Marie Laing M.A. Thesis
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Conversations with Young Two-Spirit, Trans and Queer Indigenous People About the Term Two-Spirit by Marie Laing A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Marie Laing 2018 Conversations with Young Two-Spirit, Trans and Queer Indigenous People About the Term Two-Spirit Marie Laing Master of Arts Department of Social Justice Education University of Toronto 2018 Abstract Since the coining of the term in 1990, two-spirit has been used with increasing frequency in reference to Indigenous LGBTQ people; however, there is rarely explicit discussion of to whom the term two-spirit refers. The word is often simultaneously used as both an umbrella term for all Indigenous people with complex genders or sexualities, and with the specific, literal understanding that two-spirit means someone who has two spirits. This thesis discusses findings from a series of qualitative interviews with young trans, queer and two-spirit Indigenous people living in Toronto. Exploring the ways in which participants understand the term two-spirit to be a meaningful and complex signifier for a range of ways of being in the world, this paper does not seek to define the term two-spirit; rather, following the direction of research participants, the thesis instead seeks to trouble the idea that articulating a definition of two-spirit is a worthwhile undertaking. ii Acknowledgments There are many people without whom I would not have been able to complete this research. Thank you to my supervisor, Dr. Eve Tuck, for your support and your mentorship. I have learned so much from you over the past two years and I am so grateful for the time and energy you have invested in me and this project. Thank you for believing in me. Many thanks to my second reader, Dr. Martin Cannon. Your support and feedback as a committee member and as a course instructor have been invaluable in the completion of this research. Huge thanks to Dr. Alex Wilson for agreeing to the inclusion of our interview in this thesis. I learned so much from our conversation. Thank you for all of the work you do, and especially for your leadership in two-spirit scholarship. Nyawenkó:wa to my Kanyen’kéha instructors Sakoieta and Twʌtahawitha for teaching me everything I know about the language. Any spelling or grammar mistakes in this thesis are my own. Writing this thesis would have been impossible without the love and support of my family and friends. Thank you to my parents, my sister, my aunts and uncles, my grandparents, and my cousins for your encouragement not only during the past two years, but for my entire life. I am so grateful to each and every one of my friends for your endless support and patience as I worked to complete this thesis. A special thank you to my wonderful partner Morgan for your love and support through this truly exhausting process. I am privileged to belong to a community of scholars at OISE whose camaraderie and brilliance has deeply impacted this work. Thank you to Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing, Sandi Wemigwase, and Megan Scribe for being both friends and role models. Thank you to all the members of Dr. Tuck’s co-mentoring group — your friendship and advice throughout this iii process have contributed greatly to this project (and to my surviving graduate school). Great thanks are also due to Lindsay DuPré and Julie Blair — without your friendship, support, and presence on OISE’s 7th floor, this thesis would not have been written. This work only exists because of the fabulous trans, queer and two-spirit Indigenous community here in Toronto. Huge thanks to all of my fellow community members who have expressed support for this work. Greatest thanks to the two-spirit, queer and trans Indigenous aunties, uncles, cousins, elders, grandparents and ancestors whose work has made my existence possible today. Lastly, and most importantly, my deepest thanks to all of the research participants. Thank you for sharing your time and your ideas with me. You are all so brilliant. I cannot properly express my gratitude for your generosity and patience with me as a novice researcher. Nyawenkó:wa. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................v List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Appendices .................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................1 1.1 Contextualizing Two-Spirit ..............................................................................................3 1.2 Theories of Change ..........................................................................................................5 1.3 Introducing Myself ..........................................................................................................8 1.4 Organization of the Thesis ............................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Gender, Sexuality, and Colonization .............................................................................. 15 2.2 Anthropological Writing ................................................................................................ 17 2.3 Queer Indigenous Organizing and the Emergence of the Term Two-Spirit ..................... 22 2.4 How Two-Spirit is Used in the Literature ....................................................................... 24 2.5 Research By and With Two-Spirit Communities ............................................................ 30 Chapter 3 Methodology & Methods........................................................................................... 36 3.1 Why I Am Doing This Research .................................................................................... 37 3.2 The Research Methodology ........................................................................................... 40 3.3 Coming to the Research Question .................................................................................. 42 3.4 The Research Methods ................................................................................................... 45 3.5 Putting Methods into Action .......................................................................................... 49 Chapter 4 Queering Indigenous Education: An Interview with Dr. Alex Wilson ........................ 53 4.1 Scholarship and Activism .............................................................................................. 54 4.2 Restoring Relationships to Land .................................................................................... 55 4.3 Decolonization ............................................................................................................... 59 4.4 Queerness, Indigeneity, and Two-Spirit Research .......................................................... 61 Chapter 5 Refusing the Question “What Does Two-Spirit Mean?” ............................................ 70 5.1 (Ethnographic) Refusal .................................................................................................. 74 5.2 Expectations, Assumptions & Entitlement I: Explaining Two-Spirit .............................. 83 5.3 Expectations, Assumptions & Entitlement II: Explaining Our Selves ............................. 89 5.4 Reading the Rest of This Thesis ..................................................................................... 96 Chapter 6 Two-Spirit as a Hashtag and a Container ................................................................... 99 6.1 Gender and Sexuality Complexity ................................................................................ 102 6.2 Community Roles, Responsibilities, and Gifts ............................................................. 107 6.3 Not an Umbrella, but Rather a Container ..................................................................... 113 6.4 The Limits and Drawbacks of the Umbrella ................................................................. 117 6.5 Communicating Something Specific and Complex....................................................... 121 6.6 Geographical and Generational Differences ................................................................. 126 6.7 Connecting to Activist Histories & Building Community ............................................. 129 6.8 Claiming, Asserting, and Holding Space ...................................................................... 136 Chapter 7 Roots of the Literal Definition ................................................................................. 139 v 7.1 History of the Term ..................................................................................................... 140 7.2 The Literal Definition of Two-Spirit ............................................................................ 146 7.3 Examining the Prominence of the Literal Definition