#ma nee chacaby

[tepkunset]

I was originally planning on holding off sharing this until June, but then decided to hell with that; why wait?

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Intersections: Indigenous and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Identities – this booklet from the Native Women’s Association of Canada is more intended towards 2S folks, but is still a great read for anyone.

Two Spirits, One Voice – This video from Egale is a great, no more comments needed.

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder – This book by Ma-Nee Chacaby can be a difficult and emotional read, but very much worth it.

Becoming Two-spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country – I have yet to read this book by Brian Joseph Gilley myself, but heard positive things about it.

Please feel free to reblog with more suggestions, if you have them!

[bdapublishing]

Happy Friday, Bookblr! This holiday weekend, the BDA team is honoring and amplifying Indigenous voices by showcasing four incredible authors and their powerful stories. Join us in celebrating the richness of Indigenous literature with Cherie Dimaline's "The Marrow Thieves," Ma-Nee Chacaby & Mary Louisa Plummer's "A Two-Spirit Journey," and Zitkala-Sa's "American Indian Stories." Let's carve out space for diverse narratives and gratitude for the wisdom these authors share.

[roga-el-rojo]

A Two-Spirit Journey - Ma-Nee Chacaby

Hello friends! For my next recommendation for Pride Month and National Indigeous History Month, I’ll highlight another text describing the intersections of anti-queerness, settler colonialism, and queer indigenous resistance in the form of an incredible memoir: “A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder” by Ma-Nee Chacaby, edited by Mary Louisa Plummer. Ma-Nee Chacaby is a Two-Spirit Ojibwe-Cree writer, artist, storyteller, activist, and elder from “Canada.” She lives in Thunder Bay, where she mentors individuals and groups including Wiindo Debwe Moesewin and Not One More Death, both organizations that tirelessly ensure safety for all people in the area. Chacaby shares Anishinaabe teachings and stories, and continuously supports access to ceremonies for 2SLGBTQ+ Indigenous peoples. Mary Louisa Plummer is a social scientist and a long-time friend of Ma-Nee’s. Much of her professional work has focused on public health and children’s rights. “A Two-Spirit Journey” is a book by Ojibwe woman Ma-Nee Chacaby, who was born in 1950 in a tuberculosis sanatorium. Chacaby's story is divided into chronological order, with chapters divided by life stages. The book aims to record her experiences and understanding for a broad audience, focusing on her unique perspective as a poor, recovering alcoholic, visually impaired, and lesbian two-spirit woman. Plummer adapts Chacaby’s words into this written narrative, using Ma-Nee's original terminology to maintain her distinctive voice. Some of the themes which were incredibly thought provoking were her experiences challenging Christian heteronormativity, surviving residential schools and a forced marriage, attempting to recover her kids after achieving sobriety, and embracing an affirming lesbian identity late into adulthood while helping others on their journeys. If you’re interested in heart-rending and thought provoking auto-biographies that share unique perspectives on the experiences of Indigenous women in Canada, providing insight into the impact of racism, homophobia, violence, substance abuse, and poverty. Chacaby's story of resilience and healing against great odds is for you!

[cleaduvalls]

taking a class on sexuality in american history im literally so fuckigng excited we get to read abt charity bryant and sylvia blake and ma-nee chacaby and and and

[tumblingthedan]

I just finished reading “A Two Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder” by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer. Before I start my very thoughts on this book I must say, I’m not the greatest writer. So, y’know, be warned and all that. Expect atrocious grammar.

Ma-Nee is a disabled, two spirit lesbian, native Ojibwa and Cree speaker who grew up in rural Canada and experienced many hardships. Notably this book discusses substance abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, homophobia, racism, poverty, disability, homelessness and child abuse.

I was initially interested in the book because I wanted to know more about two spirit as a concept and stumbled upon a short interview with Ma-Nee on YouTube then I had discovered that she had written a book. Her Grandmother told her a young age she was two spirit (She told her the Ojibwa word for what she was, this was before the term two spirit was created, that would now fall under the two spirit umbrella) and it would take her many years to understand what that meant. Until she was an adult she lived in a rural community where she didn’t have access to running water or electricity, she lived out in the bush where she learned how to trap and hunt along with other traditional skills. She talks about her abusive marriage, raising children, loss/grieving, issues with substance abuse, coming out as a lesbian in her late 30′s, homophobia, racism and dealing with the resulting trauma.

