Indigenous Visual Culture

Recollecting is a rich collection of essays that illuminates the lives of late-eighteenth-century to mid-twentiethcentury Aboriginal women, who have been overlooked in sweeping narratives of the history of the West. Some essays focus on individuals--a trader, a performer, a non-human woman. Other essays examine cohorts of women--wives, midwives, seamstresses, nuns. Authors look beyond the documentary record and standard representations of women, drawing on records generated by the women themselves, including their beadwork, other material culture, and oral histories. Exploring the constraints and boundaries these women encountered, the authors engage with difficult and important questions of gender, race, and identity. Collectively these essays demonstrate the complexity of "contact.

Through the lenses of politics, activism, and culture, this wide-ranging collection crosses disciplinary, national, academic, and activist boundaries to explore deeply the unique political and social positions of Indigenous women. A vital and sophisticated discussion, these timely essays will change the way we think about modern feminism and Indigenous women.

An extensive body of literature on Indigenous knowledge and ways ofknowing has been written since the 1980s. This research has for themost part been conducted by scholars operating within Westernepistemological frameworks that tend not only to deny the subjectivityof knowledge but also to privilege masculine authority. As a result, the information gathered predominantly reflects the types of knowledge traditionally held by men, yielding a perspective that is at once gendered and incomplete. Even those academics, communities, andgovernments interested in consulting with Indigenous peoples for thepurposes of planning, monitoring, and managing land use have largelyignored the knowledge traditionally produced, preserved, andtransmitted by Indigenous women. While this omission reflectspatriarchal assumptions, it may also be the result of the reductionist tendencies of researchers, who have attempted to organize Indigenous knowledge so as to align it with Western scientific categories, and of policy makers, who have sought to deploy such knowledge in the serviceof external priorities. Such efforts to apply Indigenous knowledge havehad the effect of abstracting this knowledge from place as well as from the world view and community--and by extension the gender--to which it is inextricably connected. Living on the Land examines how patriarchy, gender, andcolonialism have shaped the experiences of Indigenous women as bothknowers and producers of knowledge. From a variety of methodological perspectives, contributors to the volume explore the nature and scope of Indigenous women's knowledge, its rootedness in relationshipsboth human and spiritual, and its inseparability from land andlandscape. From the reconstruction of cultural and ecological heritage by Naskapi women in Québec to the medical expertise of Métis women in western Canada to the mapping and securing of land rights in Nicaragua,Living on the Land focuses on the integral role of women as stewards ofthe land and governors of the community. Together, these contributions point to a distinctive set of challenges and possibilities for Indigenous women and their communities.

"Beginning with Elsie Knott, the first female chief in Canada, the author presents information about sixty-four of the ninety women chiefs who have assumed the traditionally male role of elected First Nations leadership. She analyses what inspired them to become leaders, how they have determined and maintained their priorities, and the personal and professional costs and rewards involved in their positions. A groundbreaking work, it examines the unique experiences of First Nations women as they negotiate multiple roles and navigate the worlds of gender, race, and reserve politics." -- JACKET

"Violence against women is a significant issue in society. According to the World Health Organization, it affects one third of women around the world. Violence against women is also a serious issue in Canada, unfortunately. One particular group of Canadian women merit special attention: Indigenous women and girls in Canada experience a scale and severity of violence that constitutes a national human rights crisis. The issue of violence against aboriginal women and girls is a systematic one with deep roots in sexism, poverty and racism. To properly address the situation, one must understand the history and impact of colonization on Aboriginal peoples in Canada. There has been a cycle of trauma and abuse brought on by residential schools, and by the 60s Scoop - where large numbers of aboriginal children were forcibly taken into the child welfare system. Government and church have interfered with First Nations traditional practices for over 500 years" -- publisher's website.

Starting from the role of women in Indigenous societies prior to the arrival of Europeans, Anderson explores how female identity and power were systematically dismantled through colonization. Drawing on their own experiences, Native women describe how they are reclaiming their cultural traditions, and creating positive and powerful images of themselves which are true to their heritage.

"I Am Woman represents my personal struggle with womanhood, culture, traditional spiritual beliefs and political sovereignty, written during a time when that struggle was not over. My original intention was to empower Native women to take to heart their own personal struggle for Native feminist being. The changes made in this second edition of the text do not alter my original intention. It remains my attempt to present a Native woman's sociological perspective on the impacts of colonialism on us, as women, and on myself personally."