Indigenous women’s feminisms: Autonomous actions and epistemic challenges

Abstract

This text analyses the feminisms of indigenous women in Our America as political practices and forms of knowledge production that challenge both patriarchy and coloniality, as well as hegemonic Western feminism. Drawing on dialogue with women from different communities, Francesca Gargallo challenges the universalisation of feminist categories constructed from white, urban and individualistic experiences, and proposes recognising the plurality of ways in which indigenous women conceive of and practise their liberation. Their struggles bring together autonomy, community, territory and the body, simultaneously confronting ancestral and colonial patriarchies, racism and capitalism. Concepts such as depatriarchalisation, body-earth and the interconnection of patriarchies enable us to understand the specificity of these frameworks and the historical relationships that underpin the experiences of indigenous women. From this perspective, the text argues for the need to also challenge the dominant ways in which knowledge is constructed and legitimised, as well as the hierarchies that determine who can produce knowledge. It proposes transforming and placing at the centre the relations of knowledge production, recognising the practices, experiences and reflections of indigenous women as autonomous and fundamental contributions to feminisms and contemporary thought.