Gender in Decolonial Indigenous Perspective

The chapter provides a critical review of the latest debates within indigenous gender studies which aim to advance understanding and awareness of gender relations and gender-based ideologies shaped in response to socio-economic upheavals associated with patriarchal colonialism. Drawing from a spate of the recent publications offered by the gender-focused indigenous studies the discussion examines what theoretical and onto-epistemological insights are offered by indigenous scholars involved in attempts to trace gender conflicts and tensions while identifying their implications for the contemporary constructions of gender, sex, indigeneity and decolonisation. Focusing on the studies of indigenous gender formations with their non-binary, ungendered or genderless foundations in the Circumpolar North and beyond the author looks at how indigenous gender studies continue questioning and challenging the deep-seated heteropatriarchal divisions, colonial heteronormativity, biological determinism and neo-colonial discourses on indigeneity.