Dismantling the Patriarchal Altar from Within

Abstract

This article explores the relationship with identity, memory, and power, and how personal and collective relationship is negotiated within patriarchal and colonial ideology; it is a Métis woman's narrative. It calls attention to the dominant discourse, the patriarchy within, the subjugation of body and otherness, the perpetuation of trauma, and the process of healing. It is based within the tenets of Indigenous epistemology: prayer, relationship, movement of knowledge, self-inquiry, and fluidity. Despite polarization of Indigenous ways and Western ways of knowing, the process of self-inquiry maintains the connection to the web of life, vitality, and faith. While our grandmothers teach us that knowledge is made accessible through stories, the story becomes an invitation to inspire the process of producing knowledge in our respective and creative ways.