• DOI:10.1080/08038740.2010.498328
• Corpus ID: 54505551

Crossings of Indigenousness, Feminism, and Gender

@article{SinevaaraNiskanen2010CrossingsOI,
  title={Crossings of Indigenousness, Feminism, and Gender},
  author={Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen},
  journal={NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research},
  year={2010},
  volume={18},
  pages={217 - 221}
}

• Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen
• Published 27 July 2010
• Art, Sociology, Political Science
• NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research

One of the intriguing questions for feminist researchers and feminism has been, “who is left out of research models?” (Hesse-Biber 2007: 8). At the same time feminist indigenous scholars have illustrated the challenges of combining indigenous and feminist struggles (e.g. Eikjok 2004: 57). Making Space for Indigenous Feminism (Fernwood Publishing & Zed Books, 2007), edited by Joyce Green, aims at illuminating “who is left out” by addressing intersections and crossings between indigenousness and feminism(s). The purpose of the book is to create space and to argue for the theoretical and political utility of feminist perspectives within indigenous studies. It is an interesting and important introduction to both feminist and indigenous studies as it offers a much-needed and up-to-date contribution to the ways in which gender, feminism, and indigenousness can be critically analysed, theorized, and discussed. The origins of the book date back to the Aboriginal Feminist Symposium held in 2002. The contributors, all indigenous and primarily from Canada, but also from the US, Sápmi (Samiland), and New Zealand, are indigenous feminists, some of them participants in the symposium. Despite their similarities, the contributors represent a variety of scientific perspectives and understandings, both in terms of indigenousness and feminism. This review focuses on how the book engages with discussions on gender and indigenousness. In the review I reflect on some insightful articles and parts of the book and ponder how it could have been developed further. My approach is closely connected to the focus of the book, but also to my personal research interest in Arctic gender questions. Hence, the review has a Northern (Sami) and, through that, an Arctic perspective. The book contains sixteen chapters, divided into three parts. The first part of the book theorizes indigenous feminism, locating it historically, conceptually, and institutionally. The theoretical discussions in the first part are adaptable to a variety of research settings, indigenous and feminist, and include specific Nordic perspectives in the form of the Sami context. Verna St. Denis’s article “Feminism is for Everybody. Aboriginal women, feminism and diversity” and Rauna Kuokkanen’s