Indigenous women as agents of environmental change: a study of selected Indian ecodocumentaries

Abstract

Mainstream feminism has always revolved around the experiences of white women and has failed to acknowledge the plight of indigenous women who were subjugated to both patriarchy and colonialism. A gendered notion of indigeneity is necessary to bring the marginalization of Indigenous women to the forefront to ensure tribal sovereignty. Indigenous women’s activism has always been distinctly connected to the environment in order to protect the community from external agencies such as companies and government bodies. Several grassroot environmental movements have emerged from the indigenous communities where women have played a pivotal role in the success of these movements. Thus, this study focuses on the environmentalism of indigenous women by analyzing selected documentaries from India i.e. Missing: Forgotten Women in India’s Climate Action Plans (2015), The Seed Guardians (2016), Agar Wo Desh Banati (2018) and Thengapalli (2020). The paper aims to recognize the struggles of these women to achieve basic environmental rights and how they promote sustainable living with the help of their traditional knowledge. Indigenous feminism will not simply be taken as a matter of identity politics, rather it will be used as a framework to understand indigenous women’s struggles as a part of a global liberation movement.