Who are the 2SLGBTQQIA+?

Categories of gender, sex and sexuality have been introduced through colonial processes and institutions. The term Two-Spirit encompasses a broad range of sexual and gender identities of Indigenous peoples across North America and complicates distinctions between gender, sex and sexualities.

While the term is used by some people to refer to the cultural roles of individuals embodying both female and male spirits, the term has also been used as an umbrella term to describe Indigenous people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, intersex and part of the continuum of non-heterosexual identities. It is important to distinguish between gender, sex and sexuality because of the way lesbian, gay and bisexual people are linked with transgender, and transsexual people in the 2SLGBTQQIA+ acronym,and in broader queer and Indigenous communities.

Three black and white vintage photographs of Indigenous women. The first woman is standing in traditional attire with jewelry, the second two women are seated outdoors in patterned clothing, and the third woman is sitting indoors with long necklaces.

 Before contact with European colonizers, Two-Spirit people existed among many Indigenous nations and often held special roles in their communities. There is evidence that in over two-thirds of the 200 Indigenous languages spoken in North America, there were terms used to identify individuals who were neither men nor women. Indigenous views on sexuality were not rooted in heteronormativity. Research and oral histories reflect the widespread respect and honour for Two-Spirit people. Within many Indigenous cultures, the roles of Two-Spirit people carried unique responsibilities that were vital to their communities' well-being and survival.

Some important roles that Two-Spirit people held were as teachers, knowledge keepers, healers, herbalists, childminders, spiritual leaders, interpreters, mediators and artists. The following information intends to illustrate the history and background of how Two-Spirit and gender and sexually diverse Indigenous people have been affected by colonization and how it is unique from the oppressions experienced by other Indigenous peoples. By tracing the relationship between gendered and sexual violence and colonialism, we can start to see how gender and sexuality have been intentionally used by colonizers, settlers, and the Canadian state as a divide-and-conquer tactic, an instrument of gendercide and genocide, as well as an instrument to exert control over Indigenous peoples and lands.

Kent Monkman, mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People): Resurgence of the People, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 132 x 264 in. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy of the artist.

Historical Timeline

  • Many sources have confirmed that Two-Spirit identities and experiences were honoured and named by Indigenous Peoples before colonization. (C2C, 2019, p. 4) Alex Wilson (she/her), Neyonawak Inniniwak, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, writes about how, “Traditionally, Two-Spirit people were simply a part of the entire community; as we reclaim our identity with this name, we are returning to our communities.” (Wilson, 1996, p. 305)

  • Travel accounts and missionary dictionaries formally introduce the word “berdache”, a misinterpretation of Two-Spirit peoples which has been defined as an, “…effeminate or morphological male who does not fill a society’s standard man’s role, who has a non-masculine character.” (Wilson, 1996, p. 304)

  • John Tanner (he/him) a white American living in the Great Lakes and Red River regions, writes about an encounter with an Ojibwe community member, a person who, “…was one of those who make themselves women (…) They are commonly called A-gokwa…”
    (Tanner, 1830, p. 105)

  • Edwin Arthur Watkins (he/him), published ‘A Dictionary of the Cree Language’ lists the word ayākwāo, defining it as, “a castrated animal, a hermaphrodite”. (Watkins, 1865, p. 195)

  • Albert Lacombe (he/him), a French missionary, published ‘Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris’ in which the word ayekkwe is recorded as meaning a person who is castrated, and also neither male nor female.

  • Elder Myra Laramee shared the name Two-Spirit at the Annual Native American Gay and Lesbian Gathering in Beausejour, Manitoba (1990) which has been defined as: “…an Indigenously-defined pan-Native North American term that refers to the diversity of Aboriginal LGBTQ identities as well as culturally-specific non-binary gender identities.” (Hunt, S., 2016, p. 7)

  • Alex Wilson (she/her), Neyonawak Inniniwak, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, described Two-Spirit people as being born ‘in balance’, “…which may be understood as androgyny, a balance of masculine and feminine qualities, of male and female spirits.”
    (1996, p. 305)

  • TRC’s Volume 5 (Canada’s Residential Schools: The Legacy), Chapter 4 (“An Attack on Aboriginal Health: The Marks and the Memories”) discusses Two-Spiritness, describing, “Aboriginal people traditionally celebrated people who were gay or transgender as gifted, as being ‘TwoSpirits’. The residential schools had particular impacts upon TwoSpirited people, who faced numerous attacks on their identities” (TRC, 2015c, p. 148)

  • Joshua Whitehead (he/him), Oji-Cree, Peguis First Nation, describes his sexual identity as a ‘braiding of two worlds’ — “…this queerness and his culture and his way of making a space, land, and ceremony for that identity.” (CBC, 2017) He also frames the name Indigiqueerness as the “… forward-moving momentum for Two-Spirits.” (CBC, 2017)