Smudging the Cystem; Rejecting the Politics of Traditionalism and Settler-Homonationalism

Abstract

This is a study of LGBTQ2 Indigenous identity and politics in colonial Canada. Scholars of Indigenous politics have recently focused on the importance of interrogating the sexualized and heteronormative landscape of settler colonialism, which has led to the proliferation of anti-queer violence within Indigenous nations. As such, the central tasks of this study are to determine how Two-Spirit Queer (2SQ) people engage in practices of resistance and freedom, as well as the factors that account for a queer Indigenous politics. Specifically, this study is interested in 2SQ life and politics among Blackfoot people. The thesis also examines how 2SQ people are problematically situated within the politics of “Two Spirit Reconciliation” as it propagates settler-homonationalism. Throughout the thesis, I argue that Indigenous territorialities, and the relational networks they carry, are central to the political resurgence of 2SQ people.