The Impact Of The Indian Act On Indigenous Women's Voices: Rereading Sex-Based Discrimination Case Law Against Indigenous Feminist Theatre Movement Literature

This thesis contextualizes the landmark cases of Lovelace and McIvor within the Indigenous Feminist Theatre Movement. A “law as literature” method is built on to note how legal pluralist law reform of the Indian Act’s Indian Status rules is necessary. The two plays of Strength Of Indian Women and Women Of The Fur Trade are read alongside the cases to contrast the ways in which women's lives are represented and understood in each. This juxtaposition reveals how Indigenous women's challenges to sex-based discrimination have historically been stifled. Canada’s laws fail to include cultural norms, reflecting Indigenous legal orders, that Indigenous women voice in the theatre. The narratives envision valuable Indigenous matriarchal identities despite the Indian Act’s requisite masking of them behind non-Indigenous marital identities. The masking is revealed to be a barrier to Indigenous women’s full representation and expression informed by their cultural identities. Positive fictional roles counter stereotypes of Indigenous women in the real world thereby contributing to normative reshaping and jurisgenesis.

Author dc:creator

• Robinson, Carrie Margaret Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Buchanan, Ruth

Statement dc:rights

• Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42853

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/42853