Being Again of One Mind

By giving a voice to Oneida women’s thoughts on tradition and nation, this book challenges mainstream feminist critiques of nation and nationalism.

By combining the narratives of Oneida women with a critical reading of feminist literature on nationalism, this book reveals that some Indigenous women view nationalism in the form of decolonization as a way to restore balance and well-being to their own lives and communities.

Being Again of One Mind combines the narratives of Oneida women of various generations with a critical reading of feminist literature on nationalism to reveal that some Indigenous women view nationalism in the form of decolonization as a way to restore traditional gender balance and well-being to their own lives and communities.

By giving a voice to Oneida women’s thoughts on tradition and nation, this book challenges mainstream feminist ideas about the masculine bias of Western theories of nation and about the dangers of nationalist movements that idealize women’s so-called traditional role. Lina Sunseri shows that feminist insights, although useful to many women’s and feminist groups, cannot be applied universally to all women or to societies with traditional forms of nation based on good relations between men and women. Oneida women do not view nationalism as a threat but rather as a way for women and men to be again of one mind.