One could refer to Whitehead as a poet, fiction writer, and critic, and yet, Whitehead’s work also exists without such easily defined boundaries, blending elements of critical commentary and performance in his debut poetry collection, full-metal indigiqueer (which was published last fall to multiple printings by Talonboks), with the lyric performance and cultural commentary in his second book, the novel Jonny Appleseed, published last month by Arsenal Pulp Press. But I also think of Indigiqueer as the forward moving momentum for two-spiritness,’ he said. One to pay homage to where I come from, from Winnipeg, being kind of the birthplace of two-spirit in 1990. ‘I go by both two-spirit and Indigiqueer. The word Indigiqueer is his way of making a space, land, and ceremony for that identity. Two-spirit, in the simplest sense, is an Indigenous person who is a member of the LGBTQ community.īut Whitehead said his sexual identity is a ‘braiding of two worlds’-his queerness and his culture. As part of the introduction to a recent interview with Whitehead at CBC Radio, the host writes: “When you look for a clear definition of the term ‘two-spirit’ you’ll quickly find that there isn’t one”: You might be wondering what, exactly, that means. Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer from Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1 territory).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |