Women and nature in contemporary indigenous women's poetry

Indigenous women experience a unique relationship with nature that is impacted by cultural beliefs, political and social contextual factors, and so on. Contextual factors impacting the female relationship with the natural world include higher rates of sterility caused by the current climate crisis. The gravity of the symptoms of the climate emergency felt by Indigenous women means that their day-to-day experience is affected by this relationship and its contemporary change. Female Indigenous health and creative actions such as writing are impacted by the climate crisis -- thus arising questions about how the female relationship with nature is shown in contemporary literature. To further examine the specificities of the female relationship to nature, I delve into a corpus of contemporary Indigenous women’s poetry, namely Corpse Whale by DG Nanouk Okpik, An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo, and Night is a SharkSkin Drum by Haunani-Kay Trask. As a study of nature and Indigenous literatures, this thesis aims to better identify the Indigenous female relationship to the natural world and the manners in which the climate crisis impacts Indigenous women. Within intersectional ecocriticism, I make this enquiry by conducting close readings and entering the themes of exploration into confrontation with each other. Using these methods, I have identified main themes of interaction between women and nature within this corpus: body, culture, and creativity. As shown in my work, the relationship with nature presented within these collections is one of compassion, solidarity, and respect.