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The article reviews the book, "Women's History in Global Perspective," edited by Bonnie Smith.
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The essays in [this book] create a transnational and comparative dialogue on the history of the productive and reproductive lives and circumstances of Indigenous women from the late nineteenth century to the present in the United States, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, and Canada. Surveying the spectrum of Indigenous women's lives and circumstances as workers, both waged and unwaged, the contributors offer varied perspectives on the ways women's work has contributed to the survival of communities in the face of ongoing tensions between assimilation and colonization. They also interpret how individual nations have conceived of Indigenous women as workers and, in turn, convert these assumptions and definitions into policy and practice. The essays address the intersection of Indigenous, women's, and labor history, but will also be useful to contemporary policy makers, tribal activists, and Native American women's advocacy associations. --Publisher's description. Contents: Aboriginal women and work across the 49th Parallel : historical antecedents and new challenges / Joan Sangster -- Making a living : Anishinaabe women in Michigan's changing economy / Alice Littlefield -- Procuring passage : Southern Australian Aboriginal women and the early maritime industry of sealing / Lynette Russell -- The contours of agency : women's work, race, and Queensland's indentured labor trade / Tracey Banivanua Mar -- From "superabundance" to dependency : women agriculturalists and the negotiation of colonialism and capitalism for reservation-era Lummi / Chris Friday -- "We were real Skookum women" : The shíshálh economy and the logging industry on the Pacific Northwest Coast / Susan Roy and Ruth Taylor -- Unraveling the narratives of nostalgia : Navajo weavers and globalization / Kathy M'Closkey -- Labor and leisure in the "enchanted summer land" : Anishinaabe women's work and the growth of Wisconsin tourism, 1900-1940 / Melissa Rohde -- Nimble fingers and strong backs : First Nations and Métis women in fur trade and rural economies / Sherry Farrell Racette -- Northfork Mono women's agricultural work, "productive coexistence," and social well-being in the San Joaquin Valley, California, circa 1850-1950 / Heather A. Howard -- Diverted mothering among American Indian domestic servants, 1920-1940 / Margaret D. Jacobs -- Charity or industry? American Indian women and work relief in the New Deal era / Colleen O'Neill -- "An Indian teacher among Indians": Native women as federal employees / Cathleen D. Cahill -- "Assaulting the ears of government" : the Indian homemakers' clubs and the Maori Women's Welfare League in their formative years / Aroha Harris and Mary Jane Logan McCallum -- Politically purposeful work : Ojibwe women's labor and leadership in postwar Minneapolis / Brenda J. Child -- Maori sovereignty, Black feminism, and the New Zealand trade union movement / Cybèle Locke -- Beading lesson / Beth H. Piatote.
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Interpretations of Aboriginal women's work have shifted over time, but they have been absolutely central to First Nations women's experiences of colonialism. Yet, in both women's history and Aboriginal history, there has been a "mystification" of Indigenous women's labor, because it was often defined as nonproductive or marginal within capitalist economies; wage work was particularly neglected (Littlefield and Knack 1999: 4). Yet, by studying women's labor in its multiple forms (paid, unpaid, voluntary, ceremonial, commodity production), and in multiple contexts (bush, urban, reserve or reservation), we can gain immense insight into how colonialism was structured, experienced, negotiated, and resisted by women at the level of daily life. By perusing past academic writing on Aboriginal women and work, this paper explores some of the intellectual, political, and social influences that have shaped understandings of Aboriginal women's labor in Canada and the United States, asking what insights we have gained, what questions we need to answer, and what contradictions we still face in our research. Arguably, we need a dialogue that crosses disciplines and theoretical approaches, with perspectives and traditions from Aboriginal history, feminist theory, and labor studies informing and challenging each other. There are transnational trends and shared perspectives in Aboriginal women's history that cross the 49th parallel; however, we also need to identify how and why national and regional histories and interpretations diverge. Still, one transnational commonality highlighted in this paper is the close connection between politics and research, between the present and the past: the questions posed by scholars have been stimulated and inspired by Aboriginal thought and organizing, and Aboriginal politics have benefited from scholarly research. Although research may still be difficult and contested terrain in Aboriginal–non-Aboriginal relations (Smith 1999; Biolsi and Zimmerman 1997), there is hope that scholarly dialogue might contribute productively to decolonization. --From Introduction
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