Canada’s Indian Residential Schools (IRS) caused irreparable harm to First Nations families across many generations. 2Spirit (Indigenous LGBTQ) people were among those impacted, however their stories have rarely been heard, documented, or shared in the general discourse about this era. Following the closure of the last IRS in Ft. Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, in 1996, there is a generation of 2Spirit former students who are available to engage in this project. The 2Spirit Council of Fierté Canada Pride lead the engagement of 2Spirit survivors and assisted and supported them to tell their stories.
The goal of this project was to recruit eight 2Spirit Indian Residential School Survivors (Story Tellers) to participate in a speaker series project in order to preserve and share their stories. Our Project Coordinator worked with Story Tellers through a series of storytelling workshops, and supported them in documenting and sharing their story through the project.