The book was quite enjoyable, the way it was written felt like someone was speaking to me and telling me stories from their life. The book wasn’t a particularly sad or depressing one, although it definitely discusses some hard topics. It doesn’t describe anything in excruciating detail but I could imagine it still being a hard read for some people. I definitely related to some of the gender non conforming aspects of her life and hearing about her positive lesbian relationships was quite nice for me. I would recommend the book to anyone who felt like the above was interesting to them in the slightest.

[rootin-n-bootin]

Speaking of resources

From the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition:

The term Two-Spirit is a direct translation of the Ojibwe term, Niizh manidoowag. “Two-Spirited” or “Two-Spirit” is usually used to indicate a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit. The term can also be used more abstractly, to indicate the presence of two contrasting human spirits (such as Warrior and Clan Mother).

Two-Spirit (also Two Spirit or Twospirit) is an English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg. It describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native American, Canadian First Nations, and Indigenous groups. The mixed gender roles encompassed by the term historically included wearing the clothing and performing work associated with both men and women.

Two-Spirit people have been documented in over 130 tribes in every region of North America. Two-Spirits often had distinct gender and social roles in their tribes that could include:

• Healers

• Medicine persons

• Conveyors of oral traditions and songs

• Name givers

• Special role players in Sundance or other ceremonies

• Care givers, and/or would often be a parent to orphaned children

Before European contact, sexual and gender diversity was an everyday aspect of life among indigenous peoples and Two Spirit people were honored and respected members of the community. Since European colonization, the Two-Spirit community has often been denied and alienated from their Native identity. As a result, Two-Spirit individuals are sometimes looked down upon and shamed for their identity.

Two-Spirit people must be able to navigate multiple cultures and communities including family, tribe, LGBTQ/Two-Spirit groups, and larger society.

It’s important to know that not all Native people identify as being Two-Spirited. Some Native people may identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

The term Two-Spirit is used currently to reconnect with tribal traditions related to sexuality and gender identity; to transcend the Eurocentric binary categorizations of homosexuals vs. heterosexuals or male vs. female; to signal the fluidity and non-linearity of identity processes; and heterosexism in Native Communities and racism in LGBTQ communities.

——————————————————————

Further resources on what is being Two-Spirit (niizh manidoowag)

> Be my girlfriend.

> Doing social media outreach for the gay rodeo and inviting folks to our discord.

> Post a description of the rodeo to Facebook.

> Someone ask “What’s the 2S in LGBTQIA2S+?”

> It’s a broad queer indigenous identity (insert resources here)

> “Being indigenous has nothing to do with being queer.”

> Man who the fuck is this person???

> Did they not look at the resources we sent??

> Look them up.

> They’re Dutch.

[yourdailyqueer]

Ma-Nee Chacaby

Gender: Two spirit (she/her)

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: N/A

Ethnicity: First Nation (Ojibwe, Cree)

Occupation: Writer, artist, activist

[lgbt-and-indigenous-artists]

Ma-Nee Chacaby

Unlike many others depicted on this blog, Ma-Nee Chacaby’s most famous work is entirely biographical, being a memoir depicting her life and reflections on her identity and experiences. Chacaby is an twospirited lesbian Ojibwe-Cree activist and writer, famed for her strides in both Indigenous and LGBTQ+ related issues. She grew up in Northern Ontario in Ombabika and narrowly avoided being taken to a residential school as part of the Sixties Scoop because she and her stepfather were away hunting and trapping at the time. 

Her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder, describes the myriad of obstacles, struggles, and successes of her life, from the abuse she suffered as a child to her loving, supportive relationship with her grandmother to her experiences being an out of the closet lesbian in a time when being LGBT+ was at best difficult and at worse downright dangerous. Her biography is a beautiful depiction of not only her life and experiences, but the types of struggles and experiences that many Indigenous and LGBT+ people have faced and continue to face to this day. Source: Paradis, Scott. “Book chronicles two-spirited elder’s struggle and redemption.” TB News Watch, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/book-chronicles-two-spirited-elders-struggle-and-redemption-405779 .

