiopathological pathways driving vulvar cancer development that may ultimately lead to preventive and therapeutic targets for this neglected malignancy. Further, these findings have important implications for clinical practice and HPV vaccination policy in the affected population.

The Perinatal Mental Health of Indigenous Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Although Indigenous women are exposed to high rates of risk factors for perinatal mental health problems, the magnitude of their risk is not known. This lack of data impedes the development of appropriate screening and treatment protocols, as well as the proper allocation of resources for Indigenous women. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to compare rates of perinatal mental health problems among Indigenous and non-Indigenous women. We searched Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science from their inceptions until February 2019. Studies were included if they assessed mental health in Indigenous women during pregnancy and/or up to 12 months postpartum. Twenty-six articles met study inclusion criteria and 21 were eligible for meta-analysis. Indigenous identity was associated with higher odds of mental health problems (odds ratio [OR] 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.25 to 2.11). Odds were higher still when analyses were restricted to problems of greater severity (OR 1.95; 95% CI, 1.21 to 3.16) and young Indigenous women (OR 1.86; 95% CI, 1.51 to 2.28). Indigenous women are at increased risk of mental health problems during the perinatal period, particularly depression, anxiety, and substance misuse. However, resiliency among Indigenous women, cultural teachings, and methodological issues may be affecting estimates. Future research should utilize more representative samples, adapt and validate diagnostic and symptom measures for Indigenous groups, and engage Indigenous actors, leaders, and related allies to help improve the accuracy of estimates, as well as the well-being of Indigenous mothers, their families, and future generations. PROSPERO-CRD42018108638.

Reflecting and learning: A grounded theory on reframing deficit views of young indigenous women and safety

Often young indigenous women are framed in ways that problematize and pathologize them, which overlooks their strengths. We interviewed 16 young Indigenous Māori women aged 14 to 18 years about their understandings of safety, being safe, and how they kept themselves and their friends safe. Reflecting and Learning, aided by progressing age and maturity, is the process that mediated their feeling unsafe and keeping safe and resulted in being safe. Young Māori women’s reflecting and learning facilitates relatively mature levels of resourcefulness for navigating being safe, including situations they encountered appear unsafe.

Sisterhood, pleasure and marching: Indigenous women and leisure

ABSTRACT For Australian Indigenous women, especially those who lived on settlements and missions, participation in the male preserve of sport was doubly shaped by colonization and by Western notions of women’s bodies. In this paper, we will discuss the Cherbourg Marching Girls, who competed in precision marching from 1957 to 1962, to explore how, as young Indigenous women growing up on a settlement in mid-twentieth-century Queensland, the Marching Girls were able to use their participation in what could be viewed as a Western, militarized, disciplined activity to access the joys and pleasures of sport and to strengthen connections with other Indigenous Australian girls and women. These connections and pleasures continue 60 years later through their memories of marching. In this article, we draw on Moreton-Robinson's Australian Indigenous women’s standpoint theory to truly listen to how the Marching Girls continue to make sense of their lives in the past and present.

The untold story of middle-class Indigenous Australian school students who aspire to university

ABSTRACT While university participation rates among Indigenous Australians have been on the rise in recent years, parity targets remain elusive. In this context, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how aspirations for higher education are formed and nurtured. Studies tend to focus on barriers to access, often in ways that position Indigenous Australians as a homogeneous ‘Otherised’ group. This paper counter-balances hegemonic narratives of Indigeneity by analysing what Indigenous students from middle-class families say about their aspirations for university. Drawing on interview data collected in 2016 in government schools in New South Wales, Australia, it offers fresh understandings of school–to–university transitions, both empirically and conceptually. Using the lens of four–dimensional social space as conceived by Indigenous scholar Maggie Walter, we illustrate how race and class function in powerful but complex ways to shape the aspirations of two young Indigenous women. We argue that if we are to shift longstanding demographic patterns of university participation, then visible stories of Indigenous success, such as those told here, can help to redefine current discourses on Indigenous aspirations for higher education.

