Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture

The second section on activism includes a chapter by Cheryl Suzack on the gendered implications of the Indian Act in Canada and one by Jean Barman on the agency of Northwest Coast Aboriginal women "on the cusp of contact." ann elise lewallen departs from the North American focus in her analysis of the activism of indigenous Ainu women in Japan. The editors aptly note that a "single, normative definition of indigenous feminism remains impossible" (2). Because the contributors do not ascribe to any unitary notion of indigenous feminism, this collection captures multiple definitions and perspectives; this also means, however, that the guiding questions that are meant to lend cohesion to the collection are, at occasional points, difficult to discern.