Indigenous
Women’s Pushback
By Yifat Susskind
27 May, 2007
Fpif.org
Indigenous activists are putting
up a fight – against violence. At the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues, activists are focused on passing a declaration that recognizes
the right of Indigenous Peoples to their lands, territories, and resources.
This organizing drive is seeking international legal protection from
the violence done to Indigenous Peoples, which over the centuries has
threatened their very survival. Indigenous women, meanwhile, are organizing
against gender-based violence. This violence has derived not just from
gender discrimination and subordination but also from the violation
of the collective rights of Indigenous communities.
At the international level,
2,500 Indigenous activists and NGO representatives from around the world
have gathered in New York this month to debate the UN Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which calls on governments to recognize
Indigenous Peoples' right to self-determination and control over their
territories. At the local level, women’s groups are translating
the same right to self-determination into economic autonomy and the
preservation of Indigenous traditions. Much progress has been made,
both internationally and locally, but the movement still faces significant
obstacles.
U.S. Opposition
Last fall, when the UN General
Assembly rejected a draft of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, many Indigenous leaders saw the hand of the United States behind
the move. The UN Human Rights Council had approved the Declaration just
the previous summer. But the United States -- which includes 562 federally
recognized tribes -- and a handful of other wealthy governments (Canada,
Australia, Russia, and New Zealand) scuttled the document.
At the sixth UN Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues, the United States is putting its weight
behind an amendment proposed by a group of African governments that
would strip the Declaration of its teeth and undermine decades of international
legal precedent. Traditionally, states are required to ensure that national
laws comply with any international agreements they have ratified. But
this amendment would exempt state signatories from having to revise
state laws in accordance with the UN Declaration. In effect, state ratification
of the Declaration would be rendered meaningless.
The Bush administration has
also claimed that the Declaration is “inconsistent with international
law,” a strange concern from a government that flagrantly violated
the founding document of international law -- the UN Charter -- in its
invasion of Iraq. As well, the United States objects to the Declaration
on the grounds that it could “require the recognition to lands
now lawfully owned by other citizens." The United States and other
countries fear the domestic implications of the Declaration. Manhattan,
after all, is a Lenape word.
But the United States also
does not welcome the potential global ramifications of states recognizing
Indigenous Peoples’ rights to land, resources, languages, cultures,
spiritual beliefs, and self-determination -- all upheld by the Declaration.
Consider the regime of U.S.-driven free-trade agreements that violate
Indigenous rights by turning life-sustaining, Indigenous-managed ecosystems
into commodities. Around the world some of the most profitable industries
-- including oil, natural gas, mining, and pharmaceuticals -- depend
on corporations having unregulated access to Indigenous territories.
Or consider the issue of climate change. This year, the Inuit filed
a petition against the United States at the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights. The petition argues that climate change caused by U.S.
greenhouse-gas emissions violates Inuit human rights, threatening their
livelihoods, spiritual practices, and cultural identity.
In upholding Indigenous sovereignty,
activists are focusing on the importance of autonomy. These are not,
however, particularist campaigns. The policies that threaten Indigenous
People – predatory corporate practices, gender-based violence
– threaten people everywhere. The struggle for Indigenous rights,
then, is intimately connected to other human rights struggles.
The Problem of Violence
Indigenous Peoples have fought
for centuries against genocide, displacement, colonization, and forced
assimilation. This violence has left Indigenous communities among the
poorest and most marginalized in the world, alienated from state politics,
and disenfranchised by national governments. In the Americas, Indigenous
Peoples have a life expectancy 10-20 years less than the general population.
In Central America, Indigenous Peoples have less access to education
and health services, are more likely to die from preventable diseases,
suffer higher infant-mortality rates, and experience higher levels of
poverty than non-Indigenous Peoples.
The same general pattern
holds internationally, and because of gender discrimination, the pattern
is most entrenched for Indigenous women. Today, the human rights --
and very survival of -- Indigenous Peoples are increasingly threatened,
as states and corporations battle for control of the Earth's dwindling
supply of natural resources, many of which are located on Indigenous
territories.
