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You Are on Indigenous Land: Ecofeminism, Indigenous Peoples and Land Justice

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Abstract

For thousands of years, the many diverse environments of Australia were sustained by the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations. Integral to these cultures are the law- and life-ways of Indigenous women. Then came the colonial apocalypse. Non-Indigenous ecofeminists—like all non-Indigenous peoples in a colonized land—are the continuing beneficiaries of the violent dispossession of the women who were here before from the homelands they had managed for centuries. How, then, can non-Indigenous ecofeminists ethically advocate for justice in relation to women and the environment from this fraught position? This chapter suggests that non-Indigenous scholars must respect Indigenous sovereignty and meaningfully enact this respect, including through the layered process of listening to the voices of Indigenous women.

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Kwaymullina, A. (2018). You Are on Indigenous Land: Ecofeminism, Indigenous Peoples and Land Justice. In: Stevens, L., Tait, P., Varney, D. (eds) Feminist Ecologies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64385-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64385-4_11

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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