About this research
Ashlea Gillon (Ngāti Awa, Ngāpuhi), The University of Auckland
Fat Indigenous wāhine and our bodies are subject to multiple forms of discrimination and intersecting oppressions. The ways in which fat Māori wāhine are re-presented as un(deserving), (un)well, (dis)eased, and (un)(re)liable perpetuate how (in)access is enabled for some groups and not others. Biopower and biopolitics perpetuate these systems of oppression by (re)inscribing bodies with expectations that are racialised, sexualized, and body sizest. Recognising Indigenous sovereignty, tino rangatiratanga, mana (tinana/motuhake) are important in resistance.
These systems can perpetuate whose bodies are (over)/(under)surveilled, policed, assigned as (un)well and (un)(re)liable and ultimately who has greater accessibility.
The objectives of this research are:
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To understand how fat Indigenous wāhine experience racism, sexism and fatism, as systems of oppression and ways in which they resist these systems.
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To understand what body sovereignty is for fat Indigenous wāhine and how we enact/embody this (as resistance to systems of oppression).
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To explore and understand ways in which body sovereignty, and in turn, disrupting systems of oppression can impact mauri ora at multiple levels.
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