Our Ways of Working
Economic Development
Leadership Development
Movement Building
Advocacy
Our Tasks
Cultural Empowerment
challenging the roles and leadership of women within cultural norms, traditional structures, and processes.While indigenous peoples identity and struggle for self-determination are based on their customs and traditions, there are practices based on patriarchal beliefs, which perpetuate discrimination, stereotypes and violence against women. Gender justice demands that these practices and beliefs be critically assessed, exposed, and transformed.
Economic Empowerment
developing capacities of women to understand, engage and develop economic activities which will respond to their needs and challenge gender roles in the realm of production, and valuation of women’s care work and contribution to local and national economy.The primary locations of the economic activities of indigenous women are increasingly threatened, while in some areas, already devastated – forests, farm lands, backyard gardens, fishing grounds. Commercial large-scale projects have taken over them, or destroyed by disasters. These have left indigenous women economically displaced, while on the other hand, these have brought multiple additional difficulties for them – where to find food for their families, how to look for alternative steady source of income, how to respond to increasing needs of the family – health care given their increased vulnerabilities; basically how to keep their household together given their new context – physical, financial and even social (when displaced). Indigenous women have to be actively involved in the initiating, planning and implementing either new or continuing economic activities to ensure that actual needs of the families, communities and themselves are met, in a sustainable way.
Social Empowerment
increasing knowledge, skills and deepening the understanding of the rights of indigenous women as women, and as members of indigenous communities; and building confidence for the assertion of rights of women guaranteed under the Magna Carta of Women and Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, and other relevant international instruments, free from violence and discrimination, enabling them to live a quality of life as women, and as members of their indigenous communities.The organizing of indigenous women has been more in the context of the indigenous peoples’ struggle for their right to self-determination, their communities’ fight against development projects, and as peacemakers in conflict situations. There is an equally critical need for the indigenous women to be part of a broader collective and movements of women asserting their rights as women. The voices, the perspective and the experiences of indigenous women have yet to be integrated in the analysis and agenda of the broader women and social movements.
Political Empowerment
recognizing, supporting and asserting indigenous women’s leadership and participation in the decision-making processes within families, communities, official legal political system, as well as within their community organizations and the broader social movements.Leadership of indigenous women has generally been undermined by their communities, organizations, and by the official legal political system. While there are few individual indigenous women who have been recognized at the national and international level, there has been very limited engagement and exposure of indigenous women in the political realm beyond their communities. This is true even in the social movements. It is then imperative that platforms be created for indigenous women’s learning, deepening of analysis, and building of confidence, to assist in their assertion of their leadership and participation at all levels of decision-making, and in different realms of their lives.
