Two-Spirit: A Bridge Between Worlds

Written by/photos provided by: Chelazon Leroux

This week I am thrilled to have a guest blog from a very special person/artist/activist. I met Chelazon Leroux during Season 3 of Canada's Drag Race and I could tell right away they were intelligent, talented and funny as hell. I highly recommend you give them a follow on Instagram and TikTok. 

Here, Chelazon speaks about their experience being a Two-Spirit person, the history and what it means in modern day. I encourage you you to read their words to learn more about the beauty of the Indigenous identity. 

By deepening our learning about topics like these, allies can be more informed and supportive all year long, not just during Pride month. 

Thank you to Chelazon for sharing their beautiful words with our readers.

My name is Chelazon Leroux, I am originally from Treaty 10 Buffalo River Dene Nation, and Treaty 8 Territory Fond Du Lac First Nation, both within the province of Saskatchewan. Born and raised a Dene First Nations and Queer/Two-Spirit individual. I now live in the wonderfully expensive and entertaining city of Toronto, Ontario which resides on Treaty 13 territory, which is the homeland of the original caretakers, Anishinaabe, Mississauga’s, and Haudenosaunee Nations.

We are in Pride season 2024 and I’m so happy to exist here for it. As a drag artist, I find myself being able to express my identity and experiences freely in a larger city, as compared to back home in Saskatchewan. But I do find the narrative/history around queerness and Pride to be lacking historical and Indigenous context. My goal in moving here is to open up a narrative around Two-Spirit identity and the importance of Indigenous experience.

Two-Spirit Flag

Two-Spirit is an identity that speaks to what we now identify as queer indigenous peoples. “The creation of the term “two-spirit” is attributed to Elder Myra Laramee, who proposed its use during the Third Annual Inter-Tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference, held in Winnipeg in 1990” (Fewster). Though the word Two-Spirit is a relatively modern invention, the Indigenous communities needed an English word to describe a traditional identity which existed amongst many First Nations, Inuit, and Metis communities across Canada and the US. I cannot say for sure that South America claims the term Two-Spirit, but just like us up north, we’ve had many words to describe our queer relatives in our traditional Languages.

Two-Spirit identity has thrived on this land long before any form of homophobia, erasure of queerness, and hatred towards our communities ever existed. I find in contemporary discussions of queer existence, a lot of hateful people love to pretend that pronouns, identities, and queerness itself just popped up out of nowhere; insinuating that we’re making things up, and that this is somehow brand new. It frustrates me because our Indigenous peoples have acknowledged and respected these identities and spaces well before First Contact and the creation of this country we call “Canada” today. I didn’t always have the word Two-Spirit to describe my identity. Like I’ve mentioned, I grew up in Saskatchewan, not exactly a shining beacon of diversity or acceptance. However, I always knew I was different, as most queer people do. We’re told we don’t fit in, we sit on the sidelines, too weird to exist or thrive in a heteronormative world.

Two-Spirit Elders

One of my traditional teachings growing up was that children are closest to Creator, because they have just come from the spirit world. Meaning that they act out of innocence and authenticity. I feel that children come to this earth already knowing who they are, the gifts they bring, and the story they will one day tell. Unfortunately, the society I grew up in told me that everything I was, was not acceptable. As a young child I was loud, obnoxious and comedic. I would dress up and entertain my family, but I could see from a few disapproving looks that this was not ok. I was too loud, too weird, too queer, so I learned to hide my authenticity to survive. I had to do a lot of unpacking as an adult to realize that who I was as a child was the most authentic version of myself, and now it is my job to create a space for that child to express themselves. It’s always funny because when I look back on myself as a child, I could see the building blocks of the comedian, drag queen, public speaker, and artist that I would become. It should’ve been so clear to my parents and family that I would be exactly who I am now. I wish the world would acknowledge the intelligence of a child, who knows more about themselves than we might think. It is our job to allow them to live honestly and authentically.

I discovered the word and identity of Two-Spirit during the last year of my high school life. My family was having dinner and had some friends over. One of their kids asked me, “are you a boy or a girl?” to which my dad responded, “he’s just Two-Spirit”, marking the first time I heard that term. I couldn’t describe what that meant, but I was handed a box to fill with understandings of my personal experiences that were yet to come.

Two-Spirit people in a pre-colonized North America thrived in community. Traditionally we were highly revered as we were given the blessing of carrying both the feminine and masculine spirits, hence Two-Spirit. In those societies Two Spirit people had choices to take on either responsibilities of what would be men’s or women’s role. As such Two-Spirit people had many responsibilities, Knowledge Keepers, Medicine People, Spiritual Leaders, Caretakers, Educators, Community Builders, and tasks of the day-to-day like hunting, gathering, etc. It's Important to note that Two-Spirit is an exclusive term to Indigenous communities, First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples, as it only relates to a specific community/cultural role. There are many other words and identities to choose from outside of indigenous spaces - and I encourage everyone to find their respective cultural/queer identity.

Two Spirit identity also houses a spectrum of identities. It is highly necessary to understand that Two-Spirit and sexuality or gender identity are not mutually exclusive. Two-Spirit is a job role or title, a responsibility to your community as an indigenous person. Two-Spirit people have always been the bridge between worlds, Indigenous and Non-Indigenous, Masculine and Feminine, we are always the ambassadors and educators for our respective communities. Like I mentioned, there is no one gender or sexual identity that labels what a Two-Spirit person is, I am a Gay/Queer Man, but I have many Two-Spirit relatives who are Gay, Lesbian, Trans, and Queer individuals, which does not make them any less or any more Two-Spirit. It is also a term that is gifted to you by your community and Creator.

I found my Two-Spiritedness in that last year of high school; we had a weekly smudging ceremony as an option for students to partake in. My Native Studies teacher led it at the time and when we got into the room there was a circle of chairs, and she said, “the men sit on one side, and the women sit on the other side”. Something inside me told me to sit right in the middle, in between both. I look back at that moment with Pride because my Two-Spirits called out to me, told me what to do, and helped me claim my space.

Since then, I’ve had many experiences that have enriched my understanding of what it means to be Two-Spirit. I’ve had a lot of wonderful relatives who have educated me on those teachings, history, and their own personal experiences with the identity. It’s exciting that I live in a time that revitalizes that almost forgotten identity. I’m happy I get to be part of a generation that is learning about the traditional ways, but who are also defining what that means for us in a modern society. I find that we are still ambassadors, educators, healers, speakers, and community builders in the current day. It’s just our job to keep it strong so that the next generation can thrive even more than we have.

This country needs to acknowledge the richness of Indigeneity, our history, our pain, our sacrifice. But it also needs to celebrate our existence, our artistry, our storytelling, our beauty, and our Two-Spiritedness.