Money as Punishment: Neoliberal Budgetary Politics and the Fine

ABSTRACTIn August of 2014, a young Indigenous woman, known as Ms. Dhu, died in the lock-up of the South Hedland Police Station after being detained for unpaid fines totalling $3622. Her death drew attention to the fact that fine defaulters – most of whom are Indigenous and female – are once again being imprisoned at astonishing rates in Western Australia, after the practice was more or less discontinued elsewhere. What does the nexus between the fine, incarceration and forced labour tell us about the relationship between money and penality in contemporary neoliberal/neoconservative states? Pointing to the combined influence of the Chicago and Virginia schools of neoliberalism on Australian public policy, I suggest that the recent expansion of monetary sanctions must be understood as a way of transferring the debt burdens of the state downwards, onto those classified as excessive ‘users’ of public services. Not only does the fine blur the boundaries between civil and criminal law, it also harnesses punishment to the fiscal imperatives of an increasingly austere, deficit-averse state.

Education, leadership, and conservation: Empowering young Q’eqchi’ women in Guatemala

Programs to keep young women in school across the developing world have become widespread. Education is key to improving their quality of life, but keeping them in school is a significant challenge. This article examines a scholarship program that provides 25days of intensive leadership training for young indigenous women using a peer tutorial system. The program offers a unique experience, a variety of practical training, opportunities for personal growth, and evidence of empowerment. This study demonstrates that social change is occurring and that young women are promoting change in their own lives, as well as those of their families and communities.

Pathways between depression, substance use and multiple sex partners among Northern and Indigenous young women in the Northwest Territories, Canada: results from a cross-sectional survey

ObjectivesSexual and mental health disparities exist in the Northwest Territories (NWT) compared with other Canadian regions. STI rates are 10-fold higher, and youth suicide rates double the Canadian average. Scant...

The Cedar Project: Using Indigenous-Specific Determinants of Health to Predict Substance use among Young Pregnant-Involved Indigenous Women In Canada

BackgroundIndigenous women in Canada have been hyper-visible in research, policy and intervention related to substance use during pregnancy; however, little is known about how the social determinants of health and substance use prior to, during, and after pregnancy intersect. The objectives of this study were to describe the social contexts of pregnant-involved young Indigenous women who use substances and to explore if an Indigenous-Specific Determinants of Health Model can predict substance use among this population.MethodsUsing descriptive statistics and hierarchical logistic regression guided by mediation analysis, the social contexts of pregnant-involved young Indigenous women who use illicit drugs’ lives were explored and the Integrated Life Course and Social Determinants Model of Aboriginal Health’s ability to predict heavy versus light substance use in this group was tested (N = 291).ResultsImportant distal determinants of substance use were identified including residential school histories, as well as protective factors, such as sex abuse reporting and empirical evidence for including Indigenous-specific determinants of health as important considerations in understanding young Indigenous women’s experiences with pregnancy and substance use was provided.ConclusionsThis analysis provided important insight into the social contexts of women who have experiences with pregnancy as well as drug and/or alcohol use and highlighted the need to include Indigenous-specific determinants of health when examining young Indigenous women’s social, political and historical contexts in relation to their experiences with pregnancy and substance use.

Pathways to adolescent childbearing among Kaqchikel women in Guatemala

One-in-five children in Guatemala is born to a mother aged 15–19 years, which poses social, economic and health risks to both mother and child. In Guatemala, adolescent childbearing is directly associated with education, ethnicity and poverty, which increases vulnerability among Indigenous young women living in poverty. This study examines the context and experiences of adolescent childbearing from the perspectives of young mothers in the Kaqchikel Indigenous ethnic group of Sololá, Guatemala. Data were collected in 19 qualitative in-depth interviews with women who had given birth to one or more children when aged 15 to 19 years. Grounded theory and narrative analysis were used to develop a conceptual framework of the process and influences on childbearing. Four distinct pathways were identified, which were influenced by gender expectations, limited communication about sex and stigma around sex. The study identifies key sociocultural influences that lead to adolescent childbearing and reveals variability within these. Identifying distinct pathways to early childbearing and their influences enables a clearer understanding of potential opportunities to interrupt these pathways with culturally relevant policies and programmes, in particular those that promote gender equality and intergenerational communication about sex.

