Feminist Solutions for Ending War

Megan MacKenzie, Nicole Wegner

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780745342863
• eBook ISBN: 9780745342887
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

'War is a man's game, ' or so goes the saying. Whether this is true or not, patriarchal capitalism is certainly one of the driving forces behind war in the modern era. So can we end war with feminism? This book argues that this is possible, and is in fact already happening.

Each chapter provides a solution to war using innovative examples of how feminist and queer theory and practice inform pacifist treaties, movements and methods, from the international to the domestic spheres. The contributors propose a range of solutions that include arms abolition, centring Indigenous knowledge, economic restructuring, and transforming how we 'count' civilian deaths.

Ending war requires challenging complex structures, but the solutions found in this edition have risen to this challenge. By thinking beyond the violence of the capitalist patriarchy, this book makes the powerful case that the possibility of life without war is real.

1

Giyira: Indigenous Women’s Knowing, Being and Doing as a Way to End War on Country

Jessica Russ-Smith

Indigenous knowledges are not a tool of, or for, Western feminism, but are an entire cosmology that produces radically different ways of thinking, writing, and understanding war and violence. Given that this chapter draws on Indigenous knowledge, readers should expect to be challenged by what will inevitably be unique ways of phrasing the problem of war and the potential for solutions. For example, for reasons I will elaborate, I focus on ‘war on Country’ to capture the ways that colonial violence has continued to impact Indigenous peoples and Country, and as a Wiradyuri woman I centre Wiradyuri women’s knowledge and teachings as a pathway toward peace and survival. Specifically, this chapter explores Wiradyuri ways of knowing, being and doing as an Indigenous feminist solution to ending the war on Country. It is imperative to understand that Indigenous knowledges cannot be owned, nor should they be expected to be fitted and edited in ways that fit Western models and expectations. Indigenous knowledge has potential for shaping and influencing peace solutions and for understanding how to end the colonial war on Country that Indigenous people and land continue to be subjected to.

This chapter aims to explore these ideas through discussion of the following core themes: colonisation as an act of war, decolonisation, white possessive logics and futurities as violence, Indigenous futures and giyira. This chapter will be using the 2019–20 Australian bushfires to further illustrate the key arguments. These fires are a war on Country and an act of colonial violence based upon colonial relationships to land. Colonial relationships to land reflect possessive logics of ownership and use of land as a commodity (Moreton-Robinson 2015), which vary significantly from Indigenous relationships of care and love of Country. Australian politics and society have long ignored Indigenous knowledges and relationships to land. This active ignorance and exercise of white colonial power have led to more intense violations of Country, including catastrophic fires.

For Indigenous people, Country is all things. It is the land, water, people, animals, ancestors, stories, songlines and sovereignty. I am a Wiradyuri woman from the Wambuul (commonly known as the Macquarie River in New South Wales, Australia), and my positioning and experience as a Wiradyuri woman is central to the core themes discussed below. This chapter is centred around the Wiradyuri concept of ‘giyira’ which means womb and future (Grant Snr and Rudder 2018). Giyira illustrates the ways that our past, present, and future are connected. This concept is useful for exploring the ways that solutions to war on Country require attention to past, present, and future violence, as well as commitment to future Indigenous communities and respect for past and present knowledges. Through a Wiradyuri yinna (woman’s) lens, the war on Country will be explored to propose ways through which we can weave peace within our ways of knowing, being and doing which will directly impact our future generations. I use the terms ‘knowing, being and doing’ together to reflect the ways that Indigenous cultures insist on a deep connection between knowledge, identity, and praxis (Moreton-Robinson 2015). Colonialism continues to cause great wounding and violence across many spaces and Indigenous knowledges.

