Preface

How important to realise that all knowledge is actually between your ears and no theory or idea can live on a page or in electronic systems. There must be a form of intelligence that guides knowledge, even within cyberspace artificial intelligence requires a form of agency.

Native people traditionally know that personal power rests in the heart without writing the words, because knowledge is oral and based in personal encounter and communication. But nowadays youth are expected to perform in schools that not only seek to provide native systems of knowledge but also bi-cultural literacy. The expectations for native youth to succeed in the current climate are enormous. For LGBTIQ and Two Spirit youth we can easily add to these typical pressures in growing up issues around the social impacts and internalisation of racism, homophobia, and heteronormative values.

This is why, when Elder Daniel Paul offered in kindness a foreword for this book, his gift of belief in my work completely blew me away. It has meant so much to me, I cannot begin to express. Elder Danny's writing was so powerful his words had to begin this book. In respect for his gift I asked him would he like his name on the book cover? He agreed. This gesture is huge on his part. Not only in respect for my work but for the Mi'kmaw youth that Danny wished to reach with his message of tolerance, kindness, and love.

Danny understands the range of pressures that native youth face in today's world. In many ways the issues are similar to past generations, but with a contemporary social media twist. There are other ways that the structures of society, more broadly, and Mi'kmaq society have moved forward and changed. In many ways the world today is more complex, given to higher degrees of laws, rules, codes, structures, and it can seem like everything is so well defined that there is no space for youth to grow into creating visions for tomorrow.

As only one example, today there are more fences everywhere. Land use terms have evolved and continue to change. Though native people have lived with land and water use restrictions for many generations, there are increasing pressures on these natural systems from all sides. Including the higher degree of actual use of natural resources by native communities, i.e. through having built homes, businesses, and facilities. Youth may find it harder generally to forage, enjoy nature, and learn the traditional ways of ecology that were at one time common to all peoples of the planet. The incremental changes over time as well as current fast paced change generate new social and ecological relationships and contexts. These situations create new problems for youth in terms of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Often such problems may not surface until the mid-teen years when identity formation and innate needs for initiation into adulthood kicks in, giving rise to conflicts within the soul of youth.

Perhaps we might say, prepare yourself. This book holds little back. Depending on your values, beliefs, and cultural perspectives this book may challenge, inspire, or affirm. We remind, in native ways nothing is unclean.

Yes, there are many areas that are taboo, and many other areas that should remain taboo. But this book is all about respect and finding our way. What was perhaps taboo in another generation is here part of respectful relations. This concept of historical development is key to understanding how this book came to be.

In these pages we will openly discuss Two Spirit and GLBTIQ+ issues, gender and sexuality, spirituality and culture, religion and colonialism, western cultural values and western religion. There are few stones we do not overturn to see what lies beneath the assumptions we all have grown up with over the years. All this is done with utmost respect and to accomplish this also takes many years of reflection. To say things in the best way possible requires time to brew.

At the same time sometimes saying things is never easy or neat and tidy. This book is really about asking the hard questions. But more so, the purpose of doing this work is to raise the Sacred Fires of Hope, to remember the Sunrise Ceremony of our Elders. To provide youth with a way forward in dialogue with our Elders. This is really why the Two Spirit narrative is so important—not for us but for our nation. Not just for our nation, but for all nations. By recovery of identity and personhood, we show a path of regenerative human ecology that is needed now among all peoples of earth.

In retrospect, regeneration is not really complete without regression and healing, without facing head on and in personal ways the violence of colonialism that sadly includes religious bias, prejudice and fear. For native people, for those of minority status, for the poor and dispossessed, for the elderly and forgotten, there are so many ways that contemporary cultures side track human dignity and agency. And without even realising it, people today in mainstream cultures collide with violence and prejudice.

As Dr Paul's Foreword expresses so well, there are many ways that these narratives of dominance need to be challenged. But unfortunately, his narrative also suggests that to engage in critique of the dominant politics we must also personally feel the weight of these systems and the actual damage they create. Only then do we proceed with the wisdom necessary to recreate new pathways.

Since the 1980s the early work of feminism, gay and lesbian studies, sociological analysis, liberation theology, creation spirituality, along with other cultural forms like wiccan and pagan philosophies have intentionally worked to deconstruct western systems of thought dominated by colonial forms of Christianity. Native studies have progressed on a parallel though independent path, seeking to articulate both Indigenous models as well as critiquing the colonial and western mindset.

