Aboriginal Women and Mental Health

[elise.m...@usask.ca]

I thought some of you might enjoy this little passage, at least to
read, if not to discuss. Paula Gunn Allen (The sacred hoop: Recovering
the feminine in American Indian traditions, 1992) posits these as the
major themes or issues pertaining to American Indians from her
research over the years. She is a scholar of native American
background. Interesting that in class we have covered the first two,
but not the third. I think there will be at least two papers on the
Aboriginal Women and mental health submitted for this class (Shelah's
and mine).

I also find the second theme a very positive, hopeful perspective on
the fate of North American Aboriginal culture and tradition.

The passage on activism seems to grow from spirituality, survival, and
gynocracy.

"1. Indians and spirits are always found together.

2. Indians endure--both in the sense of living through something so
complete in its destructiveness that the mere presence of survivors is
a testament to the human will to survive and in the sense of duration
or longevity. Tribal systems have been operating in the "new world"
for several hundred thousand years. It is unlikely that a few hundred
years of colonization will see their undoing.

3. Traditional tribal lifestyles are more often gynocratic than not,
and they are never patriarchal. These features make understanding
tribal cultures essential to all responsible activists who seek life-
affirming social change that can result in a real decrease in human
and planetary destruction and in a real increase in quality of life
for all inhabitants of planet earth.

American Indians are not merely doomed victims of western imperialism
or progress; they are also the carriers of the dream that most
activist movements in the Americas claim to be seeking. The major
difference between most activist movements and tribal societies is
that for millennia American Indians have based their social systems,
however diverse, on ritual, spirit-centered, woman-focused world-
views" (p. 2).

[elise.m...@usask.ca]

I have to include this too. It seems to me there is more than a simple
hypothesis here about mental health, the imposition of a less-than-
helpful Western world-view (on Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals alike),
and the advantage of an Aboriginal (define how you like) or gynocratic
perspective of normal human psychology. Interesting, in the database
we are looking for hypotheses in, there is no variable for
patriarchy....

"Some distinguishing features of a woman-centered social system
include free and easy sexuality and wide latitude in personal style.
This latititude means that a diversity of people, including gay males
and lesbians, are not denied and are in fact likely to be accorded
honor. Also likely to be prominent in such systems are nurturing,
pacifist, and passive males (as defined by western minds) and self-
defining, assertive, decisive women...The organization of individuals
into a wide-ranging field of allowable styles creates the greatest
possible social stability because it includes and encourages variety
of personal expression for the good of the group. In tribal gynocratic
systems a multitude of personality and character types can function
positively within the social order because the systems are focused on
social responsibility rather than on privilege and on the realities of
the human constitution rather than on denial-based social fictions to
which human beings are compelled to conform by powerful individuals
within society" (Allen, 1992, p. 2-3).

[Lewis MehlMadrona]

Thanks so much for bringing this up.  You see why we need women -- they rule!  Actually, I did grow up in a matriarchal, matrilineal world.  The cool thing about that was the definition of male success was "not in jail, not dead."  My sisters had it much harder.  They actually had to do something to be comsidered successful.  Let's talk about gynecracy more.

 

Lewis

[elise.m...@usask.ca]

I must say that before this class I would not have thought to include
in my thesis proposal historical research on Aboriginals as part of my
review of reproductive practices and traditions in Canada, along with
French and Canadian.

[Kim Duff]

For those who are interested, I just discovered that McGill University
has a bunch of intersting publications up on various cross-cultural
issues including many addressing aboriginal intersts It's part of
their Transcultural Psychiatry unit. Culture and Mental Health Resaerch
Unit. Umm... http:/www.mcgill.ca/tcpsych/research/cmhru/working-papers/

Might be something you want to bookmark for further reference if you're
going to be doing cross-cultural research in the future/etc. (since I
know some of us are, I figured I'd post.)

Kim

---------------------------------------
"The tragedy [with autism] is not that
we're here, but that your world has no
place for us to be. How can it be
otherwise, as long as our own parents
are still grieving over having brought
us into the world?"
— Jim Sinclair "Don't Mourn For Us"

[elise.m...@usask.ca]

I just came across this beautiful article that some might enjoy. It's
a lovey qualitative study of the health-promoting aspects of being
involved in a women's drumming circle. The lit review includes some
interesting historical facts about Aboriginal women's traditional role
as drummers, lovely quotes from the journals and interviews, and a
thorough thematic analysis based on the medicine wheel of how drumming
benefits women physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and
culturally. You can find it at: http://www.naho.ca/english/journal_V04_01.php

Goudreau, G., Weber-Pillwax, C. W., Cote-Meek, S., Madill, H., &
Wilson, S. (2008). Hand drumming: Health-promoting experiences of
Aboriginal women from a Northern Ontario urban community. Journal of
Aboriginal Health, 4, 72-83.