WHITESTREAM FEMINISM AND THE COLONIALIST PROJECT: A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST PEDAGOGY AND PRAXIS

INTRODUCTION I feel compelled to begin by stating that I am not a feminist rather, I am Indigena.’ Accordingly, this review begins at the intersection of my subjectivity as an indigenous woman and the contemporary feminist project. While, like other indigenous women, I recognize the invaluable contributions that feminists have made to both critical theory and praxis in education, I also believe their welldocumented failure to engage race and acknowledge the complicity of white women in the history of domination positions “mainstream” feminism alongside other colonialist discourses. Indeed, the colonialist project could not have flourished without the participation of white women; therefore, as M. Annette Jaimes notes, some American Indian women continue to hold white feminists in disdain because they are perceived first and foremost as constituents of the same white supremacy and colonialism that oppresses all Indians.2 Thus, like other indigenous women, I theorize and act in public life from a standpoint that presumes decolonization (not feminism) as the central political project. In contrast to dominant modes of feminist critique that locate women’s oppression in the structures of patriarchy, the project of decolonization begins with the understanding that the collective oppression of indigenous women results primarily from colonialism a multidimensional force underwritten by Western Christianity, defined by white supremacy, and fueled by global capitalism.