New book examines masculinity in Indigenous men
- Andréa Ledding | March 19, 2016
“Indigenous Men and Masculinities” launched in Saskatoon Wednesday March 16th at Little Bird Patisserie and Café, hosted by editors Drs. Robert Innes and Kim Anderson, both professors in Indigenous Studies, with an ultimate goal to “rebuild healthy communities and healthy families,” said Anderson. Two contributors, Dr. Robert Henry and Allison Piché, shared briefly on their chapters in the book.
“The men created a mask to protect themselves from colonial violence,” explained Henry, who wrote about gangs and masculinity, building on work he’d done with gang members in his Ph.D. “They perform a masculinity that protects them, and adopting a mask is a performance.”
He added that vulnerability helps males drop their masks and address underlying issues. Allison Piché spoke about colonial violence and imposition of prisons as a structure that interrupts and harms healthy masculinity, speaking from her experiences teaching within the penal system with STR8UP and Inspired Minds.
“Indigenous men experience violence, both as victims and as perpetrators,” noted Anderson, adding that they deal with similar burdens as Indigenous women and people of colour, but include negative outcomes in the penal system, in education, and in high rates of mortality. “Who is walking with our brothers, is a question we ask in the introduction.”
She emphasized the importance of addressing and healing the masculine spirit as well as the feminine, explaining that colonialism has stripped both of their natural communal authority as it existed pre-contact. In the men it is often replaced with male dominance and patriarchal violence, dysfunction that begins in the family and continues in the community through Indian Act style governance in a way that maintains oppression individually and collectively. However it is also important to recognize successes and resilience, and tell the good stories of positive male influence, she noted, and contributors focus on areas of strength. “Responsibility and identity are intimately connected in Indian country.”
Innes described the field as relatively new, giving a brief overview of how the book came to be, and how he became involved. With a background studying kinship ties, an examination of masculinity through family responsibilities was a natural extension.
The book brings together prominent thinkers from the Americas and New Zealand to explore the meaning of masculinities and being a man within traditions of gender equity and the sacred feminine through art and literature, sport, prisons, and gangs. The voices of Indigenous male writers, traditional knowledge keepers, ex-gang members, war veterans, fathers, youth, two-spirited people, and Indigenous men working to end violence against women are highlighted to offer a vision toward equitable societies that celebrate healthy and diverse masculinities.