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Ojibwa Culture
The role of native women
The native women portrayed in some history books seems to have had hard lives under the control of their men...in some cases they weren't much more than baby factories and beasts of burden.
I suppose this is generally true in any patrilineal culture but we modern women (not just native women, but all women in industrialized countries) wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for a few powerful women who were the exceptions to the rule.
I can't confirm what did or didn't happen in the relationships between long dead Ojibwa women and their partners...I can only speak of a few incidents that I recall from my own childhood. When they occurred I didn't take notes...I just made unconscious decisions about whether or not a woman's opinion is worthy of consideration.
As women, the most important thing we can do for children - boys as well as girls - is to trust our selves and take a stand for a future of equality.
I learned that my opinion as a woman counted for something when one summer, I watched a whole community of men move a stove miles along a footpath just because my mother insisted.
And in a world where it seemed there could be no possibility that women had a chance at financial freedom, I learned that where there's a will there's a way.
But the life of an Ojibwa woman of my generation wasn't all bravado. It was a simple life. It involved childbirth, child rearing, cooking, cleaning, and fun. Sometimes life worked, sometimes it didn't.
But here we are...you and me...both thinking about the contribution that men and women in our own lives made to get us where we are today.
Read more about my personal perspective of Ojibwa Culture.
