"It Hums in Broken Lullaby": Emotional and Physical Manifestations of Systemic Stress of Indigenous Women in #NotYourPrincess

• In Event: Interrogating the Social Imagination: Examining the Renegotiation of Self and Others Through Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Objective
Counselors have theorized that the stresses experienced by Native women are tied deeply to issues of genocide, colonization, and sovereignty (Smith, 2005). This paper draws from counseling theories about racism- and gender-related stress and coping to analyze the stresses described by and the mediators employed by the Native American female contributors to #NotYourPrincess (Charleyboy & Leatherdale, 2017), a multimodal text for young adult readers.

Perspective
Analysis draws upon Harrell’s (2000) model of racism-related stress and well-being that emphasizes the value of “capturing experiences and characteristics of person-environment transactions involving race and culture” (p. 44) to present a “multidimensional conceptualization of the ways that racism is experienced” and suggest “potential pathways through which it affects the well-being of its targets” (p. 43). The model is grounded in explorations of the intersections between person factors (gender, for example), familial and socialization influences, sources of stress, internal and external mediators, and outcomes (p. 49) and offers opportunities to look with intention and care at the stories offered by the text’s contributors.

Methods
This paper employs literary analysis techniques that involve a reiterative process of reading a text through a particular lens. After reading independently, the researchers worked collaboratively to identify examples from the novel that address explicitly descriptions of race-related and gender-related stress and challenges to well-being and explanations of coping behaviors or mechanisms used to alleviate this stress. Each researcher then (re)read the text independently with the theoretical frame in mind, recording interpretative comments in the form of marginal notes. The researchers then met to discuss their individual “readings” to determine and establish consistencies across interpretations.

Data sources
#NotYourPrincess is a collection of poems, essays, interviews, social media posts, and art that describes the contributors’ experiences of being Native American women. The collection is 112 pages and is divided into four themed sections. It features 58 contributors (e.g. writers, artists, photographers) from different nations.

Results
Contributors shared myriad external and internal stresses, which contributor Lee Maracle metaphorically represents as “the dirty house which patriarchy and racism have built on our backs.” Findings reveal stresses of intergenerational trauma; dangerous situations and experiences; racism, stereotypes, and assumptions of others; and feelings of insecurity. Contributors described the coping strategies of finding strength in other Native women in a sense of sovereignty and using this collective strength to enact self-dependence and inner strength.

Significance
Student explorations of the connectedness within shared identities and mediators which promote a positive sense of well-being offer potential for building empathy and broadening cultural understandings in classrooms. The media often control the narrative of cultural understanding offered to and accepted by consumers; this text offers a look at how these particular authors share their own stories rather than others exploiting and co-opting their stories and attests to the complexity of sovereignty versus shared experiences. An understanding of what these Native American women choose to share is revealing of the stresses they collectively face and the mediators they use to gather strength from each other and ultimately strength in themselves.

Authors

• Wendy J. Glenn, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Ricki Ginsberg, Colorado State University