At the community level people want to just get on with life. Having said this, the relationship between our leadership and education systems and the development of theory, models, and systems of thought are actually quite important. The model informs the training of native teachers and therapists, who work within the community, informing the next generation on ways forward. New ideas continue to evolve, and a feedback loop is created between higher studies, research projects, and the outcomes we need in community and family life.

At the base of community life, many issues come up that prevent people from getting on. Like Dr Paul says, prejudice creates barriers to access information, education, training, jobs, opportunities. Also, dogmatic attitudes towards issues like divorce and remarriage can create difficult situations for families who are suddenly restricted from participation in church or community.

Not that long ago in fact, living an Indigenous cultural wisdom across European nations and in the colonies led to inquisition and witch hunts. Indigenous values were conflated into the word 'pagan' by a largely corporate colonial and clerical Christianity. The term pagan originally meant 'of the country' and was used simply as a term to describe farming and regional communities. The term became more significant from the 13th century onward, when small city states were cropping up across European tribal nations that were being forged around fortress and self-defence structures. Ownership, control of land resources, defence, and an us vs. them value system became central to the development of corporate and civic law.

These trends remain central to contemporary law and the ways society is organized. The insidious nature of these forms of governance appear to pull everyone into the ways that life is defined. Remaining outside of this system is near impossible, such as might be felt by many native people who believe the Indian Act and First Nations identity provides a shelter from state based and international corporate systems. Unfortunately, native status is largely defined also in relationship to and by contrast with western corporate law and systems of government.

Yet we are seeing globally that there are push backs happening across many levels of community and corporate interests, including the ways that native people are using the corporate system to create legal and governance changes that are more in keeping with native values. While there is compromise involved by working within the present legal systems, there is also incremental progress being made towards self-governance if not self-government. These issues are central to the topic of this book. The reasons why may at first seem quite unfathomable. But in reality, Two Spirit issues and social political reality have always been deeply interrelated.

At one level, the status quo of colonial corporate culture including within Christianity was to control the masses through fear and intimidation. Lack of access to information was central to this strategy. Educational systems were restricted access as well, to provide only certain members of society with means to progress. By using identity categories to further restrict people's freedom of movement, access, and behaviour the ruling classes had another mechanism to control others. Although broad based restrictions usually backfire because they restrict those in authority as well, the systems that develop tend to deal with these contingencies by increasing the privilege of the few.

Colonial culture and law made other categories that completely marginalized and quarantined native peoples while at the same time deployed prejudicial rules around various identities including ageism, gender conformity, and sexual ethics. Interwoven then are systems of thought and being, law and conduct, governance and identity. At the heart of the Two Spirit experience are always both social norms and personal experience.

In this way, Two Spirit defines the central issues for native rights — all of which rely on not only embracing social change but also personal freedom. During the 1990s we used to often hear the phrase 'the personal is political.' In many ways this is true, but not because the personal is contentious. Rather, the real issues are that western social political life and culture has become unhinged from humanity's heart which must rest within personal freedoms of conscience and self-defined identity.

This was also true in Mi'kma'ki, and applies to Two Spirit emancipation, and we can see how published Indigenous analysis has not yet caught up to articulating the extent of this trauma and recovery. In a way this book provides a window into this reflection on our histories and how we are digging our way out of the hole that colonisation created.

Today having a gay or lesbian child may create an awakening to parents, who suddenly realise that their community or church stance on 'homosexual issues' causes a great deal of harm. Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is one amazing group of people who exist to help parents in this transition towards acceptance and advocacy. Native social workers have most often stepped into this space to help families sort issues.

At the same time, while social conflict and small progress is being made, larger social movements are having a ground swell. In many ways change waits for the masses to shift, to move beyond past attitudes. Not only have Indigenous and First Nation spiritual ways had a resurgence this past two decades. Many other cultural forms that predated Christianity are arising once again in movements that seek to honour human and natural ecologies.

Many European Indigenous traditions are on the rise and are slowly being acknowledged within the colonial nation states of the Commonwealth. A great deal of reclamation is happening globally in a post-Christian, post-modern, and post-colonial environment. In many respects these movements sit outside of Christianity. But in other respects, there are forms of Christianity emerging that counter the colonial and western cultural bias that has dominated Catholic and Protestant approaches to faith and culture. In this sense, many today acknowledge that Christianity needs to unhinge itself from the dictates of western imperialism and colonial cultural bias.

