Le rôle des femmes dans la gouvernance autochtone

• Published in: Nuevo mundo mundos nuevos
• Main Author: Andrée Lajoie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; French; Portuguese
• Published: Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains 2015
• Subjects: indigenous governance; discrimination of women; women’s political power; band council; band chief; Anthropology; GN1-890; Latin America. Spanish America; F1201-3799; Indian; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4000/nuevomundo.68508; https://doaj.org/article/7dc93cdab95c4c2392778c5605056752

Influenced by the discrimination against aboriginal women following the adoption of the Indian Act when the feminist movement was progressing everywhere in Occident, aboriginal women in Quebec started to mobilize on the political arena, in their communities and within «transversal» organisms, while still continuing to exercise the Clan Mothers’ traditional powers to appoint Chiefs.In the communities that became sedentary, women were elected as members of Band Councils, where they occupy 29 % of positions and 9% of the Chiefs’ positions. There they participate in governmental decisions that affect their communities. On the other hand, they constitute 100 % of the members of the two First Nations’«transversal» organizations created to counter discrimination. In this situation, the kind of governance powers exercised within these organisms could qualify as indirect political powers. That political role of aboriginal women in their communities is quite compatible with that of the non aboriginal women in Quebec in the municipal councils exercising analogous functions, where they occupy 27% of the councilors’ positions and 13% are mayors.