Deep Consciousness and Reclaiming the Old Ways: Aboriginal Women Leading a Paradigm Shift

This chapter examines the parallels of being a Mapuche woman in Chile and being an Aboriginal woman in Australia. Aboriginal women in Australia and Mapuche women in Chile are at the bottom of the racial hierarchy, and both are most fiercely ignored and subjugated. Indigeneity in the life context of these women is a triple burden: burdened with the gender disparity as a woman, burdened with Western feminism largely devoid of an Indigenist perspective, and burdened by the legacy of colonization and its daily reenactments. Against this sociocultural, political, and economic backdrop, Mapuche and Aboriginal women rise daily, and have done so for millennia, as storytellers, healers, and activists, sharing the Dreaming and the wisdom of ancestors. They activate, educate, and lead their communities, reclaiming culture and a oneness with nature. From the periphery of the current world order, the Indigenist female Other tells very different stories about the grand challenges that humanity faces in the 21st century. What, then, can we learn from these women? What can we unlearn from these women? In this chapter, these questions are explored by sharing what these women live by: a deep consciousness that reclaiming old ways can lead a global paradigm shift.