[onebluebookworm]

30 Days of Literary Pride - June 19

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder - Ma-Nee Chacaby

[batz]

got an autobiography book abt a two spirit lesbian elder and im so stoked to read it

[biandlesbianliterature]

Mo Springer reviews A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer

Mo Springer reviews A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer

Trigger Warning: This book graphic depictions of physical and sexual assault

My kokum explained that two-spirit people were once loved and respected within our communities, but times had changed and they were no longer understood or valued in the same way. When I got older, she said, I would have to figure out how to live with two spirits as an adult. She warned me I probably would experience…

[the-aila-test]

Fire Song (2015) dir. Adam Garnet Jones

1. Is she a main character? YES.

2. Does this character fall in love with a white man? NO.

3. Does this character end up raped or murdered at any point during the story? NO / NO

Evie from Fire Song passes The Aila Test

[bookclub4m]

30 LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors - to help readers to diversify their reading and library professionals to diversify their readers' advisory. All of the lists can be found here.

Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali

Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby

When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution by Jeanne Cordova

Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory by Qwo-Li Driskill

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies by Francisco J. Galarte

Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun Harrison

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World by Zakiyyah Iman Jackson

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays by June Jordan

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Continuum by Chella Man

The Black Trans Prayer Book edited by J Mase III and Dane Figueroa Edidi

Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir by Rajiv Mohabir

nîtisânak by Jas M. Morgan

Borealis by Aisha Sabatini Sloan

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino

[rafaelsilvasource]

Link | Shared by Rafael Silva via IG Stories - March 25, 2022

Book List:

Pet and Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

Black Boy Out of Time by Hari Ziyad

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

High School by Sara Quin and Tegan Quin

Real Queer America by Samantha Allen

When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan

Between Certain Death and a Possible Future and Nobody Passes, anthologies edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

When We Were Outlaws by Jeanne Córdova

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

[godzilla-reads]

Celebrate With Reading

Alright everyone, I’m putting together a list of some great things to read by Indigenous authors! Take a look at the history of Thanksgiving if you haven’t already because it is much darker than it’s thought to be. If ya’ll can, support Indigenous peoples and their businesses!

POEMS

If Oil is Drilled in Bristol Bay by dg nanouk okpik

A Well-Traveled Coyote by Nora Naranjo-Morse

 All Thirst Quenched by Lois Red Elk

Death by Crisosto Apache 

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

“1612: A New Look at Thanksgiving” by Catherine O’Neill Grace

“A Coyote Solstice Tale” by Thomas King

“A Man Called Raven” by Richard Van Camp

“Buffalo Song” by Joseph Bruchac

TEENS/ YA BOOKS

“#Notyourprincess: Voices of Native American Women” by Lisa Charleyboy and Beth Leatherdale

“A Girl Called Echo Vol 1: Pemmican Wars” by Katherena Vermette

“April Raintree” by Beatrice Mosionier

“Give Me Some Truth” by Eric Gansworth

MEMOIR/ BIOGRAPHY

“A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder” by Ma-Nee Chacaby

“Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life” by Diane Wilson

“Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land” by Toni Jensen

“Gall: Lakota War Chief” by Robert W. Larson

POETRY BOOKS

“A History of Kindness” by Linda Hogan

“Absentee Indians & Other Poems” by Kimberley Blaeser

“An American Sunrise: Poems” by Joy Harjo

“Aurum: Poems” by Santee Frazier 

FICTION

“Bleed Into Me: A Book of Stories” by Stephen Graham Jones

“Blue Ravens” by Gerald Vizenor

“Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angelina Boulley (Coming Out March 2nd, 2021)

“In the Bear’s House” by N. Scott Momaday

“Little Big Bully” by Heidi E. Erdrich

“Motorcycles and Sweetgrass” by Drew Hayden Taylor

“Murder on the Red River” by Marcie Rendon

“Real Indian Junk Jewelry” by Trevino Brings Plenty

“Tracks” by Louise Erdrich