I am a young, Indigenous activist from the settler-state of Canada, residing on the stolen lands of three Indigenous nations: the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe and the Neutral Peoples. Today, on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I am reflecting on my experience as a two-spirit (or 2S) person – a term which carries specific cultural meaning to the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Turtle Island (more commonly known now as North America).
Despite colonial desires to put us in a box, two-spirit people are not synonymous with LGBTIQ+ people – and cannot be directly equated with non-Indigenous (settler) transgender identities. It’s simply not a term that can be comprehended within the limitations of the English language. Broadly, it refers to the distinct experience of those who don’t conform to heteronormativity or cisnormativity, and those who embrace gender diversity, while living within Indigenous traditions.
That said, different nations use the term differently – some focusing more on gender, others on sexuality, while not all gender non-conforming indigenous people identify as two-spirit. (I did say it was near impossible to define in this language).
