Shattered hearts: Indigenous women and subaltern resistance in Indonesian and Indigenous Canadian literature

• Main Author: Lawrence, Alicia Marie
• Other Authors: Bodden, Michael
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Comparative Literature; Indonesia; Asia; Canada; Indigenous; Resistance; Subaltern; Identity; Articulation; Indigenous Women; Decolonization; Deconstruction
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4209

Revolutionary goals of Indigenous movements against colonial oppression during historic periods of insurgency are complicated by the fact that Indigenous women continue to suffer at the hands of those who claim to be the oppressed. Rukiah S. Kertapati describes Indonesia’s movement for independence from Dutch rule in Kedjatuhan dan Hati, while contemporary literature, such as Eden Robinson’s “Queen of the North” examines the oppression of Indigenous peoples of Canada. Women’s interests in intervening in the momentum of revolutionary violence may be interpreted in different ways – from subversive, to reactionary, to dissenting. However, women’s literary voices resist the impact of colonial oppression by illuminating the need for social change that emerges with awareness, combines emotion with intelligence, and recognizes the political relevance of personal experience. === Graduate