Self-Determination, Subordination, and Semantics : Rhetorical and Real-World Conflicts over the Human Rights of Indigenous Women

The author provides a historic account of the erosion of the status and equality of Indigenous women throughout the processes of colonization and assimilation which imposed patriarchal ideals on First Nations. The article then discusses the importance of human rights frameworks to Indigenous political advocacy and the inadequacy of either feminist or Indigenous human rights frameworks to accommodate Indigenous women who exist in the intersection of both identities.  In response, Indigenous women use intersectional human rights to accommodate both simultaneous identities. The article discusses the many ways that this framework has played out both in Canada and on an international stage as well the conflict between Indigenous women’s advocacy and Indigenous leadership.