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In a world where Native women are picturized as victims of colonization, there is a common tendency to forget what these women actually possessed or stood for in the ancient Indigenous societies. The victimized female was a result of the collective Indigenous memory corruption imposed upon the Indigenous people. This paper aims to restore the importance of the traditional Native women by portraying the role and importance that they were entitled with in their communities by analyzing Nature and Mythology in the animated film, Moana. The Indigenous Polynesian culture, particularly the Māori become the focus of the movie through the life of the protagonist, Moana. The paper analyses the powerful female characters in Māori mythology, the female characters portrayed in the movie and their role in the traditional Māori society. Nature becomes a key aspect in the movie for portraying its importance in the Indigenous life and mythology. The paper thus focuses on how women became the central part of Māori existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food is an intrinsic part of human life. Apart from being a source of survival, food serves the purpose of conjugating people from different cultural backgrounds. In a fast paced world, where there is no time to spare, meal time offers great time to communicate and to break bread with one's family members and associates. Food is an articulation of love and often consorted with hospitality making it a core of many traditions. The alimentary preference of an individual divulges his/her cultural background and in turn communal cultural heritage. Food is a powerful instrument that aids the immigrants in preserving their cultural identity and enables them to attain a place in their new nation. The dietary constituents, preparatory method, choice of food is distinct for distinct cultures. In a cross cultural society, there is a high chance of amalgamation of culinary practices, like the recent mushrooming of multiple multicultural cuisines, which can result in a commingling of multiple cultures. This paper is an attempt to examine the extent to which food functions as a tool for cultural transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native historian Donald Fixico has referred to federal Indian policy as an "oscillating pendulum", constantly moving between policies of assimilation and sovereignty. This paper is an ethno-historical study of political and cultural change among Native American communities and explains why this metaphor helps us understand Native American history from the 1890s to the 1940s and provide specific examples that demonstrate how these periods differ from one another. The paper in the latter part also analyses federal Indian policies through a gendered lens and argues how Fixico's oscillating pendulum swings differently for Native American men and women, as they experience these policies differently. It focusses on how settler colonial modalities have impacted traditional gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]