Not Sacred, Not Squaws: Indigenous Feminism Redefined

Incorporating first-hand prostitution research done in New Zealand and across Canada and questioning her own uncritical acceptance of the historical social and political status of Indigenous women in Canada, Cherry Smiley has looked at the roles of culture and tradition in the oppression of Indigenous women, and has constructed a decolonizing feminist methodology in the process.

This work troubles the very concepts of 'colonisation' and 'feminism' as we currently understand them. In Not Sacred, Not Squaws, Cherry Smiley redefines colonisation and situates decolonizing feminism as distinct and foundational as opposed to separate and different components of the Women's Liberation Movement.