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Please forward if you know anyone interested, and check out if you like writing and want your voice heard. This is a call for papers for Indigenous Women Writers and the topics/writing style are very broad-ranging, mostly about empowerment via traditions. Great opportunity. Jan

Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme (CWS/cf) Call for Papers

Indigenous Women in Canada - The Voices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Women (Vol. 25, No. 4)

CWS/cf's Fall 2006 will celebrate Indigenous women's empowerment in all fields and the re-emergence and reclaiming of traditional roles.

Articles with a particular focus on moving forward, best practices,
resolution approaches, and healing are strongly encouraged. This issue will provide a space for Indigenous women to share their experiences and insights into their particular struggles around issues of discrimination, employment equity, education and training, health care, child care, violence against women and their families, legal equality and justice. Articles will also attend to the broader context of Indigenous women's lives, examining factors such as poverty and economic inequality, oral tradition and literacy, lack of adequate housing, and the ways in which racism, particularly gendered racism, and discrimination impacts negatively on Indigenous women¹s human rights, health and well-being, education, employment and community. A special section will deal specifically with the issue of violence against Indigenous women, recording and documenting the Native Women¹s Association of Canada's Sisters in Spirit campaign. Articles should, however, go beyond descriptive assessments of violence, multiple oppressions and discrimination, and attempt to identify positive responses, solutions, and ways of engaging in order to move forward.

Our aim is to produce a document that can be used to raise public awareness of the work Indigenous women's organizations and activists are doing to improve the lives of Indigenous women across the country, as well as to support action and reflection on the part of other Indigenous organizations, civil society organizations, and feminist individuals and groups advocating for change in all areas of Indigenous women's lives. Only articles by Indigenous women will be accepted.

Possible topics include:
-Indigenous women as roles models
-Where are Indigenous peoples going? (models of self-determination, justice, etc.) What are the issue facing Indigenous women and justice?
-Indigenous women as traditional teachers and keepers of Indigenous culture
-Indigenous traditions, languages, ceremonies and beliefs in today¹s policy or community development
-The impact of Bill C-31 today
-Femicide addressed meaningfully
-Women¹s traditional roles emerging in a contemporary context (governance, family)
-Role of women in governance
-The renewal of Indigenous women¹s authorities
-Activism and Indigenous women¹s resistance
-Interviews with Indigenous women who stood their ground and advocated for change
-Indigenous women in non-traditional activities and their emergence in new fields (science, technology, communications, etc.)
-Impact of colonization on Métis people
-Healing and resolution
-Creating space and voice for Indigenous women: how do we do that?
-Ending internalized violence (throwing off the shackled of colonialism; developing new symbols in a post-colonial context)
-What does sovereignty and Indigenous government look like from the perspectives of Indigenous women?
-Human rights of Indigeneous women in Canada
-Sexual and reproductive health rights of Indigenous women
-Two-Spirited Indigenous women
-Indigenous women with disabilities
-Indigenous youth
-Traditional knowledge and gender relations
-Sisters in Spirit Campaign
-Discrimination and violence against First Nations, Métis and Inuit women
-Success stories: solution-based and/or empowerment-based
-Putting out thoughts to the future: reclaiming the values of our ancestors in a modern context.
-Women Elders
-Matrimonial property, culture, heritage in child custody
-Decolonization: how do we overcome internalised colonialism?
-How do we fit in feminism, if at all?
-Strategies for communicating Indigenous women¹s issues -Looking to the future: What world are we leaving for our children? What will Indigenous worlds look like?

*Your ideas for additional topics are welcome.

Invited are essays, interviews of Indigenous women, detailed theoretical work, research reports, and alternate, performative forms of narration such as theatre, storytelling, poetry, photo-essays and artwork that illuminate these issues.

*DEADLINE: June 15th, 2006

Articles should be typed, double-spaced, and a maximum of 12 pages long (3000 words). A short (50-word) abstract of the article and a brief biographical note must accompany each submission. We give preference to previously unpublished material. If possible, please submit graphics or photographs to accompany your article. Please note CWS/cf reserves the right to edit manuscripts with respect to length and clarity, and in conformity with our house-style. To encourage use of the material published, CWS/cf has granted electronic rights to Gale Group, Micromedia Proquest and the H. W. Wilson. Any royalties received will be used by CWS/cf to assist the publication in disseminating its message.

Write or call as soon as possible indicating your intention to submit your work.

Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme
212 Founders, York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Telephone: (416) 736-5356 Fax: (416) 736-5765 E-mail: cwscf@yorku.ca
--
Luciana Ricciutelli
Editor-in-Chief
Inanna Publications and Education Inc.,
operating as Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme
212 Founders College
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Tel: 416.736.5356
Fax: 416.736-5765
Email: luciana@yorku.ca