We seek chapter proposals on the topic of Indigenous Women’s Research.
The book positions our voices as central to engagements with Indigenous
community life and to dismantling the research paradigms and practices
that have not served us as Indigenous women.
We see
questions of “voice” as vital issues of political articulation,
creatively and wisely expressed in personal, collective and symbolic
terms. We write for and with the Indigenous women we
work alongside in the diverse fields we occupy. We believe in making our
positions and perspectives – across gender, race, ethnicity, class,
cultural, social, religious and relational contexts – more nuanced, accessible and expressive
to the wider community of Indigenous women in the Global South. We
dream of a defining moment when we can speak about who we are in the
world for ourselves and with the Indigenous women around the world who
inspire, challenge and move us.
This dream and aspiration –
to present our voices for ourselves and with each other – sits at the
heart of this proposed book collection on Indigenous women researching
and reflecting on our most significant milestones and work to date. We
embrace the idea of writing for and with each other as a collective
voice contributing to the transformational, gendered and decolonising
work urgently necessary at this point in history. In doing so, our focus
is to flip the script, to forge new pathways for knowledge production
and sharing that centre our voices and amplify our authentic narratives.
The way we can afford to do this meaningfully is to do so together through critical reflection, inclusivity and care.
Our book, titled Rematriation: Indigenous Women on Indigenous Women,
provides a pragmatic context for our work to be understood across the
spheres of the academy, community and everyday life. We write with
community women in mind to engage Indigenous struggles, stories and
circumstance. This is a call to ground our work as Indigenous women
within the modes of engagement, exploration and agency that matter to us
as Indigenous women, to oppose, criticise and challenge dominant notions of who we are, how we work and what we want to achieve.
We
are interested in chapter proposals that explore how our research opens
up the field for other Indigenous women. How does our work create
impacts for and with community women? Why should we care and how do we
care?
Our goal is to bring new perspectives to
understandings of community work from Indigenous worldviews – whether
you are part of community, working at the nexus of the academy, activism
and community, working at the coalface of land, water, environmental,
educational, values- and rights- based or social justice concerns.
The
land is life and law. We see spirit in all things. Indigenous wisdom is
grounded in a myriad of complex and reciprocal interactions with
community, the land, sea and sky. We have much to learn from each other
and much to share.
What forms of Indigenous wisdom
inspire us? What new work do we bring to the world? What new or old
wisdoms do we wish to enshrine, where and how? What do we stand for and
how do we stand with and as Indigenous women? Who are we?
This
call invites you to respond to such questions just as much as it is an
opportunity to pay homage to our ancestral and matrilineal connections.
We aspire to build respect and acknowledgement across our communities,
disciplines and fields of research as Indigenous women.
Rematriation
means returning to the nurturing principles of Mother Earth, honouring
the interconnectedness of all life and restoring balance to ecosystems.
It involves the revitalisation of Indigenous knowledge systems,
languages, and traditions suppressed by ongoing colonial and neocolonial
forces. For us, rematriation is both land back and environmental
consciousness. This practice offers ways to think outside the border
logic of nation-states and reimagine relationships based on ancestral
connections and ecology. We are stewards of the earth driven to oppose
dominant paradigms of ownership, exploitation and extraction.
Rematriation invites us to resee the land and resources beyond commodity
fetishism.
We’d love to hear how you are contributing to
the conversation on local, national or global issues and what this means
for the communities you write about. The book’s thematic focus “on
Indigenous women” in our title is about sharing this knowledge with each
other through this collection rather than showing how your research is about Indigenous women. Put simply, the book is for us, by Indigenous women for and with Indigenous women.
As
editors of this collection, we will be looking to find links between
the different chapters submitted so we each speak to one another through
strong, interconnected themes.
Possible themes for chapter proposals:
REMATRIATION: How
can rematriation serve as a framework for addressing environmental
justice issues affecting Indigenous communities, particularly women? How
do Indigenous women navigate the complexities of rematriation in the
context of ongoing colonial and neocolonial pressures? What are the
strategies and initiatives led by Indigenous women to promote
rematriation and decolonization within our communities and beyond? How
can rematriation initiatives prioritise the voices and leadership of
Indigenous women in decision-making processes regarding land, resources,
and governance? What are the potential impacts of rematriation on
future generations of Indigenous women and our relationships with the
land, culture, and community?
KNOWLEDGE: What
is Indigenous knowledge and in what ways is it gendered? How does
women’s knowledge shape community life? How does our research include
new knowledge about Indigenous women’s realities?
VOICE:
In what ways are Indigenous women leading the charge on environmental
issues? How are Indigenous women’s voices different, enabled, silenced
or actualised? How do Indigenous women’s voices influence local,
national or global issues? On what issues are we most or least vocal?
How are our voices unique, powerful, underrepresented or misheard?
IDENTITY:
How does language, religion, gender, class, place or politics shape our
identity? What are the differences between our personal, public,
academic, historical or community identities?
RELATIONALITIES:
How do we work across differences with men, non-Indigenous women and
researchers, across generations and cross-culturally? What is the
relationship between us as Indigenous women on a local, national or
global or an historical scale? In what ways can we talk about a global
Indigenous movement of women?
STORY:
How does story ground our experience as women? In what ways do we share
similar or different stories of Indigenous women’s experience? What are
the most moving, uplifting or comical stories by or about Indigenous
women?
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE:
What kind of community research is taking place, for instance on
cultural revitalisation, language learning or regeneration or
traditional practice, as well as specifically on Indigenous mothers,
youth or elders? How is this research innovative, new or transformative?
PLACE-BASED RESEARCH:
Where do Indigenous women choose to live and why? Where are the most
vulnerable, dangerous, risk-laden or overlooked places? Why does place
matter to Indigenous women? How do places shape Indigenous women’s
lives, families and/or communities?
KNOWLEDGE HOLDERS:
Who are the Indigenous female leaders we want to hold with the highest
esteem? How do or have we acknowledge(d) their life experience? How can
we learn from their legacy?
DEADLINES:
1 June 2024: Send your 300-word abstract with a brief profile
1 December 2024: Completed chapters due (5000 words)
Email: IndigenousRematriation@gmail.com
