Project 450160

The multiplicity and diversity of Indigenous genders and sexualities has been intentionally disrupted and violently targeted by historic and ongoing colonization and epistemicide. This has profoundly negatively impacted the health and well-being of Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, and Indigenous gender and sexuality-diverse peoples today. Although Indigenous understandings of gender, sexuality, and health have endured, they are not well-known, as much Indigenous Knowledge and sacred information was forced underground by legislation, persecution, and policing. Connecting Indigenous gender and/or sexuality-diverse youth and their family relations to cultural knowledge, traditions, language, and concepts of gender and sexual health can promote resilience and well-being for youth. This project builds upon a year of relationship-building to co-design and pilot inclusive rites of passage for gender and/or sexuality-diverse Indigenous youth. The rites of passage will be grounded in ceremony; land- and language-based cultural teachings; and transformative arts-based activities including beading and digital storytelling to promote resilience, personal agency, and autonomy for gender and/or sexuality-diverse Indigenous youth. Knowledge will be co-generated and transferred through our gatherings, sharing circles, and arts-based activities.