The 'other' other - Indigenous and Woman (Keynote Speaker)

The Sámi people of Northern Norway and Aboriginal Australia are literally a world apart in geographical terms, yet share a common fate as Indigenous minorities emerging from centuries of internal colonization. Studying gender roles within Indigenous societies may offer an important method to determine the origins of society’s oppressive views towards women. Feminists agree that gender discrimination against women occurs throughout all Western cultures. However, examining the gender roles of Indigenous societies can lead to a greater level of understanding concerning these roles on a global scale. In most Indigenous groups, women were not devalued before the group started to be colonised by the Europeans (Gunn 1986; Miller & Chuchryk 1996; Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission 1999; United Nations 2010; Brownlie & Korinek 2012).