One key concern of Indigenous
women is gender-based violence. For Indigenous women, violence doesn't
only stem from gender discrimination and women's subordination within
their families and communities. It also arises from attitudes and policies
that violate collective Indigenous rights. As Dr. Myrna Cunningham,
an internationally recognized Indigenous leader, says, "For Indigenous
Peoples and Indigenous women, exercising our rights -- both as Indigenous
Peoples and as women -- depends on securing legal recognition of our
collective ancestral territories, which are the basis of our identities,
our cultures, our economies, and our traditions."
That understanding of collective
rights has enabled Indigenous women to create anti-violence strategies
that address connections between issues as diverse as women's human
rights, economic justice, and climate change. These connections are
reflected in Indigenous women’s organizing around the world, for
instance in a Kenyan village run by Indigenous women and in a community
development organization on Nicaragua’s North Atlantic coast.
It Takes a Village
(Run by Women)
In Kenya, a group of 16 Indigenous
Samburu women developed a bold strategy to meet the needs of women forced
to flee their communities because of gender-based violence. They founded
an independent, women-run village for survivors. Many of the women had
been raped by British soldiers stationed for training on Samburu ancestral
lands. Because of the rapes, the women's husbands ostracized them. Several
of them were forced from their homes for having "shamed" their
families. Led by Rebecca Lolosoli, the women joined together and appealed
to the local District Council, which governs land use. In 1990, they
were granted a neglected field of dry grassland, where they have worked
hard to create a unique and flourishing community, which they named
Umoja, or "unity" in Swahili.
As members of the Indigenous
Information Network -- which works to develop connections between Indigenous
groups in Kenya, strengthen Indigenous demands for human rights, and
enhance the political participation of Indigenous Peoples -- the women
of Umoja have worked to bring human rights trainings to their community.
These trainings have fortified women's political mobilizations against
gender-based violence. Referring to the Beijing Platform for Action
introduced to local women in a training two years ago, Rebecca Lolosoli
commented, "Now that we have seen it in writing -- and seen that
even our own Kenyan government has signed this -- we know that we are
not asking for pity or kindness but for our basic rights when we demand
an end to our husbands' beatings."
In 1999, when the women of
Umoja participated in their first human rights training, none of them
had ever spoken in public. Today, they are active participants in local
government and are recognized as leaders in their district. The women
of Umoja are currently organizing to demand an anti-violence unit in
the local police force and trainings for women police officers that
enable them to address gender-based violence. These anti-violence strategies
are part of the Umoja women's broader efforts to create a better life
for themselves and their community—in other words, to defend the
full range of their human rights. To that end, the women have developed
a system of resource sharing, a communal sickness/disability fund, and
a modest but successful cooperative cottage industry selling traditional
Samburu beadwork to tourists. In cooperation with the Indigenous Information
Network, the women defend Samburu rights to land, water, and health
and education services. Through their political mobilizations, the women
have found confidence and hope that sustain their work against gender-based
violence and fuel their conviction that ending violence against women
is indeed possible.
Like women everywhere, the
women of Umoja see economic autonomy as key to avoiding dependence on
abusive men. Though they remain deeply impoverished by most people's
standards, the women have succeeded in making sure that their daughters
(as well as their sons) attend school. And they have freed themselves
of the economic pressure to circumcise and marry off their daughters
at a young age. In fact, Rebecca Lolosoli's 12-year-old daughter, Sylvia,
openly declares her refusal of circumcision and has every intention
of going to university after high school. As Rebecca Lolosoli said,
"I have to be the first person to show my community that I will
not circumcise my girl or pressure her to marry."
Flower of the River
Wangki Tangni ("Flower
of the River" in Miskito) is a community development organization
on Nicaragua's North Atlantic Coast that addresses violence against
women in the context of defending Indigenous rights. Wangki Tangni offers
women's leadership development programs and promotes women's political
participation in the community and beyond through sustainable development
projects, human rights trainings, income-generating projects, and healthcare
programs that integrate Indigenous and "western" perspectives
on medicine. Wangki Tangni recognizes that many Indigenous women derive
identity and power from their traditional roles as midwives, advisors,
spiritual guides, and leaders who are principally responsible for transmitting
traditional knowledge, cultural values, and agricultural methods in
their communities. Wangki Tangni works to preserve and develop these
roles for women, thereby strengthening women's social status and confidence,
which in turn fortifies their capacity to demand rights and confront
gender-based violence.