Central to this discussion is the idea that Indigenous and Wiradyuri women’s ways of knowing, being and doing require us to think differently about time and place. Western and dominant understandings of time and place reflect colonial logics of power and ownership that directly affect ways of knowing, being and doing in relation to Country. If we want peace in the future, we need to think about past and present violences and their legacies and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledges as key to weaving a future of peace. The acknowledgement of, and respectful engagement with, Indigenous knowledges must be central to efforts to sustainable processes of peace-building (Adeogun and Muthuki 2017). Through the exploration of grandmother and granddaughter relationships that are significant to Wiradyuri way of life, I propose ways through which colonial violences of land can be transformed. Wiradyuri women and our wombs are the grass we use to weave, and the future generations are the baskets, the transformations of our weaving.

Relationships are fundamental to Indigenous cultures. Within Wiradyuri culture, and many Indigenous cultures, women play an important role in these relationships. Wiradyuri way tells us that the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter is of unique significance. Through our grandmothers we are given and taught our stories, songlines, totems and responsibilities. Grandmothers and granddaughters share an indescribable and intrinsic connection. Wiradyuri ways of knowing through grandmother and granddaughter challenge Western conceptions of time and space. The relationship between grandmother and granddaughter is not solely related to living grandmothers and their living granddaughters, but also relates to the grandmothers and granddaughters that are our ancestors. I am a granddaughter not only to my two biological grandmothers, but to generations of women before me. I am also a grandmother, even though I have not given birth to a child and therefore a granddaughter has not been ‘birthed’ in a medical sense. Within my womb I hold the ovum of my future children and their children. My body is both grandmother and granddaughter, my body is a space of relationship to future and past. My being is guided by the understanding that I am a grandmother and a granddaughter, that I have responsibility to care for the past and the future. My role in addressing war and violence is embedded within the notion of effecting change beyond my lived life, as I am to live in my present guided by the following question, ‘What kind of ancestor do I want to be for my granddaughter?’ This approach to being reflects the importance of future and relationship within our culture. My body symbolises the past and the present, my body is the grass being woven. What is being woven is dependent upon my actions. An absence of action now, or an absence of respect and care in our actions now, feeds the war on Country as it directly impacts the time and space our granddaughters will live in. Therefore, baladhu giyira, baladhu giyira, I am womb, I am future.

This chapter presents an Indigenous and radical rethinking of war, violence and peace. So, as the author I invite you to engage with this chapter through deep critical reflection of self, knowledge and learning. Deep critical reflection and listening for Wiradyuri people requires vulnerability, respect and openness. For Wiradyuri people, listening deeply is a central part of our culture that requires continuous self-reflection. A commitment to learning and listening to the ideas expressed in this chapter is also a commitment to respecting self and others. Therefore, this invitation to respectfully engage with these knowledges discussed below is of great importance, as our knowledges cannot be taken out of context and require deep respect. As you read, I encourage you to reflect on the following questions: How can you as a reader reflect upon ‘being, knowing and doing’ – or the ways that you know, are, and do? How do you think these ways impact how you do or do not engage with Indigenous knowledges respectfully? What does deep listening look like for you?

WAR ON COUNTRY

In Australia we are currently fighting a war that deeply violates the past, present and future. War on Country refers to the colonisation of land and the ongoing colonial practices towards Country. These are extremely violent and require solutions that can save and nurture our future. Colonial understandings see land as a commodity which can be owned, bought, traded, sold, and an object to which any action can be committed if it leads to an economic benefit. This understanding of Country is the foundation of colonial violence, as it sees Country as inferior, voiceless, powerless and therefore an object which can be owned. This colonial logic reflects what Aileen Moreton-Robinson (2015, xii) refers to as white possessive logics: ‘White Possessive logics are operationalised within discourses to circulate sets of meanings about ownership of the nation, as part of common-sense knowledge, decision-making, and socially produced conventions.’ In contrast to Indigenous relations to Country, settler colonial states, including Australia, see Country as a source of property and capital to own; from this view, Indigenous peoples are seen as an obstacle to settlers’ claiming the resources of Country (Tuck and Yang 2012). These white possessive logics of Country are an action of war, as they aim to perpetuate and reinforce colonial and white superiority.

