Silencing of voice : representations of women in indigenous Australia

Indigenous women have endured a constant definition and re-definition of their perceived roles and status in Aboriginal culture and society. Since the advent of feminist anthropology in the 1980s, indigenous women were once again subjected to various investigations about their livelihood. While debunking many myths of a 'profane', 'slave' or 'subordinate' woman, these feminist interpretations continued a 'silencing of voice'. Black feminist arguments are increasingly challenging 'white' feminism and their assumed right to represent the voices of their 'black sisters'. Contestations from indigenous women, claim that fighting racial oppression comes before the white feminist preoccupation with a gendered oppression. For indigenous women in this 'postcolonial' Australia, the ability to articulate their own identities is necessary if they are to stand by their indigenous men and fight racism together.