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Two-spirited and proud

Two-spirited Indigenous people are reclaiming the concept of an alternative gender, which has been distorted through centuries of colonization

It was a different world when Shako Sabourin, discovered he was two-spirited at 13. He didn’t know if anybody was like him. He kept his identity to himself as he was afraid he was being picked on because he was different. Nobody told him what it’s like being two-spirited, his grandfather is a Mohawk from the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve. Sabourin was raised in Burlington, Ont., he had no one to go to.

“A lot of us lived in so much fear that we wouldn’t even come out or try to have any type of relationships with the people around us,” Sabourin, now 53, said. “There was more prejudice than ever before back then.”

Shako Sabourin says the discrimination against two-spirited people within Indigenous communities is rooted in colonial policies. (First Stories/Michael Linennen)

Two-spirited is a term for Indigenous people to describe their gender and spiritual identity. The term refers to people who identify with both male and female spirits. Traditionally, two-spirited people had a prominent position in the community and held both male and female duties until colonization happened 400 years ago.

“Our people started taking on the views of the white men and the colonizers, and wanted to suppress and bring prejudice to our community,” Sabourin said. “Two-spiritedness is that panoramic vision that we have in our community.”

Sabourin came out as two-spirited when he moved to Toronto for college at 18. He was more comfortable because he knew there were others like him in the community, even though there was still discrimination. For example, when he worked as a warehouse driver.

“One of the warehouse managers actually [said] to me, ‘I could kill a gay person and bury them in the warehouse and nobody would ever find them.’ And he was fired the next day; that was back in the late ‘80s,” Sabourin said. “They thought they would have this right to belittle us.”

Unfortunately, for Sabourin, the discrimination didn’t end there. Sabourin was involved with the Toronto Pride committee in the late ’90s, but he said the LGBTQ community was divided.

“[When] the community was first starting out, people didn’t have those educations,” Sabourin said. “There’s a separation between the people and the professionals.”

Percy Lezard, a Syilx from Penticton Indian Band in Penticton, B.C., identifies as two-spirited. Lezard works as an HIV-AIDS worker at the 2 Spirited People of the First Nations and is a social work professor at Ryerson University. Lezard does not associate with the mainstream LGBTQ community because of the racism and “micro-aggressions” within the community.

Lezard said the non-Indigenous AIDS support groups in Toronto was not able to provide a safe cultural space to support two-spirited people affected by HIV-AIDS in the ‘80s.

“They would go to those places, but they would have to leave their Indigenous identity at the door, meaning they didn’t have the capacity in a culturally safe way, to support the folks that were dying astronomically of AIDS,” Lezard said.

Lezard added 2 Spirited People of the First Nations was created to provide a safe cultural space to support two-spirited people who are affected by HIV-AIDS.

Some Indigenous people are still reluctant to talk about sexuality. Lezard explained with colonization, they have been told the most diverse and celebrated community members, like women and two-spirited people, are bad.

“How are we, as a community, not going to internalize that hatred?” Lezard said. “You look at the Indian residential schools, the 94 calls to action (of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada). There’s nothing centering the experiences of two-spirited and trans folks, yet people talk about how Catholicism has impacted and indoctrinated Indigenous communities.”

“We have yet to get to the truth before we can even talk about reconciliation,” Lezard said. “It’s actually the responsibility of settlers and people to say yes, we hear your truth, we see your truth, and these are the ways in which we are going to make amends.”

Steven Loranger, an Algonquin from Timiskaming First Nation in Notre-Dame-du-Nord, Que., identifies himself as gay and two-spirited. He is a support-service worker at the 2 Spirited People of the First Nations. Loranger says the effects of residential schools has affected future generations from coming out.

Steven Loranger is a support-service worker at the 2 Spirited People of the First Nations. (First Stories/Michael Linennen)

“It’s a lost generation from what happened and [they are] unable to speak the language or identify as two-spirited,” Loranger said.

However, Loranger added that more people are getting involved and interested in the two-spirited community now.

“It’s an ongoing thing,” Loranger said.

Lezard said they see Indigenous youth who are raising awareness of two-spirited issues.

“One of those…is Native Youth Sexual Health Network, who’s mobilizing and actualizing what sovereignty and liberation looks like,” Lezard said, “They’re mobilizing over generations, connecting elders with adults, with youth, with children.”

For Sabourin, reconciliation is an ongoing process.

In the late ’80s, he never revealed his Indigenous background to people at the sailing club where he taught. Two years ago, Sabourin shared his native name with them and a lot of them would like to learn more about Indigenous culture and play drums with him.

“Close-mindedness around those issues came from colonization; it didn’t come from us,” Sabourin said.

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