The WagonBurners Two-SpiritConvention is annual holiday dinner and show organized by the Greater Vancouver Native Cultural Society (GVNCS). The 2017 convention, titled “Winter Masquerade,” is scheduled for December 17, at the Penthouse on Seymour Street in Vancouver (GVNCS Two-Spirit, 2017; follow this link to RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/126504628059982/).
The GVNCS Two-Spirit society was established 40 years ago to accept and represent people who identify as Two-Spirit (Takeuchi, 2016). One result of American and Canadian colonialism was the denunciation of the Two-Spirit identity, as well as the establishment of the binary gender system (Walters, Evans-Campbell, Simoni, Ronquillo, & Bhuyan, 2006). This binary gender system exists today due to the Western emphasis on gender differences based on biology (Blackwood, 1997).
For Chief Al Houston (Silver Coyote), the WagonBurners Two-Spirit Convention is “more or less an Aboriginal Two-Spirit society taking care of [their] own community, which is important because [they] feel they aren’t getting that attention from the community at large” (quoted in Lewis, 2013). Indeed, in 2004, 38% of Two-Spirit youth sampled in British Columbia aged 24 and younger stated that they do not feel accepted in their community (Urban Native Youth Association, 2004). Given the historical responsibility of Two-Spirit people to serve their community as caregivers (Miranda, 2010; Walters et al., 2006), the fact that such a high percentage of Two-Spirit youth do not feel accepted by their communities can result in a high degree of anxiety and life dissatisfaction. Furthermore, Two-Spirit people can experience dysphoria and displacement from their cultures as a result of being forced into, or forced to choose, between one of only two genders in the binary gender system that exists in colonized Canada (Miranda, 2010).
Two-Spirited people’s desire to belong in their Native communities might, to some Queer theorists, be a process of homonormativity. However, the Two-Spirit identity has more to do with gender than sexuality, and Two-Spirit people yearning to be integrated members of their Native community, as they traditionally are, is actually an opposition of assimilation, not an adoption of homonormativity (Driskill, 2010).
Thus, Driskill (2010) calls for the intertwining of Native studies and Queer studies: A union that works beyond intersectionality and ventures into a stronger analysis, called Two-Spirit critiques. Unlike current Queer studies that un-see Native people, or mention them along with all other people of colour, Two-Spirit critiques are embedded in Native historic and political dimensions. Also, these critiques “are created and maintained through the activist and artistic resistance of Two-Spirit people” (Driskill, 2010, p. 81), such as the work done by the GVNCS Two-Spirit organization and the WagonBurners events. These activisms work to repair the relationship Two-Spirit people have with their Native communities, and Two-Spirit critiques can gain vast knowledge from the work done by these activist organizations.
References
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Anguksuar/Richard LaFortune. (1997). A postcolonial colonial perspective on western [mis]conceptions of the cosmos and the restoration of Indigenous taxonomies. Two-Spirit people: Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality. S. Jacobs, W. Thomas, & S. Lang (Eds.). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Blackwood, E. (1997). Native American genders and sexualities: Beyond anthropological models and misrepresentations. Two-Spirit people: Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality. S. Jacobs, W. Thomas, & S. Lang (Eds.) Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Davidson, M. R. (2012). A Nurse’s Guide to Women’s Mental Health. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Driskill, Q-L. (2010). Doubleweaving Two-Spirit critiques: Building alliances between Native and Queer studies. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16(1-2), 69-92.
Duggan, L. (2002). The new homonormativity: The sexuality politics of neoliberalism. Materializing democracy: Toward a revitalized cultural politics. R. Castronovo & D. Nelson (Eds.). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
GVNCS Two-Spirit. (2017). In Facebook. Retrieved November 5, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/events/126504628059982/
Lewis, S. (2013, Dec 10). Annual Two-Spirit dinner provides a sense of family, Chief says. Xtra. Retrieved November 5, 2017, from https://www.dailyxtra.com/annual-two-spirit-dinner-provides-a-sense-of-family-chief-says-56319
Miranda, D. (2010). Extermination of the Joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16(1-2), 153-84.
Takeuchi, C. (2016, July 28). From South Asian to Jewish Canadians: Metro Vancouver’s LGBT cultural organizations and groups. Straight. Retrieved November 5, 2017, from https://www.straight.com/life/745416/south-asian-jewish-canadians-metro-vancouvers-lgbt-cultural-organizations-and-groups
Urban Native Youth Association. (2004). Two-Spirit youth speak out! Analysis of the needs assessment tool. Retrieved November 5, 2017, from http://www.unya.bc.ca/downloads/glbtq-twospirit-final-report.pdf
Walters, K. L., Evans-Campbell, T., Simoni, J. M., Ronquillo, T., & Bhuyan, R. (2006). “My spirit in my heart”: Identity experiences and challenges among American Indian Two-Spirit women. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 10(1-2), 125-49.