Image-ining resistance: using participatory action research and visual methods in sport for development and peace

Sport for development and peace scholars have recently called for a move towards participatory action research (PAR). In this paper, I discuss the utility of visual research methods, guided by a postcolonial feminist (PF)PAR approach that was taken up in two studies examining SDP programmes: the first with Indigenous young women in Canada, and the second with young women in Nicaragua. To conclude, I illustrate how the Indigenous-guided research principles of ownership, control, access and possession may usefully frame a discussion of the challenges involved in pursuing a PFPAR approach.

Mapping the social determinants of substance use for pregnant-involved young Aboriginal women

ABSTRACTThere is a dearth of knowledge about the social determinants of substance use among young pregnant-involved Indigenous women in Canada from their perspectives. As part of life history interviews, 17 young pregnant-involved Indigenous women with experiences with substances completed a participant-generated mapping activity CIRCLES (Charting Intersectional Relationships in the Context of Life Experiences with Substances). As women created their maps, they discussed how different social determinants impacted their experiences with pregnancy and substance use. The social determinants identified and used by women to explain determinants of their substance use were grouped into 10 themes: traumatic life histories; socioeconomic status; culture, identity and spirituality; shame and guilt; mental wellness; family connections; romantic and platonic relationships; strength and hope; mothering; and the intersections of determinants. We conclude that understanding the context and social determinants of substance use from a woman-informed perspective is paramount to informing effective and appropriate programs to support young Indigenous women who use substances.

Tendências da fecundidade dos povos indígenas nos Censos Demográficos brasileiros de 1991 a 2010

O artigo aborda a fecundidade das mulheres autodeclaradas indígenas com base nos censos brasileiros de 1991 a 2010. Inicialmente – como uma aproximação das limitações que a qualidade do dado pode impor às análises – observa-se um viés de autodeclaração para 2000 mais acentuado na população urbana, o que compromete as comparações com 2010, mas não invalida o prosseguimento das análises sobre fecundidade. Constata-se que, efetivamente, a fecundidade dos povos indígenas está diminuindo inclusive entre a população rural, isto é, aquela que reside em Terras Indígenas. A fecundidade indígena urbana é altamente diferenciada da rural e as suspeitas de o viés estar contaminando as medidas produzidas evidenciam a necessidade de um investimento maior no estudo desta população: quem são os indígenas urbanos? Estimativas por ordem de parturição e filhos tidos sinalizam acentuadas quedas de fecundidade para o futuro próximo. A fecundidade das mulheres indígenas jovens – sem muitas diferenciações segundo residência urbana ou rural – continua em níveis muito altos se comparados com os de populações contemporâneas. Esta análise clama por estudos multidisciplinares para o melhor entendimento do processo reprodutivo dos povos indígenas brasileiros.

Biopedagogies and Indigenous knowledge: examining sport for development and peace for urban Indigenous young women in Canada and Australia

