Nicole, Jeff and myself presented today
How We Find Ourselves: Identity Development and Two-Spirit
People
Alex Wilson, 1996
I was really excited to discuss this topic. I remembered that almost 20 years ago I
was fortunate to work at the Banff Centre for the Arts. I was a video production associate,
which meant that we (the associates) facilitated and worked with artists from
around the world. One of the
3 month residencies was with a group of LGBT artists who were either HIV positive
or who had AIDS. One of the
artists was a lovely young man who identified as Two Spirit. I had forgot all about him until we
were working on the presentation.
It was a nice memory to have.
I also realized that is when I became an Ally, even though I
don't recall hearing or using that name.
It is actions that make you an Ally, not the label.
Just as in Alex's article, the people don't need the
external, non-native label "Two Spirit" to know who they are. Something that my eyes were really open
to in this article, is that we, as white people from the colonizing community,
have a real need to categorize others into groups based on our definitions and
by our standards.
We need to understand that identity is grounded in the
inter-connectedness of all aspects of identity including sexuality, race and
gender. European definitions
create separate roles and behaviours for men and women. Those who don't fit into those
categories are seen as abnormal.
This is opposite of how 2 Spirit people are seen in some indigenous
cultures, they are simply a part of the community. In some cultures two-spirit people were though to be born in
balance, a balance of masculine and feminine qualities of male and female
spirits. They were also sometimes
seen as bridge-makers.
These two videos explain the label of Two Spirit and how the people, who don't fit the categories of gender an sexuality that we (as white colonizers) have insisted upon, have always had a place in their own communities.
We spent a fair amount of time on the five cultural ethics
based on the worldviews of the Iroquois, Ojibway, and Swampy Cree.
Ethic
of Non-Interference
Ethic
that Anger Not Be Shown
Ethic
Respecting Praise and Gratitude
Conservation-Withdrawal
Tactic
Notion
That The Time Must Be Right
These are really important to try to understand and be
mindful of. These five ethics are different from how we, as the dominant race,
expect people to function, especially the students in our schools, and their
families.
We thought it was important to also discuss what being an Ally means. The reason is one line in the following definition, "their sense of connection to all people, all other people."
I know that for some of my classmates they are struggling with the balance of becoming and Ally with a group of people who they are still somewhat uncomfortable with.
Anne Bishop - Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People (2002)
Allies are distinguished by several characteristics:
their sense of connection with other people, all other
people;
their grasp of
the concept of collectivity and collective responsibility;
their lack of an individualistic stance and ego, as opposed
to their sense of self;
their sense of process and change;
their understanding of their own process of learning;
their realistic sense of their own power - somewhere between
all powerful and powerless;
their grasp of "power with" as an alternative to
"power over";
their honesty, openness and lack of shame about their own
limitations;
their knowledge and sense of history;
their acceptance of struggle;
their understanding that good intentions do not matter if
their is no action against oppression;
their knowledge of their own roots.
these are the characteristics of allies; they are also all
characteristics that mark people who are well advanced in their own liberation
process
(There was an interesting dynamic in our presentation, I am
saying this merely as an observation, so please don't read it any other
way. Nicole and I are very
comfortable working together and are pretty much on the same wavelength. It seemed that Jeff wasn't too
comfortable working with us. He
had his own ideas of what he wanted to talk about, so we let him... I think we took to heart the ethic of
non interference and let him proceed in his journey of learning in his own
way.)
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