Two Spirit, Indigiqueer and LGBTQI+ Indigenous Seniors

See the DSS Land Acknowledgment and Commitment to Indigenous Social Justice here

DSS has placed ‘2S’ at the beginning of “LGBTQI+” acronym to acknowledge the importance of the Two-Spirit members of our community during the ongoing process of reconciliation in Canada. DSS asks all directors and volunteers to commit to learning about the history of residential schools and the effects of colonization on the Indigenous peoples of Canada, and the country as a whole. We use 2S as an umbrella term inclusive of LGBTQ+ Indigenous and Indiqueer people. DSS is committed to building respectful relationships to work with 2S communities and individuals to best serve 2S seniors in culturally appropriate ways.

DSS is particularly concerned about how 2S seniors who are survivors of BC’s Residential School Systems will be re-traumatised when being required to access seniors’ care facilities that are ill equipped to recognise the cultural nuances of 2S lived experiences.

We offer the following research to help explain the history and cultural significance of 2S peoples.

Adapted from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/two-spirit Article by Michelle Filice (2015)

​Two-Spirit, a translation of the Anishinaabemowin term niizh manidoowag, refers to a person who embodies both a masculine and feminine spirit. Activist Albert McLeod developed the term in 1990 to broadly reference Indigenous peoples in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities. Two-spirit is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe their gender, sexual and spiritual identity.

History tells us that different Indigenous cultures have (or had) their own variations of the term two-spirit, but all of these terms have historically been used to describe similar traits embodied by two-spirit people including gender variance, specialized work roles, same-sex attraction and spiritual identity.

The Cree terms napêw iskwêwisêhot and iskwêw ka napêwayat respectively reference men who dress like women and women who dress like men. The Siksika (Blackfoot) term aakíí’skassi described men who performed roles typically associated with women, such as basket weaving and pottery-making. Similarly, the Ktunaxa (Kootenay) term titqattek described females who took on roles traditionally characterized as masculine, including healing, hunting and warfare. One of the most well-known two-spirit people who identified as female was We’wha (1846–96) of New Mexico. She was referred to as lhaman or “mixed gender” in the Zuni language. In various Indigenous cultures, temperament, work roles, dress and lifestyle distinguished two-spirited individuals from men and women.

In many cultures two-spirit also referred to spiritual identity, believing that two-spirited individuals received supernatural intervention in the form of dreams and visions. As such, they often filled special spiritual roles in their communities as healers, shamans and ceremonial leaders. Often two-spirit people were also considered great sources of knowledge; they were keepers of traditions and tellers of creation stories.

In some cases, the term referred specifically to sexuality. However, two-spirit people did not necessarily see themselves as homosexual; sexual relationships between a two-spirit and a non-two-spirit were considered hetero-normative. While European colonists considered two-spirit people homosexual, and while the modern usage of the term can describe homosexual people, historically, two-spirit people did not so easily identify as either homosexual or heterosexual.

Between eth 17th and 19 centuries European missionaries and explorers often used the term berdache to refer to two-spirit people. Historically, the term referred to the younger partner in a homosexual relationship with an age disparity. By the early 20th century, berdache became the accepted anthropological term for two-spirit people. Overtime, it became a general term for male homosexual people and is now considered outdated and offensive.

In the early 1990s, as part of an effort to reclaim traditions, Indigenous peoples sought to find a word or phrase originating from an Indigenous community to replace berdache. Although there were terms in various Indigenous languages to describe third and fourth genders (i.e., men-women and women-men) as well as homosexual people, they wanted a contemporary term that could be used by the general public.

At the third annual Intertribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference, held in Winnipeg in 1990, activist Albert McLeod proposed the term two-spirit to refer to the Indigenous LGBTQ community. The term was well received by the conference attendees and soon gained popularity within Indigenous communities. The term is used today to broadly reference the Indigenous LGBTQ community. Some two-spirit societies also use the terms LGBTQ2S or LGBTTIQQ2S (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersexual, Queer, Questioning, 2-Spirited) to incorporate two-spirit people within the larger LGBTQ community.

Add CBRC Paper

What it means to the Two-Spirit - A TD Story shares the story of Christopher Arnold: a proud member of Nak'azdli First Nations Band (Dakelh) in Fort St. James, British Columbia [https://stories.td.com/ca/en/article/what-it-means-two-spirit].

UBC - Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer Studies has resources for further learning: [https://guides.library.ubc.ca/twospiritandindigenousqueerstudies/film]

  If you have any questions or would like to suggest further resources to add to this page please contact us here.