#two spirited

Round 1, Match 135 — Two-Spirit vs. Obscurian

𖤓 Happy Pride Month Everyone! 𖤓

I wanted to share the designs I have been working on for the Two-Spirit pride flag, as we continue the ongoing fight for LGBTQIA+ rights worldwide and honor those who have lost their lives for the movement. 

𖤓 The Original Flag 𖤓

The most prevalent Two-Spirit pride flag is the traditional pride flag (or the trans or nonbinary flag) with the symbol of a circle, denoting oneness, and two feathers, signifying female and male. This flag design was initially submitted by Tumblr user 2Sanon on December 17th, 2016. 

Although I like the traditional design, I wanted to create additional variations of the Two-Spirit flag so that our community has options as to which flag they’d like to display to celebrate their identities. I belief that the Two-Spirit flag should foster pan‐Indigenous solidarity and reject the colonial labels placed upon Indigenous LGBTQIA+ individuals. With that being said, here they are (with explanations as to my thought process)!

𖤓 Redesigned Two-Spirit Pride Flag 𖤓

For my initial redesign for the Two-Spirit pride flag, I took inspiration from Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, Mapuche, Inuit, and Sámi flags. Although that's an expansive selection, I wanted to gain a comprehensive picture of the colors which have traditionally held meaning to a variety of Indigenous peoples. It’s important to allow Two-Spirited people to attach their own meaning to the stripes and circular symbol, however, here is a guide which explains their symbolic meaning as a Two-Spirited individual to me: 

𖤓 The design contains a red stripe, which traditionally has represented global Indigenous solidarity and a call to action for the MMIW Movement. 

𖤓 Green symbolizes the Earth, healing, endurance, new growth and the sovereign rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands. 

𖤓 White, as in the transgender flag, represents those who are intersex, consider themselves to have a neutral or undefined gender, or are in the process of transitioning. 

𖤓 The lighter blue stripe represents the sky or the universe, as well as a connection with spirituality or the sacred. This specific shade of blue is drawn from the flag of Nunavut, where it represents the North Star. 

𖤓 The darker blue stripe represents knowledge and assurance, as well as the elixir of life, water. 

𖤓 The yellow circle at the center of the flag represents oneness, as the circle does in the traditional Two-Spirit flag, as well as symbolizing the sun or the moon.

A concise history of Two-Spirit identity

For those unfamiliar with the history of the term “Two-Spirit” or “Two-Spirited,” it’s an English translation of the Anishinaabemowin term niizh manidoowag. Queer Indigenous activists in Canada and the United States created the official term for alternative indigenous gender roles and identities during Third Annual Native American, First Nations, Gay & Lesbian American conference held in Manitoba in 1990. Two-Spirit identity facilitates the reclamation of indigeneity from Western discourse and combats against the settler-colonial imposition of cis-heteronormativity on indigenous peoples.

For those interested in learning more about the history of Two-Spirit identity, check out these educational articles:

More flag designs!

A variation of my redesign without the circular symbol: 

While researching for this project, I came across this brilliant piece of artwork done for the 10th Annual International Two-Spirit Gathering held in 1997 in Onamia Minnesota. The painting is by George Littlechild and is currently held in the Oakland Museum of California. 

The following alternative redesigns for a Two-Spirit pride flag are inspired by Littlechild’s painting. The colors are drawn from his piece, but retain the same meanings for me as in the initial redesign. 

Thank you for reading this post!

I hope that everyone has a safe pride month. Here are some additional video resources on Two-Spirit identity for those who would like to learn more about how to protect and uplift the community: 

Links to the flags which inspired my designs: 

"I'm [minority] but I don't wanna stick up for myself cause-!"

LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer History—chapter 09. Sexual and Gender Diversity in Native America and the Pacific Islands by Will Roscoe. part 2

Two Spirits in Native Tradition: Roles, Genders, Identities and Diversity cont.

