Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer Research
In today’s workshop our facilitators gave so much of themselves to assist in our learning! To take initiative for our own ongoing learning we can turn to resources at the library. These are a handful of suggested resources, from UBC Library and openly accessible, to further engage in this topic.
Remember you can always contact xwi7xwa.library@ubc.ca for research support!
1. Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer Research Guide
For suggestions on search strategies to find Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer perspectives in UBC Library collections. The guide also points to key resources about the topic, organizations and societies, and openly accessible resources.
Xwi7xwa uses an organizational structure that differs from the other branches at UBC Library. Because of this, our call numbers and how to find resources on the shelf is not the same as other branches. For more information on our knowledge organization and how to find titles at Xwi7xwa see here.
2. Two-Spirit Indigiqueer Collection
At Xwi7xwa the call numbers that begin with PZ are print materials on the topic of Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer Studies. For example:
3. A Two-Spirit Journey: the Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer
A Two–Spirit Journey is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. Chacaby’s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in Thunder Bay. Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, humour, and resilience.
Find me at Xwi7xwa: YS C43 T86 2016
4. Honouring Our Ancestors: Takatāpui, Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQI+ Well-Being edited by Alison Green and Leonie Pihama
In these rigorous and challenging essays, writers from Aotearoa and Turtle Island (Canada and the United States of America) explore the well-being of takatāpui, two–spirit, and Māori and Indigenous LGBTQI+ communities. Themes include resistance, reclamation, empowerment, transformation and healing. Central to Honouring Our Ancestors is the knowledge that, before colonisation, Indigenous peoples had their own healthy understandings of gender, sexual identities and sexuality.
Find me at Xwi7xwa: PZ G74 H66 2023
5. She Walks for Days Inside a Thousand Eyes: a Two Spirit Story by Sharron Proulx-Turner
Sharron Proulx-Turner combines poetry and history to delve into the little-known lives of two–spirit women. Regarded with both wonder and fear when first encountered by the West, First Nations women living with masculine and feminine principles in the same body had important roles to play in society, as healers and visionaries, before they were suppressed during the colonial invasion.
Find me at Xwi7xwa: YP P76 S54 2008
6. Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity by Darrel McLeod
Brutally frank but buoyed throughout by McLeod’s unquenchable spirit, Peyakow-a title borrowed from the Cree word for “one who walks alone”-is an inspiring account of triumph against unimaginable odds. McLeod’s perspective as someone whose career path has crossed both sides of the Indigenous/white chasm resonates with particular force in today’s Canada.
Find me at Xwi7xwa: YS M54 P49 2021
7. MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+: National Action Plan: Final Report by Percy Lezard
The original mandate of the NIMMIWG reported on all forms of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, however it did not include Two-Spirit/Indigenous LGBTQ+ people. The National 2S Sub-Working Group captured their findings within this supplementary report.
Available online
Find me at Xwi7xwa: located in branch technical services, ask staff for assistance
8. Elements of Indigenous Style: a Guide for Writing by and About Indigenous Peoples by Gregory Younging ; edited by Warren Cariou ; contributing editors Deanna Reder, Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, and Jordan Abel
This second conversation reflects changes in the publishing industry, Indigenous-led best practices, and society at large, including new chapters on author-editor relationships, identity and community affiliation, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer identities, sensitivity reading, emerging issues in the digital world, and more.
Find me at Xwi7xwa: located in branch technical services, ask staff for assistance
9. You are Enough: Love Poems for the End of the World by Smokii Sumac
A curated selection from hundreds of poems written over two years of a near-daily haiku practice. Sections of selected poems such as ‘recovery,’ ‘courting,’ and ‘ceremony,’ tell a story of what 2016-2018 was like in the life of a two–spirit, transmasculine, Ktunaxa PhD Candidate in [his] late 20s, living in Peterborough Ontario.
Find me at Xwi7xwa: YP S85 Y68 2019
10. Shaughnessy, K. (2021). Indigenous cultural resurgence through Two-Spirit teaching and learning practices [Dissertation, Dalhousie University]. Library and Archives Canada.
This master’s thesis explores the roles that Two-Spirit educators play in their communities and how they facilitate cultural healing work through their teaching and learning practices.
Available online
11. Sparrow, C. (2018). Reclaiming Spaces Between: Coast Salish Two Spirit Identities and Experiences [Dissertation, University of Victoria].
The intention of this study is to offer pathways for intergenerational healing and reconnections, cultural revitalization and transformation by weaving traditional Indigenous knowledges with contemporary narratives, in order to increase voice and visibility of Coast Salish Two Spirit People.
Available online