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Author: Albert McLeod

he/him

Albert McLeod is a Status Indian with ancestry from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Metis communities of Cross Lake and Norway House in northern Manitoba. One of the founders of the Two‐Spirited People of Manitoba, Albert began his 2Spirit advocacy in Winnipeg in 1986 and became an HIV/AIDS activist in 1987. He was the director of the Manitoba Aboriginal AIDS Task Force from 1991 to 2001. In 2018, Albert received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Winnipeg. He was also a member of the sub‐working group that produced the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan Report in 2020–21. In 2020, Albert joined Team Thunderhead, the team that won the international competition to design the 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument. Based in Winnipeg, Albert works as a consultant specializing in Indigenous peoples, 2Spirit history and identity, cultural reclamation and cross‐cultural training. Learn more at 2spiritconsultants.ca

Stories

The Re‐emergence of 2Spirit People in the 21st Century

By Albert McLeod

Two‐Spirit individuals were cherished in Indigenous cultures, Albert McLeod writes, but European colonizers imposed rigid, binary definitions of gender and sexuality that activists are working to dismantle.

A group of marchers carrying signs that read “2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations” are walking down the centre of a city street while onlookers watch behind barriers on both sides.

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