Adopted in 2007, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes self-determination - including free, prior, and informed consent - as a foundational right and principle. Self-determination, both individual and collective, is among the most important and pressing issues for Indigenous women worldwide. Yet Indigenous women's interests have been overlooked in the formulation of Indigenous self-government, and existing studies of Indigenous self-government largely ignore issues of gender. As such, the current literature on Indigenous governance conceals patriarchal structures and power that create barriers for women to resources and participation in Indigenous societies.

Drawing on Indigenous and feminist political and legal theory--as well as extensive participant interviews in Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia - this book argues that the current rights discourse and focus on Indigenous-state relations is too limited in scope to convey the full meaning of "self-determination" for Indigenous peoples. The book conceptualizes self-determination as a foundational value informed by the norm of integrity and suggests that Indigenous self-determination cannot be achieved without restructuring all relations of domination nor can it be secured in the absence of gender justice. As a foundational value, self-determination seeks to restructure all relations of domination, not only hegemonic relations with the state. Importantly, it challenges the opposition between "self-determination" and "gender" created and maintained by international law, Indigenous political discourse, and Indigenous institutions. Restructuring relations of domination further entails examining the gender regimes present in existing Indigenous self-government institutions, interrogating the relationship between Indigenous self-determination and gender violence, and considering future visions of Indigenous self-determination, such as rematriation of Indigenous governance and an independent statehood.

Rauna Kuokkanen's profile page

Rauna Kuokkanen is Professor of Arctic Indigenous Politics at University of Lapland (Finland) and Associate Professor of Political Science and Indigenous Studies at University of Toronto. She is the author of Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of the Gift.

"A much-needed study of gender's intersection with the struggles to realize Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty. Rauna Kuokkanen offers an international comparative study that centers gender as an analytical tool, for there is no possibility for Indigenous liberation without gender justice."

--Jennifer Denetdale (Diné), University of New Mexico

"This is the leading book for understanding the importance of gender justice for self-determination in the international sphere. This book sets the standard against which other works will be measured."

--John Borrows, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law, University of Victoria Law School

"Kuokkanen's brilliant work is original and cutting edge, providing a much-needed intellectual, epistemological, and political intervention in multiple fields as it challenges the segregation of knowledge production. This innovative, comparative study provides a robust feminist interrogation of self-determination models based on limited normative frameworks of state recognition. As an alternative, it features how Indigenous woman are working at fundamentally restructuring relations in society, mainstream and Indigenous alike, in decolonial ways that are ethically committed to the integrity of the land and peoplehood free from violent domination."

--J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Professor of American Studies and affiliate faculty in Anthropology, Wesleyan University