In the twentieth century, ‘berdache’ “became the standard anthropological term for alternative gender roles among Native Americans. By the 1980’s, however, there was call for a change among scholars. In 1990, at a gathering of Native American and First Nations people, the term ‘two-spirit(ed)’ was coined. “Today, the term is used to refer to “both male-bodied and female-bodied native people who mix, cross, or combine the standard roles of men and women” (09-5).

The author acknowledges in a footnote that the term has its limitations (translation errors, and the fact that many tribes believe that all of us have the essence/spirit of male and female in us). But none of his reasons for these limitations match with my main critique both with the term two-spirit but mostly with the way it is often spoken of. Even within the acknowledgement of individuals who do not conform 100% to the Western concept of man or woman, the people are still fit into a binary. They are referred to as ‘male bodied’ and ‘female bodied’ two-spirited people.

To me, this often feels like an easy way for people to ‘short cut’ their understanding of native genders—as soon as they understand the way someone is sexed, they can still fit that person into a category, even if those categories are imperfect. Intersexuality is a ghost when topics of sex and gender arise. More and more, we understand that sex is not immutable, it is yet another social construction—the process of someone developing in utero and then continuing to grow and change in their lifetime is so complex that very often people do not fit neatly into either the distinct category of male or female.

(See the link below for a better image of this)

Whether that is their very chromosomes, hormones, secondary or primary sex characteristics—all these things and more combine to create a person. A person whose very sex is unique to them, as their gender is unique to them. Who knows the true reality of the two-spirit’s biological sex? No one—unless they are given extensive expensive testing that has only recently become available.

The truth is that intersexuality is natural and is common in humans, even in the Western world with its biopolitical control and its dualisms. The reason two-spirit people were and are held so special is because they do not fit neatly into these categories. To me it feels a kind of modern colonial erasure to try and sex the bodies of people who often very clearly and blatantly blurred all barriers. It feels as if it misses the entire point of the term two-spirit, as least as I understand it. But, I have not read much into what other two-spirits (especially elders) think about this concept. “Two-spirit males have been documented in at least 155 tribes; in about a third of these a recognized status for females who adopted a masculine lifestyle existed as well”. (09-6) But as Roscue later adds, “absence of evidence cannot be taken as evidence of absence” (09-8).

In general, the lives of “native women have been overlooked […] and obscured by Euro-American sexual and racial stereotypes. Taking a broader view reveals that women throughout North American and the Pacific Islands often engaged in male pursuits, from hunting to warfare and tribal leadership, without necessarily acquiring a different gender identity” (09-8). Roscoe then offers some examples of Indigenous women being awesome. The author then lists examples of traditional terms for two-spirited people across various tribes and explains that many of them cannot be literally translated into gender binary terms like ‘man-woman’. “These terms have lead anthropologists, historians, and archaeologists to describe two-spirit roles as alternative or multiple genders” (09-6). In fact, “many native societies are capable of accommodating three, four, and possibly more genders, or having a gender system characterized by fluidity, transformation, and individual variation” (09-7).

The author discusses how two-spirit children were identified often as youth by the certain type of activities they liked to participate in. Oftentimes ceremonies ‘marked’ people with two-spirit status. He then goes on to discuss the other ways two-spirits lived in society. “In many instances, male and female two spirits were medicine people, healers, shamans, and ceremonial leaders” (09-8). Certain ceremonial functions were specific to two-spirits and they were often seen to hold great power (09-8). “Because two-spirits occupied a distinct gender status, their relationships were not viewed as being same-sex” (09-9). !!!! This feels so important for some reason!!

Sexual and Gender Diversity in Native Hawai’i

This section further emphases that indigenous peoples have had genders that go beyond male or female, man or woman and also that colonial violence is a tragedy. While I respect and love the people of Hawai’i and their struggles are so, so similar to Native Americans, I believe that the vast majority of Native Hawaiians do NOT consider themselves Native American (or American Indian or even just American) so my covering on this topic will be limited.