Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
imperialism, rather than a liberatory strategy. It is crucial to be aware of such
issues, as well as of cultural forms according to which, for example, women may
not be able to speak about issues relating to (particular) land or resources, not
because of sexist silencing, but owing to traditionally gendered sacred responsibil-
ities, in terms of which such issues are literally not their business. This is particu-
larly an issue for some Australian Aboriginal societies:
21
In many cases knowledge and the resulting power was gender-specific. Thus there were
men's sites and there were women's sites, and the traditional owners, whether they be
female or male, had sole decision-making powers over those areas (Gale
1990
).
However, many of the rights under discussion here are already incorporated
into the political agendas of indigenous peoples. For instance, the first three (of
16) leadership priorities specified by two Yukon Aboriginal women's summits held
in November 2007 were:
1. Include the voices of female Aboriginal Elders as advisors in meetings that involve
First Nation people.
2. Increase representation of Aboriginal women in decision-making positions in govern-
ments, corporations and nonprofit organizations.
3. Increase representation of Aboriginal women at decision-making tables dealing with
water, land and traditional knowledge (YACWI
2008
).
A 'key message' produced by this summit was: 'Encourage and support
Aboriginal women to take on decision-making and political leadership roles'
(YACWI
2008
).
The relevance of these priorities to benefit sharing is obvious. Likewise, based on
a 2003 review of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC, the
statutory authority established by the Australian federal government in 1990 as an
expression of its self-determination policy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples), indigenous advocates in Australia are currently proposing 'improved gen-
der representation in any new representative structure' (Davis
2008
: 6):
The evidence from ATSIC's own evaluation confirms what many women know, that men
can never adequately and effectively represent the unique and diverse interests and needs
of women (Davis
2008
: 8).
The ATSIC women's committee, Kungkala Wakai (Our Women's Voice),
argued that the result of women's under-representation was a lack of attention to
women's issues, as well as to those affecting other minority groups (youth, the
homeless, etc.), and that:
a key objective of any new arrangements should be equal representation of women in
terms of membership of regional councils, the proportion of regional council chairs, and
in the proportion of commissions on the ATSIC board. That is, 50% of these officials
should be women. Putting in place a mechanism to achieve this may or may not have
broad community acceptance, but it is nevertheless one way of addressing the marginali-
zation of women in Indigenous affairs (Kungala Wakai
2003
).
21
We are grateful to Jack Beetson for this point (GenBenefit Dissemination Conference:
Montreal, 6 November 2009).
