Taking place from Aug 31st to Sept 4 at Liscomb Lodge, Nova Scotia, this conference is called Mawita’jijk Puoinaq. Wapanaki means “the People for the Dawn” and the traditional alliance includes members of the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passaquoddy, Penscobot and Abenaki tribes but an Alliance also included other New England tribes.
By: ctvbc.ca
Date: Wednesday Mar. 23, 2011 1:30 PM PT
Then we see what it takes to change genders and we meet two very different men living positively with HIV.
The weekend of October 15th-18th saw a dream come true for the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society (NE2SS), the first ever NorthEast Two-Spirit Gathering. Members of the two spirit community from all over the nation attended. Spanning generations, and representing 15 different States from California to New York, and 1 Canadian province, over fifty, two-spirited people came to support this historic event and NE2SS.
Last April, 2010, NE2SS sponsored six of their members to attend a gathering in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was during this event that Harlan Pruden, co-founder of the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society, asked the sponsored member’s one simple question: “Do you think New York could do a Two-Spirit gathering?” The answer was a resounding “YES!”
Once the NE2SS members returned home to New York, they went straight to work, securing funding, finding a location in scenic Long Island, and promoted the event to national two-spirit leadership across the nation. The gathering happened with support and funding from the Stonewall Foundation’s Racial Equity Intuitive, a New York Senate Grant, and many contributions from our friends, family and allies who answered our First Giving campaign. Special thanks to Lindy Linder for her continued support of our work and standing with our community. Additionally, this gathering would not have been possible without the support and backing of Audre Lorde Project. Finally, a huge thank you to Camp deWolfe’s Executive Director who worked with us so the Gathering has a home! In six short months, the First Annual NorthEast Two Spirit Society Gathering, was ready to welcome its first guests.
Gay and transgender Native Americans find acceptance in tradition
by John Rosengren
Utne Reader
January-February 2009
Image by Mike Dvorak
He checks his plaid skirt, stockings, and deep-cut white blouse. When another man’s eyes fall on his cleavage, Richard squeezes his breasts together and answers the silent inquiry: “They’re real!”
Beyond the bathroom doors, men and women dance around a drum in more traditional costume—feathers, fox pelts, moccasins, beads, and bells. They’re all here for the 20th annual International Two Spirit Gathering, a celebration of and for those who feel they carry both male and female spirits.
In late August 2008, some 85 Native lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from three dozen tribes in Canada and the United States traveled to the Audubon Center of the North Woods, 90 miles north of Minneapolis.
Research reveals strong cultural acceptance in the past
![LIVING HOPE: Identifying themselves as two-spirited people, Ed Harris [right], from Bella Bella, and Rodney Little Moustache, a Blackfoot First Nation member from the eastern Rocky Mountain slopes, have been living with HIV for many years. Both are front-line workers who have dedicated their lives to education and prevention of the spread of HIV among street-engaged and reserve-based first nations people.](http://www.prpeak.com/content/articles/2008/11/05/community/doc49112211b3dee778903898.jpg)
By Paul Galinski | reporter@prpeak.com
Published: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 4:19 PM CST
Research shows historically, diffuse gender identification was a celebrated component of first nations culture, according to a Powell River researcher. However, Western contact swayed the positive recognition and has contributed to two-spirited people being ostracized as homosexual people, he added.
Michael Thoms, who has a doctorate in history and teaches history at Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) Powell River campus, said one of his specialties is ethno-history, “which is a fancy way of saying specialized in fields of first nations cultural, ecological and social relationships,” he said.
“For 15 years I’ve been a researcher for a group called two-spirited people of the first nations, and also for the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network.
“One of the problems, as we know, is first nations people are marginalized in society,” Thoms said. “They experience issues with poverty, poor self-esteem, lack of advanced education and these kinds of things. One group within first nations society that is particularly vulnerable are those that we in the West would call gay or lesbian.”
Thoms said first nations people have a tradition that predates contact with the West.