Active Women
Indigenous Women's Social and Political Work in Kanata's West
Published on 19. December 2025
Book
Hardback
624 pages
978-1-4875-4187-3 (ISBN)
Description
Active Women uncovers the widespread, collaborative, adaptive, and transformative activism of Indigenous women in Kanata's West from the 1930s to the 1980s. It shows how Indigenous women responded to social injustices with political action rooted in community.
This book emphasizes how everyday acts - caregiving, organizing, legal activism, and advocacy - formed a powerful political movement reshaping Indigenous politics and challenging colonial and patriarchal systems. Historian and Indigenous politics scholar Sarah Nickel traces the emergence and maturation of the Indigenous women's movement by taking a thematic and embedded case study approach to examine the threads of women's struggles as they emerged and became enmeshed in local, regional, national, and transnational considerations. Nickel redefines Indigenous politics as gendered, fluid, and rooted in kinship and resistance, exploring women's involvement in urban centres, grassroots initiatives, and political organizations. Framing Indigenous feminism as a flexible set of practices challenging colonialism, sexism, and gender inequality, the work draws on scholars like Joyce Green and Maile Arvin. The research follows decolonial practices, centring Indigenous women's voices within colonial archives and promoting empathy in historical research.
By chronicling a vibrant era of Indigenous women's politicization and organization, this book documents the revolutionary impact they had in their communities and beyond.
This book emphasizes how everyday acts - caregiving, organizing, legal activism, and advocacy - formed a powerful political movement reshaping Indigenous politics and challenging colonial and patriarchal systems. Historian and Indigenous politics scholar Sarah Nickel traces the emergence and maturation of the Indigenous women's movement by taking a thematic and embedded case study approach to examine the threads of women's struggles as they emerged and became enmeshed in local, regional, national, and transnational considerations. Nickel redefines Indigenous politics as gendered, fluid, and rooted in kinship and resistance, exploring women's involvement in urban centres, grassroots initiatives, and political organizations. Framing Indigenous feminism as a flexible set of practices challenging colonialism, sexism, and gender inequality, the work draws on scholars like Joyce Green and Maile Arvin. The research follows decolonial practices, centring Indigenous women's voices within colonial archives and promoting empathy in historical research.
By chronicling a vibrant era of Indigenous women's politicization and organization, this book documents the revolutionary impact they had in their communities and beyond.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
69 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
953 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-4187-3 (9781487541873)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sarah Nickel is an associate professor of history at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Indigenous Politics and Gender.
Content
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Indigenous Placenames
Introduction: "Doing what needed to be done": Indigenous Women's Responsibilities and Leadership
Part I: Active Women - Organizing across the West
Chapter 1: "To take an active role": Indigenous Women's Early Mobilizing
Chapter 2: "Our banners were up big time": Indigenous Women's Provincial Organizing
Part II: Organizing across Boundaries
Chapter 3: Creating a National Movement
Chapter 4: "Our shared struggles": Indigenous Women's Rights and Transracial Coalition-Building during International Women's Year, 1975
Part III: Concerning Children's Care: Childcare Activism
Chapter 5: "A crying need for a day care centre": Indigenous-Run Day Cares, 1967-1985
Chapter 6: Case Study: Saskatchewan Native Women's Movement and Day Cares in Kisiskaciwan
Chapter 7: "The crying need for Indian foster homes": Indigenous Women Challenge State Child Welfare Practices
Chapter 8: Case Studies in Community Care: The VANWS Foster Care Project and Splatsin te Secwepemc By-Law for the Care of Our Indian Children, 1980
Part IV: Indigenous Women Respond to Crisis
Chapter 9: "It's something we've just got to begin to do ourselves": Beginning the Indigenous Women's Shelter Movement in Kanata's West
Chapter 10: Case Study: "They were so against us": The Saskatchewan Native Women's Movement and Battered Women's Shelters
Chapter 11: Coming Home: Creating Halfway Houses for Indigenous Women
Conclusion: Caring for Community: Indigenous Women's Impact
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Index
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Indigenous Placenames
Introduction: "Doing what needed to be done": Indigenous Women's Responsibilities and Leadership
Part I: Active Women - Organizing across the West
Chapter 1: "To take an active role": Indigenous Women's Early Mobilizing
Chapter 2: "Our banners were up big time": Indigenous Women's Provincial Organizing
Part II: Organizing across Boundaries
Chapter 3: Creating a National Movement
Chapter 4: "Our shared struggles": Indigenous Women's Rights and Transracial Coalition-Building during International Women's Year, 1975
Part III: Concerning Children's Care: Childcare Activism
Chapter 5: "A crying need for a day care centre": Indigenous-Run Day Cares, 1967-1985
Chapter 6: Case Study: Saskatchewan Native Women's Movement and Day Cares in Kisiskaciwan
Chapter 7: "The crying need for Indian foster homes": Indigenous Women Challenge State Child Welfare Practices
Chapter 8: Case Studies in Community Care: The VANWS Foster Care Project and Splatsin te Secwepemc By-Law for the Care of Our Indian Children, 1980
Part IV: Indigenous Women Respond to Crisis
Chapter 9: "It's something we've just got to begin to do ourselves": Beginning the Indigenous Women's Shelter Movement in Kanata's West
Chapter 10: Case Study: "They were so against us": The Saskatchewan Native Women's Movement and Battered Women's Shelters
Chapter 11: Coming Home: Creating Halfway Houses for Indigenous Women
Conclusion: Caring for Community: Indigenous Women's Impact
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Index