Certain common values and approaches define Indigenous spiritualities. At the colonial level, native spirituality is discredited and subject to censure. But in postcolonial terms, native spirituality might be considered in a positive and generative sense. This occurs when we appreciate a reclaiming value such as with words like gay, queer, and aboriginal. It may seem obvious to us now, but in reality Mi'kmaq spiritual ways are integral to identity, and native spirituality is worthy of respect. This has not often, and not always been the case.

Words that were once used to marginalise and oppress people can sometimes become words of liberation. In this light, 'Indigenous' is a word that provides a degree of solidarity with other cultural and spiritual paths. Yet, as against corporate religions that 'do things by the book,' so to speak, Indigenous values highlight the ecological, personal, communal, regional, familial, and traditional. Indigenous values also appear to rely on the primacy of conscience and self-definition. There appears emphasis on communal and elder respect, and values of humility, listening, honour, and fairness or justice.

Among the western pre-Christian and contemporary spiritual paths that we have studied over the years we see many similarities among the older European cultural traditions and other Indigenous cultural forms of spirituality. Likewise, cross-cultural dialogue shows there may be similar elements within rituals, ceremonies, and teachings that are found within Mi'kmaq and other Indigenous paths. For instance, the Sacred Circle is common to many of these traditions and has universal dimensions within cultures around the world. Christians adopted the sacred circle, altar, and paschal fire and water in how churches were built upon four cardinal directions with the altar at the centre with baptismal candle and blessed water nearby. In Mi'kmaq, the Sacred Fire, Altar, and Water are at the heart of the Sweat Lodge Ceremony. An altar sits next to a Sacred Fire where the Elder Lodge Stones are heated and prepared. Water from a nearby river may assist during the Sweat.

Other cultural paths share similar symbols, such that, quickly enough, we learn how people have much more in common than we were led to believe. Again, quite intentionally prejudice generates intolerance that works to separate people from each other. Why? Because when we are separated and isolated, we become less powerful. Across these points of reflections we always ask, who benefits the most from keeping us isolated and ignorant of our strengths, capacities, and solidarity?

Other cultural paths share similar symbols, such that, quickly enough, we learn how people have much more in common than we were led to believe. Again, quite intentionally prejudice generates intolerance that works to separate people from each other. Why? Because when we are separated and isolated, we become less powerful. Across these points of reflections we always ask, who benefits the most from keeping us isolated and ignorant of our strengths, capacities, and solidarity?

While having invested many years into the formal study of Christian paths, out of respect and perhaps having grown a great deal, this book does not focus on these issues per se. Rather, our era appears focused on creating new pathways that honour traditional frameworks to make sense of the world we live in. As a Mi'kmaw person this means working in traditional knowledge systems to address current issues.

By traditional we mean that knowledge is alive, vital, and useful. Our models need to be pragmatic and effective, strategic and relevant. Traditional knowledge systems are integral, wholistic, connective, oriented to solution focused outcomes, and very robust. By robust we mean that traditional models are based in complex systems-values that observe ecologies, energies, and interactions over many generations. Our Elders carry this knowledge.

Indigenous science flows from traditional knowledge and is in many respects far advanced of most mainstream sciences. Western science is catching up as new generations challenge outdated bias and prejudice going back to the dark ages. Mi'kmaw science applies scientific method in a wholistic cultural landscape without the hang ups of western colonial histories.

Culturally speaking, our pre-colonial history demonstrates the implied use of complex systems theory within biological feedback models, including using principles of quantum physics inherent in our cosmology. This cluster of Indigenous values makes for a flexible ecological epistemology that is generative to scientific advancement. Clearly there are many points of convergence between science and Indigenous ways of knowing. Yet parallel to these insights, this book focuses on Two Spirit as an emerging social field of practice and discussion to provide a useful space to vision-quest the future. While we would like to remain in the positive here, there are also many conflicts that arise and that provide the context for advancement or regression.

For many, the path toward mutual respect and integral spirituality is fraught with dangers. Over the past decade cultures have become that much more radical, unbalanced, and militant. White supremacy may also be part of this phenomena. Social media may provide platforms for organising militancy that did not have means before. At the same time, other social groups have grown toward self-acceptance and autonomy. Native cultures are no exception to this trend. There is much positive growth in minority cultures as well.

In times of upheaval we can see how spiritual authority in our culture ceases to exist within what we might call the colonial worldview. To understand post-colonial, we need to decolonise the body. Over the centuries in European nations, the colonial body adrift and demonised by their own shadow issues that led to racial and natural genocide, ecological ruin, and now global climate degradation that threatens the narrow band of environmental conditions that actually sustain human life on earth. As we are seeing, our Elders have carried this Medicine all these many years from first contact until today.

