niizh jijaag gashkibijigan: Building Our Bundles of Support with Two-Spirit Youth
A resource for sharing tools and teachings around how to better support 2SLGBTQQIA+ young people with our families and communities.
What is it?
niizh jijaag gashkibijigan: Building Our Bundles of Support with Two-Spirit Youth is a 3-year 2SLGBTQQIA+ led project. Our aim is to bring two-spirit, trans, and gender non-conforming Indigenous youth together to share knowledge and strengths with one another. The goal of our project is to better understand our needs in order to develop a new resource dedicated to sharing tools and teachings with our families and communities.
This will be a resource for parents, families and communities of two-spirit, trans and gender non-conforming youth that will help our kin support us.
Why this project?
NYSHN has been getting requests for how families, caregivers, and relatives can best support 2SQ & trans indigenous youth for years. In our personal lives, a resource that speaks to our experiences and is created for us, by us is something that we as a team have yearned for as well.
We know that nothing can replace the magic and good medicine that comes from being in relationship to each other. What we learn during smoke breaks, road trips to the city/rez, and over tea and coffee can’t necessarily be replicated in printed manual form. But we also can’t be everywhere at once, or sustain deep, reciprocal relationships with everyone who reaches out and wants this support. That’s the impetus for this project.
What’s the process?
We will be holding a series of gatherings, both in-person and virtual, where 2SLGBTQQIA+, Two-Spirit, and Indigiqueer youth can come together to share their knowledge and help shape the direction of the finished resource.
There will also be opportunities for youth to provide ongoing feedback on the project as it develops, and opportunities to contribute art, stories, and other content to the resource.
Ways for youth to get involved
We know that the knowledge that will help our parents, friends and communities support us as trans, two-spirit and gender non-conforming youth is held by our peers - that’s why we want to hear what you have to say! We want this resource to be helpful and meaningful to as many people as possible, and that means getting input from many voices. We are looking to connect with 2SLGBTQQIA+ Indigenous youth (30 and under) to share ideas about what kinds of support we need and want from our families, relatives, and communities.
Who we’re looking for:
You identify as an Indigenous youth under 30
You identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+
You’re excited to share ongoing feedback and ideas on the resource
What involvement could look like:
Participation in online and/or in-person gatherings
Participation in one-on-one interviews or engagement circles
Creation of artwork, stories, audio other content for the final resource
About the gatherings
We plan to hold several gatherings throughout the three years of this project. By holding multiple gatherings and spacing them out, we will be able to hear from a variety of youth, and also be able to build on the knowledge learned in previous gatherings.
In-person gatherings:
We’ll be holding three one-day gatherings between now and 2025: one in Victoria, BC, one in Mattawa, Ontario, and one in Alberta.
We spread them out in the hopes that they would be accessible to as many folks as possible, and we will also be providing travel and accommodations if these are necessary for you to attend.
Honorarium and food will be provided to all participants.
Virtual gatherings:
We’ll be holding four 3-hour virtual gatherings between now and 2025.
Participants are welcome to join as many or as few of these virtual gatherings as they want!
Honorarium and meal gift cards will be available for all participants.
