2022 – Women and Indigenous Identity

We offer some reflection on the four leading questions we asked the nine Indigenous women we photographed and interviewed in 2022.

1: Where do you feel the space to dream your Indigenous dream?

With the portraits of Indigenous Dreams, we wanted to portray not only the nine women but also the places where they dream. As a process and as an outcome, we wanted to make something that is relationally reflective. In a country where it is often believed that Indigenous people do not exist here; where do Indigenous people then feel the space to dream? How do they do that? How do they feel that relationship with place – with the Earth here? Asking this question, each photoshoot started with an intimate visit to a relationship-rich place. As makers, we are grateful for getting to know these places across the country. In the cracks of busy life, Indigenous people find a place for reflection, connection, and vision regarding the question of how to proceed?

2: What is your Indigenous Dream?

This question was the core question of our project. It is a question I had never heard or been asked before. It was also a new question for the women we approached. In a society that says or assumes that Indigenous people are “of the past” or must live in the jungle, it is a revolutionary act to imagine yourself – collectively – as Indigenous in the future. After centuries of genocide (military killings and by policy of rewarding bounty killing of Indigenous people by settlers as well as cultural and administrative genocide). Even the word ‘Indigenous’ as an interpretation for yourself is questioned by citizens, institutions, and politics.

*NOTE: Some argue that the word Indigenous is colonial and therefore should not be used. We believe that being Indigenous as a construct, while a product of colonialism, is nevertheless also an umbrella identity to fight against colonial rule and displacement.

We want to emphasize that ‘Indigenous’ does not mean the same as ‘original resident’. The latter has to do with linear thinking and the former has to do with a relationship with the land and a relationship with the nation-state. With regard to the land, Indigenous indicates a cultural ecological relationship that is attuned to a certain area of land and water and enters into a long-term (care) relationship with it. Indigenous cosmovision stands in stark contrast to the dominant colonial capitalist worldview. People belong to the land. The land does not belong to man. Land is not a possession but instead, Mother and teacher. In biology, a Native plant also means that the plant is well-suited to a particular ecology and is in contrast to an “invasive plant”. Indigenous is therefore always related to an ‘invasive colonial expansion of another group’. That brings us to the nation-state that assumes there is only one nation within a state, thereby training people to their (reductionist) one-size-fits-all ideas of citizenship. Indigenous Futurism envisions a world in which many worlds can exist. Either a plurinational state or other ways of living together in which differences overlap and boundaries rather than borders are respected for the good of all.

3: How do you deal with historical loss?

Every Indigenous culture has lost a lot. Colonial law prohibited our dances, our language, our spirituality, our practices to keep the country healthy, and in some situations, (including the US) there was also a time of bounties: a prize any citizen could earn by decapitating or scalping the head from ear to ear or the genitals of Indigenous men, women and children – for killing a pregnant woman you could be paid double. In the Americas, genocide involved a depletion of native populations by some 56 million in the first century of colonization. In total, it is estimated that upto 100 million people perished in the Americas under colonization. From other areas there are sometimes less figures (widely) accessible, but Indigenous peoples from all continents have already experienced the apocalypse of their society several times and about 5000 peoples/groups/nations have survived to this day. The interview question about how we deal with loss is a question about how we relate to the past in the present. It’s a question that also recognizes that much of the past continues into the present and is felt differently locally. So while we have certainly noticed overlap and recurring themes, this is precisely a question that aims to map a range of experiences.

4: How do we restore all our relationships?

This question is both about practice and vision. In many Indigenous languages, there is no word for ‘nature’. We have words for “the land” and “the web of life” – in which we ourselves are a node. 2000 species live in our bodies. We are always in community and part of a larger (non-human) community. Restoring a dignified existence, therefore, makes sense to us as a multi-species healing process. With this question, we listen to how Indigenous women in the Netherlands, often with an urban existence, give expression to the aspiration of relational healing.

INDIGENOUS CENTER QUESTION: What input would you like to provide for an Indigenous friendship center in the Netherlands?

At the moment, there are foundations that are managed by Indigenous people themselves, such as MABIKAS foundation, Mapuche.nl, Free West Papua, BAMM, Wasjikwa, and Stichting Kaikoesie, but we don’t have a house anywhere. We are collectively homeless. A collective dream is to be able to do restorative work by curating and revitalizing our own Indigenous knowledge, practicing our cultural practices without asking permission, and passing them on to a new generation. This dream has been brewing for some time and has started to take shape even more in conversations in the context of the discussion about decolonizing the museum. It is noted by various Indigenous people that Indigenous people are once again kept out of the conversation about decolonizing the museum and the cultural and educational sector in its entirety. This may be because funds mainly go to already established (colonial) institutions instead of generating infrastructure for Indigenous communities, to give direction and expression to this process of revaluation and memory and correcting historical memory. With this question, we hope to socialize the imagining and coalition building for our own Indigenous center in our Indigenous communities.

Are you Indigenous and do you also want to provide input? You are welcome. Not Indigenous but want to be an ally to help open doors or otherwise do support work? You are welcome. Together we restore all our relationships.