ABSTRACT
The Nicaraguans wanted the women from the United States (US) to see for themselves the impact of their government's undeclared war on the women and families of Nicaragua, including indigenous women, whose voices were so rarely heard. Indigenous women from such places as Nicaragua, Australia, and the US insist that anti-violence strategies must account for the ways that multiple identities and systems of domination interact to construct women's experiences of violence. Building on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, indigenous women seek to find points of alignment between international human rights instruments and local values and practices that uphold women's rights. For indigenous women, the key to combating gender-based violence lies in the promotion of indigenous peoples' collective rights. That tendency has produced conceptual approaches to violence and antiviolence strategies that fail to address the specific needs and realities of indigenous women. These include: restricted conceptualizations of "domestic violence; and the privileging of criminalization strategies in anti-violence work.
