Two-Spirit Experience: A Reading List

This list was provided by the Wabanaki Two-Spirit Alliance and contains both fiction and nonfiction. We would like to note that this can never be complete – new work is always being added to the body of experiences, art, and research about being Two-Spirited and its importance to Indigenous Peoples.

Additionally, Halifax Public Libraries' collection continues to grow and we hope to broaden our selection of these recommended titles.

In our collection

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Note: Some of these items may be out of print.

• (Nova Scotia) Mi’kmaq Puoinaq Two Spirit Medicine: Sexuality and Gender Variance, Spirituality and Culture, opens a new window by Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers and Foreword Contributor, Elder Dr Daniel N. Paul. Scholarly 2019
• She Walks for Days Inside a Thousand Eyes: A Two Spirit Story by Sharron Proulx-Turner. Poetry/Narrative 2008
• Love Medicine and One Song by Gregory Scofield. Poetry 2002
• Rough Paradise by Alec Butler. Fiction 2014
• The Woman Who Owned the Shadows by Paula Gunn Allen. Fiction 1995
• Mohawk Trail by Beth Brant. Collection (poetry, narrative and memoir) 1992
• Lesbian Triptych by Jovette Marchessault. Fiction 1990
• Not Vanishing by Chrystos. Poetry 1988

Online resources

• Healing Our Nations, opens a new window
• Native Youth Sexual Health Network, opens a new window
• Northwest Two-Spirit Society
• King County Trans Resource and Referral Guide, opens a new window
• Two-Spirit Archives (University of Winnipeg), opens a new window
• Out Saskatoon, opens a new window
• University of Toronto – Two Spirit and LGBTQIA Indigenous Resources, opens a new window
• PBS Independent Lens: Two Spirits, opens a new window
• Re:searching for LGBTQ2S+ Health, opens a new window
• National Collaboration Centre for Aboriginal Health, opens a new window
• Lakehead University, opens a new window
• West Central Women’s Resource Centre, opens a new window
• Indian Country Today, opens a new window
• GLAAD, opens a new window
• Trans Care, opens a new window
• Two Spirit Journal, opens a new window

Research

• 2019 – Using L’nuwey Worldview to Conceptualize Two-Spirit. Antistasis, 9(1), 96 - 116. Sylliboy, John R.
• Coming Out Stories: Two Spirit Narratives in Atlantic Canada. Urban by Wabanaki Two-Spirit Alliance
• Aboriginal Knowledge Network (UAKN) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)
• 2017 – Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance: 2 Spirit Pride Event Report
• Allen, P. G. (2011). Some Like Indians Endure. In Q.-L. J. Driskill, Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature (pp. 21-24). Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
• Asanti, I. T. (2010). Living with Dual Spirits: Spirituality, Sexuality and Healing in the African Diaspora. Journal of Bisexuality, 10(1/2), 22-30.
• Blackwood, E. (1997). Native American Genders and Sexualities: Beyond Anthropolical Models and Misrepresentations. In S.-E. W. Jacobs, Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality (pp. 285-293). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Bowers, J.R. (2019). Mi;kmaq Puoniaq Two Spirit Medicine: Ability Therapy Specialists Pty Limited.
• Brown, L. B. (1997). Two Spirit People: American Indian Lesbian Women and Gay Men. Binghamton: Harrington Park Press.
• Canon, M. J. (1998). "The Regulation of First Nation Sexuality". The Canadian Journal of Canadian Studies, 18 (1), 1-18.
• Council, A. N. (2016, September 19). AFN NYC Calls to Action. Retrieved from Assembly of First Nations Health: http://health.afn.ca/en/news/general/afn-nyc-calls-to-action
• Cromwell, J. (1997). "Traditions of Gender Diversity and Sexualities: A Female-to-Male Transgendered Perspective". In S.-E. W. Jacobs, Two-Spirited People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality (pp. 119-142). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Cruz, L. E. (2011). Birth Song for a Muin. In Q.-L. D. Driskoll, Soverrign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature (pp. 66-70). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Driskill, Q.-L. (2011). Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
• Estrada, G. S. (2011). Two-spirit Histories in Southwestern and Mesoamerican Literatures. In S. &. Slater, Gender and Sexuality in Indigenous North America, 1400-1850 (pp. 165-184). Columbia: University of South Carolina.
• Evans-Campbell, T. K. (2012). Indian Boarding School Experience, Substance Use, and Mental Health among Urban Two-Spirit American Indian/Alaska Natives. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 38(5), 421-427.
• Faderman, L. (2015). The Gay Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Garret & Barret, M. T. (2003). Two Spirit: Counseling Native American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual People. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, Vol. 31, 131-142.
• Gilley, B. J. (2006). Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country. University of Nebraska Press.
• Hill, D. M. (2003). HIV/AIDS Among First Nations People: A Look at Disproportionate Risk Factors as Compared to the Rest of Canada. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 239-359.
• Jacobs, S. E., Wesley Thomas, and Sabina Lang (1997a). Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
• Jacobs, S.-E. (1997b). "Is the 'North American Berdache' merely a Phantom in the Imagination of Western Social Scientists?". In S.-E. W. Jacobs, Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality (pp. 21- 43). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Medicine, B. (2002). Directions in Gender Research in American Indian Socities: Two Spirits and Other Categories. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 1-11.
• Robinson, M. (2014). "A Hope to Lift Both My Spirits": Preventing Bisexual Erasure in Aboriginal Schools. Journal of Bisexuality, 14(1), 18-35.
• Robinson M (2017). Two-Spirit And Bisexual People: Different Umbrella, Same Rain. Journal  of Bisexuality, 17 (1), 7-29.
• Roscoe, W. (1998). Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Ryan, B. (2003). A new look at homophobia and heterosexism in Canada. Canadian AIDS Society.
• Silko, L. M. (1996). Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Two Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Tafoya, T. (1997). M. Dragonfly: Two-Spirit and the Tafoya Principle of Uncertainty. In S. W. Jacobs, Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality (pp. 192-200). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Taylor, C. P. (2015). The Every Teacher Project on LGBTQ-inclusive education in Canada's K-12 schools: Final Report. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Teacher's Society.
• Tortorici, Z. (2012). Against Nature: Sodomy and Homosexuality in Colonial America. History Compass, Vol. 10, 161-178.
• Williams, W. L. (1992). The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon Press Books.
• Wilson, A. (1996). How we find ourselves: Identity development and two-spirit people. Harvard Education Review, 66(2), 303-317.
• Wilson, A. (2008). N'tacimowin inna nah': Our Coming In Stories. Canadian Women Studies, 193-199.
• Two Spirit Journal, opens a new window