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A review by lottiegasp
Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism by Aileen Moreton-Robinson
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Moreton-Robinson critiques white feminism and analyses how it inherently aims to overrule Indigenous women's issues. Some of my key takeaways:
- white feminism and discussions on race are limited by failing to acknowledge whiteness as a racial construct, instead implying it is the default and any other racial category is the 'other'. This means we can view any difficulties experienced by racialised people as their deficits, but cannot name and characterise behaviours of whiteness and how they contribute to racist structures and behaviours
- white feminism's agenda is largely focussed on achieving the same status as white men, and individual-level wealth. This is incompatible with the agendas of Indigenous women, whose agendas largely also involve the uplifting of communities as a whole, which is includes Indigenous children and men, as well as women: namely things like freedom from policing and children being stolen, equitable health outcomes, freedom to self-determine and self-govern on their lands as they see fit. Moreton-Robinson makes some examples of where white feminist agendas have failed to acknowledge Indigenous women's struggles: white women have fought for sexual liberation and birth control, while Indigenous women are fighting for freedom from being fetishised, seen as sexually deviant, and forcibly sterilised. Not that these struggles are incompatible, but that white feminism has failed to build in the demands of Indigenous women into their struggles
- ultimately, Moreton-Robinson is asking for interrogation of our whiteness, as well as redistributing power and resources to Indigenous leaders and communities. She clarifies that this doesn't just meaning endlessly listening to Indigenous women with no further actions. Indigenous leaders communities need to be given the power and resources (money!) to make and enact decisions as they see fit on matters that affect them and their lands
The language is very challenging to read as someone not in this field. I recommend people also read White Tears, Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad, and White Feminism by Koa Beck, to complement this book.
I found the first four chapters somewhat repetitive. The theses of those chapters seemed like a given to me, and it didn't feel like they needed so much elaboration especially given the dense writing style, but I suspect the points were needed 20 years ago, which speaks to Moreton-Robinson's contribution. Chapters 5 and 6 were the most interesting to me, as well as the endnote section in the 20th anniversay edition where Moreton-Robinson responds to reviews of the original book.
- white feminism and discussions on race are limited by failing to acknowledge whiteness as a racial construct, instead implying it is the default and any other racial category is the 'other'. This means we can view any difficulties experienced by racialised people as their deficits, but cannot name and characterise behaviours of whiteness and how they contribute to racist structures and behaviours
- white feminism's agenda is largely focussed on achieving the same status as white men, and individual-level wealth. This is incompatible with the agendas of Indigenous women, whose agendas largely also involve the uplifting of communities as a whole, which is includes Indigenous children and men, as well as women: namely things like freedom from policing and children being stolen, equitable health outcomes, freedom to self-determine and self-govern on their lands as they see fit. Moreton-Robinson makes some examples of where white feminist agendas have failed to acknowledge Indigenous women's struggles: white women have fought for sexual liberation and birth control, while Indigenous women are fighting for freedom from being fetishised, seen as sexually deviant, and forcibly sterilised. Not that these struggles are incompatible, but that white feminism has failed to build in the demands of Indigenous women into their struggles
- ultimately, Moreton-Robinson is asking for interrogation of our whiteness, as well as redistributing power and resources to Indigenous leaders and communities. She clarifies that this doesn't just meaning endlessly listening to Indigenous women with no further actions. Indigenous leaders communities need to be given the power and resources (money!) to make and enact decisions as they see fit on matters that affect them and their lands
The language is very challenging to read as someone not in this field. I recommend people also read White Tears, Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad, and White Feminism by Koa Beck, to complement this book.
I found the first four chapters somewhat repetitive. The theses of those chapters seemed like a given to me, and it didn't feel like they needed so much elaboration especially given the dense writing style, but I suspect the points were needed 20 years ago, which speaks to Moreton-Robinson's contribution. Chapters 5 and 6 were the most interesting to me, as well as the endnote section in the 20th anniversay edition where Moreton-Robinson responds to reviews of the original book.