Indigenous feminist legal theory : A multi-juridical analysis of the limits of law on Indigenous women’s health in relation to HIV in Canada

This chapter analyzes how Canadian law has been, and continues to be, a central mechanism that reproduces and operationalizes gendered colonial ideologies that work against Indigenous women’s health. It argues practical and critical approach to understanding Indigenous laws as a determinant of health must be one that also engages with the limits of Indigenous law. Indigenous people experience health in ways that are distinct from non- Indigenous people in Canada. Social determinants of health are one way of engaging in contextual analyses of well-being. Few scholars bring together work on colonialism as a determinant of health and law as a determinant of health, to examine state laws as a colonial institution that undermines Indigenous well-being. The rule of law within the Canadian legal system has not ensured equality and supported well-being for Indigenous women as a group. Indigenous feminist legal theory is an approach for directly engaging with Indigenous laws and gender.