Category Archives: Presentations and workshops

Indigenous Feminisms & Womanism: A Conversation with Lorena Cabnal & Megan Kanerahtenha:wi Whyte
Hall Building 760 Concordia University
Thurs. Mar. 9 @ 11:30am

Join us for a chat with Lorena Cabnal and Megan Kanerahtenha:wi Whyte where we’ll hear about their work for gender justice in different communities and contexts. Both are connecting the land and body through issues such as reproductive justice and challenging violence against women, as well as extractivism. They’ll talk to us about two alternatives to mainstream feminism that arise in their work: communal feminism (feminismo comunitario) and Indigenous womanism.
– Speaker Biographies –

Lorena Cabnal is Maya-Qeqchi Xinca and a communal feminist, as well as a healer. She is from the Network of Ancestral Healers of the Commununal Feminism of Iximulew-Guatemala, a member of the Alliance Against the Criminalization of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala. Lorena co-founded the Association of Indigenous Women of Santa María Xalapán (AMISMAXAJ), working towards the revitalization of the Xinka ethnic identity and the recovery of their ancestral lands. She has also been active in leading the struggle against Canadian mining in her community despite suffering threats and persecution because of her work. She has taken part in the creation of a approach to healing which connects communal feminism and Mayan cosmovision for the spiritual and emotional recuperation of Indigenous women in communities facing multiple forms of violence, both within their communities and in defense of territory.

Megan Kanerahtenha:wi Whyte is a young mother, artist, art educator, and art therapist candidate from the Kahnawake Mohawk First Nation community. She is currently completing a MFA at Concordia University in Art Therapy, with focus on addressing multigenerational trauma and attachment through visual media. Outside of her schooling, Megan is actively involved with the Kahnawake Youth Forum, the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and the Indigenous Young Women’s National Advisory Board providing an arts-based approach to social change. Her main project, Skatne Ionkwatehiahrontie, is a youth program that aims to foster relationships to the land, explore sexual health and connect youth to cultural networks. Megan’s social work in these spaces also inspire her artistic development, having her art pieces reflect concepts of healthy relationships, indigenous ‘womanism’, as well as environmental, reproductive, and social justice.

In partnership with Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala (PAQG)and their speaking tour, which is focused on denouncing the criminalization of human rights defenders. More information here:http://www.paqg.org/node/481

Last week, I was invited to sit on a panel to support an Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls alongside Dr. Dawn Lavell Harvard, (President, Native Women’s Association of Canada), Delilah Saunders (sister of Loretta Saunders), Gladys Radek (aunt of Tamara Lynn Chipman and founder of Tears4Justice) and Matt Smiley (director of the film, Highway of Tears).

After viewing Smiley’s film, we discussed the implications of an Inquiry, underlying factors as well as the reflection of the actions in Val D’or Quebec. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/val-dor-police-aboriginal-women-march-1.3287744).

While other panelists spoke of personal experience as well as legislative action, I brought a youth and grassroots activist perspective. I talked about how stereotypes and the reinforcement of them contribute to systemic violence; I provided ways in which everyone can contribute when legislative means are not accessible, including art submissions, letter writing to Halloween stores and learning history from the people.

We acknowledge that our women are girls are not born at risk, they are put at risk by a system (government, foster care, education) that continues to run along the assimilation stream. While it is true that residential schools have closed and women no longer lose their status by leaving the community, other methods have developed from environmental violence, lack of nation-to-nation discussion, poor education and inadequate funding.