Indigenous Resistance in Burma: Transforming Gender and Land Relations in Kachin Self-Determination Practices

The Kachin people are an Indigenous group living in three nation states: Burma (Myanmar), China, and India. Since 1962, Kachin people in Burma have struggled for self-determination within a post-colonial nation state in response to the state’s violence and oppression. In the present, Kachin self-governance takes place within an area of the Kachin traditional territory which is controlled exclusively by Kachin institutions in the context of a six-decade civil war. After outlining the historical context of the Kachin self-determination struggle, and examining the Kachin self-government administrative structures and the cultural resurgence of the international manau festival, the paper takes a critical view of the current gender relations and land relations found within Kachin self-governance and self-determination practices. I argue that current gender and land relations in Kachin society fall short of the Kachin vision for Awmdawm – our ability to live with justice, freedom and dignity.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Guelph

Author dc:creator

• Naw, Hkaung

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• MacDonald, David

• Indigenous self-determination practices

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10214/28699

OAI record oai:identifier

https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Aatrium.lib.uoguelph.ca%3A10214%2F28699