Hey everyone, I hope everyone is safe and well during this quarantine. My own county went back to a Stay-At-Home order, so I am once again stuck inside with too much free time.
Recently, I began talking more with my Kookum (Grandmother in Cree), and started documenting our family’s history and tribal heritage. She’s going to be 80 in a few months, and after she had a covid scare (but recovered fully!!) it made me realize just how precious our elders are. When she’s gone, one of the last links to my family’s past will be gone. I love her dearly, and honestly have been trying to avoid thinking about losing her, but as the years and covid rages, I had to confront the fact that it’s up to the younger generations to carry on our elders’ legacies, traditions, and practices so that they do not fade away.
In documenting my tribal history, I also had to face the fact that, in transitioning, I essentially alienated myself from my tribe’s practices and ceremonies. Not because I’ve been ostracized from my community, but because of my own internalized transphobia as well as internalized colonizer ideals that have been hammered into me as well as my family for hundreds of years. Talking to my Kookum and finding out more about our practices and beliefs, I found out that it not only was accepted to be trans in our tribe, it was celebrated.
There’s so much of our history that was lost, and we are never getting it back. So many of our practices, crafts, beliefs, and stories are gone. But as I said above, it’s up to the younger generations to listen to our elders, and learn what they learn so that we can carry this on with us.
I was inspired to pick up a trade I haven’t touched in years. Beading. I have not beaded anything since I was 14, but I still hung on to all of my supplies all these years. I made my first pair of earrings, done in the trans flag colors. I will wear them with pride, both as a Two-spirited person, and also as a proud Anishinaabeg.
Comment