What is Two-Spirit: Centring Knowledge about Two-Spirit Gender and Sexuality in Sexuality Education

Abstract

The term Two-Spirit (2S) reflects the resurgence by Two-Spirit and Indigenous people to share knowledge about gender identity and sexuality through cultural or linguistic-specific perspectives anchored in their worldviews. The term has consolidated within the queer community on Turtle Island since it was introduced in 1990 at an international gathering.  The use of Two-Spirit is also increasing in the general population, especially in the queer community and public institutions. Recently, the federal government of Canada began to use the 2S at the front end of the acronym 2SLGBTQQIA+ to acknowledge Two-Spirit's historical experience and space in Canada. In Indigenous communities, the term “Two-Spirit” may be used in the absence of words, terms, or phrases that would have been impacted by colonialism and the onslaught of heteronormative and patriarchal values inflicted onto Indigenous cultures that eroded Two-Spirit language, ceremonies, and teachings since the early colonial period. Each Nation, reserve, tribal affiliation, territory, settlement, and urban Indigenous community is unique. Nevertheless, Two-Spirit people from various Nations continue to share knowledge about Being and Living as Two-Spirit people traditionally and now. Being and Living as Two-Spirit people derives from ancestral knowledge and contemporary perspectives of gender identity and sexuality. The paper highlights the importance of including Two-Spirit (2S) knowledge in sexuality education, which has been categorized mainly under Eurocentric perspectives. Centring Two-Spirit gender identity and sexuality is a deliberate repositioning of Indigenous knowledge front and centre in sexuality education, which supports the process of understanding what is Being and Living as Two-Spirit in a L’nuwey worldview in Atlantic Canada.