[6][7] Many academics have come to believe that rematriation in itself implies the need for rekindling and fostering relationships with nature and underrepresented communities, and continued action to shift colonial, heteropatriarchal, binary systems.
[10] Lee Maracle's initial 1988 manuscript, turned 1996 published book titled I Am Woman, (subtitled the previous), was the first traceable introduction of the word rematriation.
[4] This is due to their unique relationship with and reliance on the Earth and its natural systems, and their higher morbidity rates from inequitable access to healthcare and other medical resources.
[11] It describes the specific action of rematriating seeds to the lands they originated, and therefore simultaneously returning native plants and the cultural traditions that surround them to indigenous groups.
[11] These have all prompted questions about whether rematriation is the answer for how to work to reverse climate change and simultaneously begin shifting cultural perceptions and representations.
[12] As a community of Haudenosaunee and Indigenous women, rematriation works to shift harmful and simplified narratives, defy stereotypes, and use personal experiences for positive change and connection.
Through the uplifting of these underrepresented voices, they aim to recenter Indigenous communities and raise awareness about human's need to live in balance with Mother Earth.
Rematriation is also the name of a 2022 documentary film describing the threat of logging to British Columbia's last untouched Old Growth Forest, Fairy Creek (Ada'itsx) on Vancouver Island, and the indigenous-led protests that followed.
[2] She describes her use of the blankets as an act of returning to the sacred mother by writing: "[t]hey are for sale after being unboxed—after being discovered in the basement of the post office, initially stored along with food and medical supplies in the event of a nuclear attack.
I wanted to apply the same gesture of safety and protection to the forest that the National Security Strategic Stockpile reserved for the humans in this area back in 1952."