The European cultures had generally placed personal authority into external systems of thinking, whether into Kings, Queens, Priests, Bishops or Pope. All led to the self-same outcome of disconnection and oppression. We can read this history in Elder Dr Daniel Paul's book, 'We Were Not the Savages.' And the story is clearly evident across a wider reading of history.

This same issue of diminishing personal authority is tied to global ecological genocide of the planet today. This underlying conflict of values exists across civil and corporate law. Modern forms of law are the children of canon law in the church that was written from Roman imperial law. The antithesis of gospel-based values, corporate law encourages disconnection and oppression. Land and water survival are at the heart of this story. And so is the Two Spirit Puoinaq.

Colonial teachings demand submission to external God-given authority in ministers or priests and bishops. Native teachings point to internal personal authority in humility and awakening, leading to integrity of thinking, speech, and action. Post-colonial models of spirituality nurture personal autonomy in ways that create harmony with nature.

Western nations are in identity crisis. Native nations are also caught in this same bind. We need to promote new models of spirituality based in integral studies. The epistemology of colonial verses integral ways of life is contrary in many ways. You either tend to side with one or the other, which influences your style and approach to both. To walk both ways in one path means compromise of both. You cannot walk in colonial and native spirituality at the same time without a great deal of compromise leading to hurt and suffering. The contradictions may cause profound trauma and suffering both psychological and social.

The only way that I have found to walk well is by shifting into a post-colonial spirituality that allows creative license and freedom to relate to various traditions from within a native cosmology. This allows for creativity, for honouring other paths and teachings, and for taking a more metaphorical and symbolic approach.

In similar ways, addressing the cluster of identity issues from gender to sexuality to race and Aboriginality requires a personal freedom of conscience. This can only grow and be nurtured in a society that is openminded. For this to happen, issues like prejudice, bias, violence, and stereotypes of personhood need to be resolved.

Scholarly analysis of the colonial histories across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and other nations shows the central issues of authority come about when personal identity confronts an unyielding corporate identity. Authority, agency, and autonomy are in this sense basic and essential human qualities that actually constitute the bedrock of international standards for human rights, including the united nations recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples and nations, including the right to self-government.

Yet certainly these self-same rights are part and parcel of the Two Spirit path, as finding your way is certainly up to you, and at the same time living this way is inherently supported by a now robust human rights framework. But this understanding often appears invisible in local communities and workplaces. It is only by trial and error that we come to terms with harsh reality verses ideal rights and then we begin to write our own terms. The society around us begins to change, and in some ways, we move on to new awareness. But like my experience and the lives of many others who inspire this work, this takes time, patience, and a longsuffering commitment to family.

In this process of empowerment no one else can do this work for you. You can rely on family, tribe, and nation for support because we see these places as our origins and our future. Even when your family does not realise or have not awakened to supporting you as a Two Spirit, you can see past this moment towards a future of hope. This is your inherent, and your integral spiritual nature. You can see into the future in hope, in spite of all you see today. This capacity is part and parcel of Two Spirit Medicine and is central to the gifts that Creator provides to all children of earth.

This book is unique at this time in history. There is nothing quite like this in the literature on Two Spirit ways that combines the fields of Counselling, Psychology, Sociology, Sexology, Human Ecology, Spirituality, Cultural, and Indigenous Studies.

Most everything written about Two Spirit these days comes from an external perspective and rests only on an academic or professional purpose. We have not seen many works from practitioners of Two Spirit cultural ways. What is particularly unique about this book is that its intention is not only for academic, professional, or social service reasons per se. Yes, these are part of the picture, as we want this book to be as useful as possible. But in all truth this book is first intended as a culturally respectful help and guide to learn about Two Spirit Medicine ways from a Mi'kmaw perspective.

Written first for my nation's Mi'kmaw youth, and then for others who seek a deeper appreciation for Mi'kmaq Two Spirit ways, and then for others seeking to understand Two Spirit generally, and finally for those looking more broadly for insights into human sexuality and gender variance, spirituality and culture - this book is styled like a traditional Medicine Bundle. But like all bundles, it takes time to get to know the landscape. There are many layers to this mystery we call life. Youth and newcomers to these fields of knowledge will find this book challenging to read because we bring together many sources of insight and experience and we apply them to Two Spirit, Mi'kmaw, and First Nation issues.

Beware, this is not light reading and every page of this book raises difficult questions. On the other hand, get ready for some intimate and deep-thinking exploration of your personal, family, and cultural values. How exciting to engage at this level of personal and social medicine practice.

