OCAD University Open Research Repository

Sacred Shapeshifter: Embracing Ambiguity in Two-Spirit Identity

Nadjiwon, Kay (2025) Sacred Shapeshifter: Embracing Ambiguity in Two-Spirit Identity. Masters thesis, OCAD University.

Item Type: Thesis
Creators: Nadjiwon, Kay
Abstract:

This thesis explores the reclamation of Two-Spirit identity and its significance within the queer Indigenous community, examining how Eve Tuck’s desire-based research framework can shape futures centered around decolonial love. Grounded in personal narrative, familial histories, and Anishinaabe epistemologies, both the written and creative productions disrupt conventional understandings of tradition, challenge rigid gender binaries, and foster intergenerational healing as a means to raise a new consciousness. Through autoethnographic modes of storytelling, stitching, beadwork, and sculpture come together to explore the ambiguity of Two-Spirit identity and engage in world-building. Rather than focusing solely on damage, this thesis highlights the power of possibility, resilience, and kinship across time and space, carrying ancestral knowledge forward as a gesture of futurity.

Date: 20 March 2025
Uncontrolled Keywords: Indigenous, Two-Spirit, queer, trans, desire, ambiguity, survivance, kinship, autoethnography, Anishinaabemowin, shapeshifting, decolonial love
Divisions: Graduate Studies > Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design
Date Deposited: 08 May 2025 19:28
Last Modified: 08 May 2025 19:28
URI: https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/4785

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