AF3IRM/GABNet Officer Laureen Abustan Honors Woman Defender Andrea Smith
As this Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, we cannot forget the plight of the Native American people and their continued determination. Therefore, we must honor one notable women defender of indigenous women’s rights - Andrea Smith, a Cherokee professor, feminist, and anti-violence activist. Her work has focused on issues of violence against women of color and their communities, specifically Native American women. She was co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, a national grassroots organization that engages in direct action and critical dialogue to end violence against women of color and their communities. INCITE! is a supporter of AF3IRM/GabNet and the Mariposa Alliance.
For many years, Ms. Smith has been a persevering social justice advocate for anti-violence activism, working as a rape crisis counselor and starting the Chicago chapter of Women of All Red Nations. She also was a founding member of the Boarding School Healing Project, which “seeks to document Native boarding school abuses so that Native communities can begin healing from boarding school abuses and demand justice.” Currently, she is an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside’s Department of Media and Cultural Studies.
Having worked with Amnesty International, Ms. Smith coordinated the research project on sexual violence and American Indian women. In 1991 at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, she represented the Indigenous Women’s Network and the American Indian Law Alliance. In 2005, she was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize “as a woman who works daily for peace” in recognition of her research and work regarding violence against women of color in the U.S.
Quoted as being “one of the greatest indigenous feminist intellectuals of our time,” Andrea Smith has truly proven to be a human rights defender for not only Native American women but for all women alike.
