Blog 3: Aboriginals Womanhood

Briana Panaccione

The document on Aboriginal and Europeans talks about the gender relations in each of their societies. As for Indigenous people, their ways of distributing power was very just and egalitarian. In their society, the male and women tasks were very different but had an equal value for contributing to their survival. For example, while men did the hunting, the women cleaned the meat and prepared the meals. Women in aboriginal societies were also eligible to important decision making such as trade decisions, distribution of food etc.…; they also shared the power with the men to be a Shaman. Each aboriginal society respected and viewed women as having equal power and domination as men. They acknowledge that the jobs done by the women are crucial to their survival which is why a women’s role is their society is very important.  They even included a two-spirit gender identity role in certain indigenous societies. It is the accommodation of masculine and feminine traits in one body, each aboriginal society expresses this identity in different ways. Overall, men were not distinctly seen as more powerful in Indigenous societies; women shared power with the men and were seen as equally essential to their everyday lives.

          Gender relations in indigenous societies are quite similar to todays society. I might even say that a women’s role in their society was more appreciated in their culture then in todays contemporary world. From indigenous cultures, I can gather that todays view on women roles and their view on women roles both show supportive recognition to a women’s abilities and contributions to society. Women have the right to important decisions and positions as well as men do.  The difference to me seems that women in their culture didn’t have to fight for justice between the sexes because their jobs were already seen as equally valued. In todays society, we seem to have adopted a more European view on women’s roles because although we have had a great increase in the support of women’s power, we still had to fight a long time for our rights to equality. Indigenous women were not all seen as equal to men but for the most part both genders shared equal status. While reading the document, I was surprised by the power women had in indigenous cultures. I figured back in those times that all women were seen as less; I appreciated the fact that a women’s role could be equally valued and recognized as those of the men. Women in aboriginal cultures worked hard, as well as the men did, and a society that can view women as equal to men shows strength, decency and intelligence.