Home > JFS > Iss. 17 (2020)

Occupied Land is an Access Issue: Interventions in Feminist Disability Studies and Narratives of Indigenous Activism

Jess L. Cowing, College of William & MaryFollow

Abstract

Native/Indigenous narratives of health and environmental activism often engage with feminist disability issues to center the connections between land, health, sovereignty, and historical legacies of settler militarized colonialism. Within the context from which Native women and youth act as key leaders in health and environmental activism, expanded modes of feminist disability inquiry could interrogate how transformative justice issues require historicizing concepts of ableism through ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. Considering the work of Native writers such as Winona LaDuke, feminist disability studies scholars might critically examine how key tenets of feminist disability issues such as access require attention to Native/Indigenous narratives. This article begins with a critique of foundational disability studies work to trouble settler concepts of access that rely on settler state-granted accommodations without critically examining how the settler state generates disability in the first place. Next, the article analyzes ableism in anti-obesity discourse targeting Native/Indigenous youth as an example of how feminist disability studies scholarship might work toward foregrounding settler colonialism in cultural examinations of disability. Finally, this article examines how Native/Indigenous narratives of health and environmental activism negotiate access to land and cultural resources outside of settler state structures of extractive, corporate land, and bodymind encroachment.

Recommended Citation

Cowing, Jess L.. 2020. "Occupied Land is an Access Issue: Interventions in Feminist Disability Studies and Narratives of Indigenous Activism." Journal of Feminist Scholarship 17 (Fall): 9-25. 10.23860/jfs.2020.17.02.