Mādahòkì Farm gathering strengthens connections among Indigenous Women and 2SLGBTQI+ organizations
Representatives from 2 Spirited People of the 1st Nations.
Photos courtesy of CIRNAC.
On a bright and crisp fall day, Mādahòkì Farm in Ontario was the perfect backdrop to an inspiring gathering of representatives from 17 Indigenous women’s and 2SLGBTQI+ organizations from coast-to-coast-to-coast. The change-makers, who all received funding through the Government of Canada’s Supporting Indigenous Women’s and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Organizations Program, came together for a workshop in November 2023 to share the wisdom they learned and the challenges they experienced in their work to protect and empower their communities.
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Mādahòkì Farm is an Indigenous cultural agritourism destination in the National Capital Region that shares Indigenous seasonal experiences of culture, food, and art throughout the year.
"We come from a community that's Indigenous. We come from a community that's 2SLGBTQQIA+. So, we have a lot of [traumatized] folks, and so we have these trauma-informed care approaches when we meet with our community. We try to meet our community where they're at. We look at their needs."
Paulete Poitras (She/They), Executive Director at 2 Spirits in Motion Society
"What we’re doing with the funding is to build foundations of knowledge. Part of it will be building modules for training, and those could be for our community but also for people who are frontline workers who need to understand what Two-Spirit means. Those modules will capture the historical components of what being Two-Spirit is, what our ancestral teachings are, what are some of the gaps in that knowledge, and some of the contemporary movements. We need to pass that knowledge down. But also, to celebrate our identity and to make sure that we understand that there are Elders that teach us knowledge around identity."
John Sylliboy (Nek’m), Executive Director of the Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance
This in-person workshop provided an opportunity for representatives from Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQI+ organizations from coast-to-coast-to-coast to gather in the community, build and strengthen relationships, and work together on shared goals. It is hoped that this workshop will lead to the creation of an ongoing sharing network.
"Two-Spirit communities and people have a lot of different barriers. They have the collective barriers that Indigenous People are speaking [about], but they also have barriers to discrimination and stigma. We need to be more cautious and helpful and supportive of those people."
Keith McCrady (No preferred pronouns), Executive Director at the 2-Spirited Peoples of the 1st Nations
Participants connect and pay their respects to an Ojibwe Spirit Horse at Mādahòkì Farm.
The rare and endangered Ojibwe Spirit Horses are the only known Indigenous horse breed in Canada. According to Mādahòkì Farm, "Elders say they have lived in harmony with our Indigenous communities since time immemorial." These horses are smaller and built for the Canadian forests with hairy ears and an extra nose flap. They represent a story of resilience and a sacred connection to the lands in Ontario where they have roamed free for thousands of years.