White possessive logics of Country have led to land being used, abused and violated in the name of money and power. These violences include the cutting down of sacred birthing trees for new roads, destroying sacred sites for mining, drilling land for oil, clear-cutting forests for agriculture, and the exploitation of many sacred sites for tourist pleasure, such as climbing Uluru. These weapons of war are carving a grim future, or lack of future, for our future generations of people, animals and plants. Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing are critical and essential for preserving and caring for our future. For Wiradyuri people, Country is fundamental to our way of life, wellbeing, and future (Green 2018). Country is all living and non-living things; it is our bodies, our relationships, the ancestors, the land, animals and plants. Solving the war on Country is about shifting colonial logics to an understanding that reflects Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, which emphasise being in a relationship to, with and through Country. Indigenous peoples’ relational being with Country must be acknowledged, nurtured and listened to if we hope for a future.

Towards the end of 2019, multiple catastrophic fires began burning across various areas of Australia; these were the frontiers of a war on Country. The fires have killed or displaced over 3 billion animals, with some native species potentially extinct, and unprecedented heat waves and fires continue into 2020 and 2021 (Australian Parliamentary House 2020; UN Environment Programme 2020). Country, homes, animals and people have been destroyed by the force and violence of the fires. These fires in Australia are one army of colonial violence and settler futurity, that is, logics that sustain settler power and bodies while attempting to erase Indigenous people and Country. Fires are burning, destroying and erupting upon Country. The fire is not a metaphor for colonial violence or war. It is colonial violence. It is war. The perspective I am presenting here is that fire is a multidimensional being that can have its own agency and can be used, or misused, within relationships of power. Culturally, fire holds great significance in sacred practices. This is sacred knowledge and therefore further details cannot and will not be shared in this context, but is important to note that Indigenous peoples have deep knowledge and a series of practices associated with fire that have been repeatedly marginalised and ignored by Australian governments and society. In relation to colonial violence, fire has been used as weapon to exert power, and therefore fire is also an extension of colonial policies that have been attempting to erase Country both literally and metaphorically for centuries. In these contexts, fire is colonial violence as it is part of the colonial relationship to land that reflects possessive and hierarchical logics.

The more of Country that burns, the more colonial violence displaces and dislocates people, animals, plants and Country from one another. As the fire burns, Indigenous people are violently dislocated from our mother and wounded. The fire attempts to erase Country, it erases our ways of being as Indigenous people as we are Country. We are not separate beings to Country, nor do we just exist in a relationship to Country. We cannot own Country, because Country is not an object. We cannot possess Country because we do not exist in a relationship of power over Country. We are Country. We, as Indigenous people, are an expression and part of Country. The violence of fire does not metaphorically impact Indigenous people, it literally harms us. By us, I do not just mean individuals or communities but also our ancestors, songlines, stories, and futures, all of which are part of our bodies. As the fires burn, salt and acid are poured into the open wound, with violence so deep it makes our ancestors cry. As Indigenous peoples, these cries echo in our bodies.

Historically, colonial war has violently torn through land by invasion in attempt to dislocate Indigenous peoples from the land. The impact of colonial violence in the present does not just impact Indigenous peoples and communities, it re-opens the wounds of past violences as it continues the war on Country, which is a war on Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Therefore, the fires re-open wounds of the past, pulling apart the scars which are on our bodies and skin. Colonial logics and actions such as ignoring Indigenous knowledges, prioritising extraction, and disconnection from land have all fuelled these fires. These fires perpetuate colonial logics that attempt to erase Indigenous sovereignty through erasing Country.

