Aboriginal Women and Self-Government: Challenging Leviathan

Abstract

Canadian aboriginal women are becoming more vocal, but their politics differ from those of mainstream feminists. They want a return to traditional ways, and the substantive changes that they seek have a different focus to mainstream feminist aspirations. In addition, their arguments lack an adversarial approach to the male gender in general: They focus on the currently empowered aboriginal male elite. The lawsuit brought by the Native Women's Association of Canada against the federal government can be seen as an attempt to redress abuses of power within aboriginal communities against both oppressed females and males. A return to traditional domestic and community relations may depend on a return to traditional economic practices, and studies have found that aboriginal women traditionally received the most respect and autonomy in societies that were roughly egalitarian in nature, an egalitarianism that is not common in contemporary aboriginal communities.