Settler colonial and sexist: Muhammad Rehan Sabir, Maryam Asim, Muhammad Rehan, Muqaddas Saif, ‘Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave: An Artistic Reclamation of Native American Women’s Identity and Cultural Sovereignty’, International Conference on Next-Generation Innovations and Sustainability, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonial and sexist: Muhammad Rehan Sabir, Maryam Asim, Muhammad Rehan, Muqaddas Saif, ‘Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave: An Artistic Reclamation of Native American Women’s Identity and Cultural Sovereignty’, International Conference on Next-Generation Innovations and Sustainability, 2025

21Mar25

Abstract: Native American women seem to struggle for emancipation from two kinds of status quo. One aspect focuses on breaking free from the colonial idea of the nation-state, while the other highlights resistance against heteropatriarchy that was planted into Native American tribes. This article applies theoretical lens of Andrea Smith on Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave to highlight the involvement of settler colonialism in the obstruction of Native American consciousness. This paper investigates the resistive campaign of native women against intersectional politics of tribal men and colonial powers. Smith’s idea of spiritual activism unfolds the difference of white feminism and colored feminism to uncover the systematic violence against native women. This paper also explores how Joy Harjo, through memory, metaphor, storytelling, and spiritual activism, critiques the dual oppression of settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy to reclaim indigenous identity and cultural sovereignty. This research is an exploration of native women’s adversity of keeping tribal nationalism over sexism as their survival strategy in an imperial nation state by using Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave as a specimen.

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