Indigenous peoples’ ongoing sovereign relationship to Country may appear threatening to white and non-Indigenous people: it is a reminder that colonists do not in fact own the land, that the land is not to be owned. Our relationship to Country is an embodied relationship that extends beyond space and time. Colonialism has desperately been trying to erase Indigenous relationships with Country through various weapons of war, from massacres in the Australian frontier wars to the destruction of sacred lands and resources for profits, to the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families and Countries, to the contemporary bushfires. The relationship Indigenous people have with Country reminds us that the fire can be resisted and the future can be protected. Indigenous cosmologies resist colonial violence and war, as explored in greater detail below through my analysis of Wiradyuri women’s relationships of grandmother and granddaughter. Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, can be a way to prevent and heal from colonial violence and nurture the future.

DECOLONISING KNOWLEDGES: SHIFTING FROM SETTLER FUTURITY TO GIYIRA

For Indigenous people the past, present and future are interconnected. Understanding and analysis of the past is crucial for developing meaning and understanding of contemporary contexts and structures. However, discussions of the future are equally as important when attempting to end the war on Country. Core to ending the war on Country is shifting from ‘settler futurity’ to giyira. This shift involves decolonising and transforming hierarchies of knowledge and examining structures of privilege and power that sustain white/Western knowledges as superior while dismissing Indigenous knowledges. The continuation of dominant discourses and structures, epitomised by white supremacy, that sustain colonial violence will only further place Western systems of knowledge as superior. We cannot continue to position white and Western knowledges as the benchmark system through which peace and solution must be explored. If this hierarchy of knowledge continues, the war on Country will continue and our future is endangered.

Settler futurity refers to a future where settler power and bodies are sustained and preserved, while Indigenous bodies are erased (Baldwin 2012; Tuck and Gatzambide-Fernandez 2013; Goodyear-Ka’opua 2017). Settler futurity is an understanding of the future as a separate, disembodied and disconnected time and space. It is important to note that settler futurity is not merely an idea or theory, but is an active agent in contemporary and past society. Settler futurity frames Indigenous people and culture as a thing of the past, and therefore positions the future to relate to and centre around settler, colonial and white identities. Settler futurities reassert colonial narratives of Indigenous people as savages and a race that cannot survive time (Goodyear-Ka’opua 2017). Settler futurities are actioned now in the present in ways that forcibly violate Indigenous relationships with Country in a hope to erase Indigenous people.

The ignorance and neglect of climate change by white politicians and citizens represent settler futurities and are purposeful and strategic actions of the war on Country. The absence of caring for Country in a way that sustains and enriches Country for our granddaughters and their granddau...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by Swati Parashar
• Introduction to Feminist Solutions for Ending War: Megan MacKenzie and Nicole Wegner
• 1 Giyira: Indigenous Women’s Knowing, Being and Doing as a Way to End War on Country: Jessica Russ-Smith
• 2 One for All, All for One: Taking Collective Responsibility for Ending War and Sustaining Peace 29: Heidi Hudson
• 3 Feminist Organising for Peace: Sarai B. Aharoni
• 4 Piecing-up Peace in Kashmir: Feminist Perspectives on Education for Peace: Shweta Singh and Diksha Poddar
• 5 Learn from Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movements to Imagine the Dissolution of the Nation-state System 73: Eda Gunaydin
• 6 Queer Our Vision of Security: Cai Wilkinson
• 7 Abolish Nuclear Weapons: Feminist, Queer, and Indigenous Knowledge for Ending Nuclear Weapons 105: Ray Acheson
• 8 Make Foreign Policies as if Black and Brown Lives Mattered: Yolande Bouka
• 9 Draw on Ecofeminist and Indigenous Scholarship to Reimagine the Ways We Memorialise War: Sertan Saral
• 10 Engage with Combatants as Interlocutors for Peace, Not Only as Authorities on Violence: Roxani Krystalli
• 11 Recognise the Rights of Nature: Keina Yoshida
• 12 Create Just, Inclusive Feminist Economies to Foster Sustainable Peace: Carol Cohn and Claire Duncanson
• 13 Change How Civilian Casualties are ‘Counted’ 200: Thomas Gregory
• 14 Listen to Women When Creating Peace Initiatives 216: Laura J. Shepherd
• Notes on Contributors
• Index