Women in the Post-Apocalypse: Resistance and Survival in The Marrow Thieves

This paper intends to examine the experiences of women in the post-apocalyptic setting of Cherie Dimaline’s novel The Marrow Thieves. It compares their efforts to preserve language and culture and their participation in the resistance movement depicted in the novel to historical and present-day Indigenous and women-led movements in North America. This paper aims to explore the ways in which the female characters endure the extreme conditions of the post-apocalyptic world of the novel and how their experiences relate to the existing plight of Indigenous women in Canada and the United States. Much like non-fictional women, the women in the novels are indispensable; they are crucial in the transmission of cultural practices and language, they participate in resistance movements and ultimately ensure the survival of humanity.