A Recognition of Being Reconstructing Native Womanhood

How are Native women defined? How has this sense of identity been influenced by European culture, and how have negative images been resisted? These are only a few of the questions Cree/Metis writer Kim Anderson addresses in this important book based on interviews with forty Native women from across Canada. Starting from the role of women in Indigenous societies prior to the arrival of Europeans, Anderson explores how female identity and power were systematically dismantled through colonization. Drawing on their own experiences, Native women describe how they are reclaiming their cultural traditions, and creating positive and powerful images of themselves which are true to their heritage. A Recognition of Being is a critical and inspiring history of Native womanhood. Features: based on interviews with forty Aboriginal women from across Canada and the author's own personal journey as a Native woman explores the central question of how Aboriginal women maintain power and construct a positive knowledge of the self contributes to a growing body of scholarship on Indigenous women's resistance to oppression