2S, which stands for Two-Spirit, is placed at the beginning of LGBTQ to emphasize and prioritize Indigenous ways of recognizing the gender spectrum.
In 1884 the Canadian Government revised the Indian Act in order to outlaw potlatching as well as other First Nations ceremonies throughout the country. Missionaries, government agents, and other colonial figures viewed potlatch as a hindrance to assimilating First Nations people into Euro-Canadian society. Despite these efforts by the government, missionaries, and the Indian residential school system to enact our cultural oppression, First Nations people continued their ceremonies in secret throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Few cases were successfully prosecuted in court. The most well-known incident took place at a large potlatch hosted by ‘Na̱mg̱is Chief Dan Cranmer at Village Island in 1921. Forty-five were arrested, twenty-two of whom were offered a lesser sentence in exchange for their ceremonial beings, which included masks and regalia and the rest were sent to prison. The potlatch ban was dropped in 1951. Aaron Glass, “The Thin Edge of the Wedge: Dancing Around the Potlatch Ban, 1922–951,” in Right to Dancing/Dancing for Rights, ed. Naomi Jackson (Alberta: Banff Centre Press, 2004), 56–57, 61, 79.
Gerald Vizenor, Fugitive Poses: Native American Scenes of Absence and Presence (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 15.
Brandi Morin, “Indigenous women are preyed on at horrifying rates. I was one of them,” The Guardian, September 7, 2020, ➝.
Other organizers include Marc Snelling and Wanda Good. Funding was provided by Women and Gender Equality Canada, with additional donations by the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, and B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation.
See Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2019, ➝.
For more on Gladys Radek and her powerful activism, see: “A Conversation with Indigenous Activist Gladys Radek,” Voice of Witness, March 5, 2020, ➝; Charlotte Morritt-Jacobs, “The journey of Gladys Radek and her fight for human rights,” APTN National News, June 4, 2019, ➝; Chantelle Bellrichard, “‘The genocide cannot continue’ says longtime MMIWG advocate Gladys Radek,” CBC News, June 4, 2019, ➝; Christine McFarlane, “Gladys Radek: A woman on a mission,” Aboriginal Multi-Media Society: Raven’s Eye, 2011, ➝.
Jake Wray, “Highway of Tears memorial totem pole to be raised in northern B.C.,” The Chilliwack Progress, July 22, 2020, ➝.
Lee Wilson, “Memorial pole raised on Highway of Tears in B.C. for families,” APTN National News, September 15, 2020, ➝.
Among Northwest Coast First Nations people, potlatches are ceremonial events where hereditary privileges, their associated histories, and kinship are asserted through oratory, songs, dances, and in some cases totem pole raisings, and validated through feasting and the distribution of gifts to the witnesses.
The livestream and dance group performances are archived together on the same page on CFNR’s website. See MMIWG/2SLGBTQ, “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls,” CFNR-FM, ➝.
Among our people as well as other Indigenous people along the Northwest Coast, songs and dances are property. The phrase “gifting a song” is commonly used to refer to the act of granting another person the right to its use. The rights to perform songs are inherited through family lines or gifted by a person who has the rights to grant permission. Ownership of songs and dances can be held individually, collectively, or both. It is a shared protocol that the ownership and/or permission is stated in the oratory before the song is performed. When the song is an inherited privilege, ownership is most often articulated in terms of belonging (i.e. “this song belongs to…”). These types of song are sometimes referred to as “ancestral songs.” When the right to perform a song is received through gifting, however, the introduction of its ownership and permission is usually articulated along the lines of: “This song belongs to ___; it was gifted to ___ from ___.” The composer is also acknowledged in the introduction, as an important part of the song’s history. Thus the history of this totem pole will be carried forward in its retelling as a part of the singing of this song.
For more information on the symbolism of the red dress, see: Jaime Black, The REDress Project, 2011–present, ➝. For information on the meaning of the red handprint across the mouth, see: Rhiannon Johnson, “Widespread use of red handprints to represent MMIWG sparks debate among advocates,” CBC News, March 9, 2020, ➝.
For more information on the creation and use of the mirrored shields that Water Protectors used during the demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline, see: Carolina A. Miranda, “Q&A: The artist who made protesters’ mirrored shields says the ‘struggle porn’ media miss point of Standing Rock,” Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2017, ➝.