This is not easy reading, as the focus on your learning is always present. The purpose of this book is to inspire, challenge, and encourage exploration. We hope to help you open up new pathways to growth in both intellectual rigor as well as spiritual depth. This is asking a lot of you. We hope you are ready for this initiation into the Indigenous arts and sciences and Two Spirit ways. You must be on the threshold in some way or other, as otherwise you would not be reading this right now.

By drawing together scholarship, community identity, and practical insights this book is a Medicine Bundle with a punch. Every traditional medicine bundle can seem disorganised and symbolic, looking from outside. But once you learn more, every traditional bundle also has vision, logic, form, and content that makes sense and all fits together elegantly. Not to say this book bundle is elegant in its results, far from it, even though we have made our best effort to present a finished product for press.

In all truths, this book was allowed to emerge over two decades, perhaps longer in germination, and certainly focused over a twelve year period. This book is written by using a combination of professional, scholarly, personal, and poetic voice. The result is a collection of essays that are interwoven into an Ash tree basket, smudged by the sacred fires of Sage, Juniper, Tobacco, and Sweet Grass.

Elegance in form and function is a characteristic of ecological systems in nature. Human beings are the ones to mess this up extremely well. The oldest Medicine Bundles are passed down generationally. When receiving a bundle in this way, you are asked to sit for a long time, sometimes a decade or more. You are asked to listen and learn from the bundle as it is given. Over time the bundle and you become one being. But this takes time. This has been my experience and is reflected in this book in many ways.

This book is a kind of Medicine Bundle that works to undo some of the mess given by colonial inheritance and cultural crisis. By sitting a long time with this Bundle, we see how the inherent and integral logic of nature actually sets up the elegance of form and function once again. In spite of our mistakes and miss-wishes. We only need to listen, wait, and sit with the Medicines. But many people, especially youth, fail to realise how important is this sitting and listening.

You will find here in this Sacred Book-Bundle not only the problems. You will also find the solutions. If you take the models offered here, you will have a pathwork toward healing, recovery, and cultural revival already well underway. This book reflects this good work already happening among us. This is a therapeutic traditional Medicine Bundle of modern Puoinaq wisdom that comes from hard work, sacrifice, and heaps of inspiration, quite beyond in origins, as if coming from across the Six Worlds of our traditional cosmology and thus across eons of time.

When doing the final proof of this book it occurred to me that learning is a spiral. We begin in early life, learn some basic things. Then we keep learning the same lessons over and over again. Over the years we think we get all grown up. We might even think we know a lot of things! But in reality, we are simply doing the same circle since childhood. It came to me then that the images of our people already convey this wisdom. Like Elder Paul said, this book does not give new information per se, but finds a new way to combine teachings to speak to present day issues. This impression of the Bedford Basin stone carving suggests the spiral learning of life and the districts of the Mi'kmaq Nation. There are likely many meanings we can gather from this Sacred image.

In keeping with the maritime ecology of Mi'kma'ki we developed an image below to convey the spiral learning found in this book. The journey begins with language, culture, ethics, and identity. The next layer explores spirituality, gender, sexuality, and ways of knowing. From these primary early learnings, we move to cultural reawakening, cultural teachings, oral tradition, and Elder's wisdom. From these sacred gifts, we explore ecology, ceremony as life, medicine teachings, and sacred sexuality. Continuing the spiral journey of life that began with language, culture, ethics, and identity we journey into deep memory, commitment, stories as healing and waking up. The last spiral of this book includes stories of our origins and living the Puoinaq Two Spirit Medicine path in living in service to family, humanity, and Mother Earth. All up this book includes four overlapping themes that spiral around six different cycles, with a total of twenty-four places along the circle or spiral. The basic four-point cardinal circle is the simplicity of self, our body. This is deeply informed by the natural symmetry of ecology.

We observe this sacred mystery of life within complex planetary bodies, solar orbits, humble sea shells, and in each other. We can see how a Sea Shell Spiral of Learning is in keeping with Mi'kmaw teachings and cultural ways. When reading this book, we suggest you consider how these themes evolve and grow in your awareness. Each subheading in the chapters does not mean that topics are covered under the heading. The headings introduce ideas in a creative flow to encourage reflection. Layered learning works within creative spirals. Revisiting your personal Sea Shell Spiral may help you to get a feeling for where you are in your journey of understanding. As we say elsewhere, take what you feel is good and useful for you. Disregard all the rest. There is a lot of wisdom here.

- Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers, 28 January 2019, M'sit No'kama Ta'ho.