The organization's anti-violence
strategies draw directly from Indigenous culture. The Miskito cosmology,
like that of many Indigenous Peoples, describes an egalitarian duality
between the masculine and feminine realms. In Miskito tradition, women
are revered and violence against them is considered deviant. This worldview
offers a very different starting point for combating violence than religions
or customs used to sanction male violence. As Wangki Tangni's Director,
Rose Cunningham, says, "Our traditional culture holds the seeds
for condemning violence against women."
Colonization, Christianity,
and cultural assimilation have eroded egalitarian Indigenous traditions.
Yet, these traditions continue to shape the identity and worldview of
many Indigenous Peoples, and provide a foundation for Indigenous anti-violence
strategies. For example, Wangki Tangni organizes intergenerational community
dialogues, in which elders share traditional stories of women's power
and reinforce an understanding of violence against women as inherently
dysfunctional. "The dialogues help us to fight violence against
women," says Rose Cunningham, "and preserve our traditional
stories and the role of our elders as transmitters of Miskito culture
and wisdom." Wangki Tangni's programs mobilize culture in opposition
to gender-based violence, linking strategies against violence with strategies
to maintain Indigenous identity and cultural rights.
Indigenous Issues
are Everyone's Issues
Many of the policies that
most threaten Indigenous Peoples also threaten the health of the planet
itself, jeopardizing our collective future. One example is global warming,
caused in large part by the unsustainable use of fossil fuels. In contrast,
Indigenous cultural values prioritize community cohesion over individual
advancement, and emphasize reciprocity, balance, and integration with
the natural world. These values -- traditionally enacted, transmitted,
and thus created by Indigenous women -- offer a basis for policies that
can support sustainable economic and environmental practices.
Our best hope of protecting
the Earth's biological (and cultural) diversity is to adapt and institutionalize
those knowledge systems and technologies that have preserved diversity
for millennia. These Indigenous knowledge systems embody the principle
of sustainability. In fact, as the stewards of environmental, technical,
scientific, cultural, and spiritual knowledge, Indigenous women have
much to contribute in creating and implementing strategies for sustainable
development at all levels of policymaking.
The Indigenous declaration
under discussion at the UN this month does not specifically address
the issue of gender-based violence. Yet, Rose Cunningham, Rebecca Lolosoli,
and thousands of other Indigenous women from around the world see it
as key to securing their rights as women within their communities as
well as safeguarding their rights as Indigenous Peoples. That’s
because they view violence against Indigenous women as emanating from
violations of the traditions and territories protected by Indigenous
collective rights. Rose Cunningham emphasizes colonization’s degradation
of gender-egalitarian Indigenous traditions -- championed again just
recently by Pope Benedict. Rebecca Lolosoli focuses on the ways that
state expropriation of Samburu territory has led to worsening poverty,
which correlates across cultures with increased family violence against
women. Indigenous women argue that ending gender-based violence in their
communities depends on protecting their communities’ collective
rights—and for that, the Declaration is crucial.
As this year’s UN Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues draws to a close, Indigenous women are facing
off against the United States and other powerful state actors who oppose
the Declaration. The amendment forwarded by the United States -- which
would exempt states from enforcing the declaration once they ratify
it -- is a classic Bush administration maneuever. It expresses the logic
of the hundreds of “signing statements” that Bush has used
to place himself above U.S. federal law. The international Indigenous
women’s movement does not intend to let this maneuver undermine
its work for human rights. The movement will continue to work for the
passage of the Declaration in the international arena and for the rights
of Indigenous women within their communities.
Yifat Susskind is the communications director of MADRE,
an international women’s human rights organization.
Copyright © 2007, International
Relations Center
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