This paper uses transnational postcolonial feminist participatory action research (TPFPAR) to examine two sport for development and peace (SDP) initiatives that focus on Indigenous young women residing in urban areas, one in Vancouver, Canada, and one in Perth, Australia. We examine how SDP programs that target urban Indigenous young women and girls reproduce the hegemony of neoliberalism by deploying biopedagogies of neoliberalism to ‘teach’ Indigenous young women certain education and employment skills that are deemed necessary to participate in competitive capitalism. We found that activities in both programs were designed to equip the Indigenous girls and young women with individual attributes that would enhance their chances of future success in arenas valued by neoliberal capitalism: Eurocentric employment, post-secondary education and healthy active living. These forms of ‘success’ fall within neoliberal logic, where the focus is on the individual being able to provide for oneself. However, the girls and young women we interviewed argued that their participation in the SDP programs would help them change racist and sexist stereotypes about their communities and thereby challenged negative stereotypes. Thus, it is possible that these programs, despite their predominant use of neoliberal logic and biopedagogies, may help to prepare the participants to more successfully negotiate Eurocentric institutions, and through this assist them participants in contributing to social change. Nevertheless, based on our findings, we argue that SDP programs led by Indigenous peoples that are fundamentally shaped by Indigenous voices, epistemologies, concerns and standpoints would provide better opportunities to shake SDP's current biopedagogical foundation. We conclude by suggesting that a more radical approach to SDP, one that fosters Indigenous self-determination and attempts to disrupt dominant relations of power, could have difficulty in attracting the sort of corporate donors who currently play such important roles in the current SDP landscape.

‘Hey, Can I Call You Quick?’ Navigating the Academic Swells as Young Indigenous Women

‘Hey, Can I Call You Quick?’ Navigating the Academic Swells as Young Indigenous Women

Excess Mortality, Institutionalization and Homelessness Among Status Indians in Canada

In this paper we use confidential-use Census and administrative data to produce the first national estimates of excess mortality, institutionalization and homelessness for the largest Indigenous population in Canada from the ages of 5 to 64. We identify mortality rates at least twice the Canadian average and find exceptionally high mortality rates for young Indigenous women and girls – up to four times the Canadian average at certain ages. We show mortality rates are even higher on reserve – up to five times the Canadian average. These relative mortality rates are higher than the relative mortality rates of African Americans and the Native Americans to non-Hispanics in the United States. We also estimate very high rates of institutionalization and homelessness, especially among men and as a result there are stark gender ratio imbalances among this population. We speculate that this gender imbalance may play a role in excess female mortality in addition to several other socioeconomic factors.

Understanding the Role of Cultural Continuity in Reclaiming the Identity of Young Indigenous Women

Statistical representation of young Indigenous women in Canada presents an alarming picture of adversity characterized by addiction, pregnancy, and academic underachievement. Using Photovoice as a vehicle for community dialogue and education, the goal of this project was not to further the literature that examines the limitations of young Indigenous women, but to examine their strengths and their resilience. The project intended to document the lived experiences of young Indigenous women and comment on youth-identified issues and responses to the challenges experienced by Indigenous girls residing in urban centres. The level of insight and maturity demonstrated by the photographers was astounding; these young girls were able to consider their own circumstances within the broader context of family and community. Further, they examined their circumstances critically in relation to the historical consequences of past generations. In doing this, the photographers, rather than getting trapped in a cycle of negativity reminiscing about past wrongs, created opportunity for positive change and raised hope for this generation.

Reflections on interpreting settings and ethics in view of visual representations of la Malinche

During the conquest of the territory of today’s Mexico, a young indigenous woman, mostly known as la Malinche, emerged as the main interpreter, and later lover, to the Spanish Conquistador, Hernán Cortés. Numerous written references and pictorial representations attest to her linguistic, communication and diplomatic skills, and they also reveal a fascination with her private affairs. This article applies 21st century conceptualisation and terminology to analyse the kind of interpreting she practised and to evaluate her professional performance from an ethics perspective. By examining both contemporary and subsequent illustrations that depict her in a professional or personal capacity, the study comes to a number of interesting conclusions. First, the kind of interpreting in which la Malinche could best be described as ‘interpreting in conflict zones.’ Second, the iconography of interpreting displays a series of recurring motifs. Third, there seems to be a distinction between the focus in contemporary and retrospective images along the lines of skills versus ethical guidelines. Finally, this idiosyncrasy could serve as a valuable lesson for today’s interpreters.

The epidemiology of gonococcal arthritis in an Indigenous Australian population

BackgroundDisseminated Gonococcal Infection (DGI) is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteraemia. Typically the primary source is a sexually acquired mucosal infection. If not recognised and treated promptly DGI can be associated...