Decolonizing Feminist Poetry: Indigenous Women's Resistance

Feminist poetry has long been a space to challenge patriarchal systems, center marginalized voices, and reimagine liberation. However, mainstream feminist frameworks often overlook the unique struggles of Indigenous women, whose identities are deeply intertwined with their ancestral lands, cultural practices, and histories of colonial violence. Decolonizing feminist poetry emerges as a radical act, reclaiming language, sovereignty, and storytelling to confront both gendered and colonial oppression. This article highlights Indigenous women poets who navigate the intersections of land rights, cultural preservation, and feminist resistance through their work.

The Intersections of Land, Identity, and Colonization

For Indigenous women, the fight for gender justice cannot be separated from the fight for land sovereignty. Colonialism imposed patriarchal systems that disrupted Indigenous kinship structures, erased matrilineal traditions, and weaponized violence against Indigenous women's bodies as a tool of territorial conquest. Today, Indigenous women continue to resist these legacies by asserting their roles as stewards of the land and guardians of cultural knowledge. Their poetry often frames the Earth as a living relative-a concept absent in Western feminist discourse-which challenges dominant narratives that prioritize individualism over collective survival.

Poets at the Forefront of Decolonial Resistance

Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek)

A U.S. Poet Laureate and member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Joy Harjo uses her work to illuminate the enduring bond between Indigenous women and the natural world. In collections like An American Sunrise, Harjo weaves personal and collective histories, addressing forced removal, environmental degradation, and the revitalization of Creek identity. Her poetry insists on the inseparability of land and language, asserting that reclaiming Indigenous voices is essential to healing both people and place.

Linda Hogan (Chickasaw)

Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan's work, such as in Rounding the Human Corners, explores ecological justice through a feminist and Indigenous lens. Hogan critiques industrial exploitation of the environment while celebrating Indigenous women's spiritual and material relationships with animals, plants, and sacred sites. Her writing underscores how colonialism's violence against the land mirrors its violence against Indigenous women, creating a call for holistic healing.

Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe)

Ojibwe poet Heid E. Erdrich challenges stereotypes of Indigenous women as passive victims. In Original Local, she reclaims Indigenous culinary traditions and ecological knowledge as acts of resistance. By elevating women's contributions to sustaining cultural practices, Erdrich's poetry confronts colonial erasure and reshapes feminist discourse to include Indigenous epistemologies.

Subhashini Alvarez (Maya K'iche')

Guatemalan poet Subhashini Alvarez writes in K'iche' and Spanish, blending the two to resist linguistic assimilation. Her work, such as the collection La raiz amarga, connects the militarized exploitation of Mayan lands to the systemic violence faced by Indigenous women. Alvarez's poetry serves as a testament to the resilience of Indigenous motherhood, framing reproduction-of culture, language, and community-as revolutionary.

Reclaiming Narratives, Rekindling Ancestral Wisdom

Indigenous women poets disrupt colonial and patriarchal norms by centering Indigenous cosmovisions in their work. Their poems often reject linear temporality, instead emphasizing cyclical time tied to seasonal changes, oral histories, and ancestral guidance. This approach rejects Western feminist frameworks that prioritize individual progress, instead advocating for intergenerational healing and community-based liberation. By intertwining personal narratives with collective struggles, these poets also challenge settler-colonial narratives that depict Indigenous peoples as relics of the past.

Conclusion: Poetry as a Weapon of Sovereignty

Decolonizing feminist poetry is not merely an artistic endeavor-it is an act of political defiance. Through vivid imagery, traditional storytelling, and multilingual expression, Indigenous women poets dismantle colonial borders in both ideology and territory. Their work reminds us that feminism must be rooted in accountability to Indigenous sovereignty, honoring the truth that the fight for gender justice begins with returning the land. As these poets continue to uplift their voices, they carve pathways for a future where feminisms are plural, rooted, and inseparable from the earth.