Nearly 20 people attended, both virtually and in person, Woodland Cultural Centre’s “Brave Spaces: How to Support Indigi-Queer” event on Sunday, January 19, 2025.
Heather George, Executive Director of the Woodland Cultural Centre, said the event was an opportunity to have conversations around what Indigi-queer spaces look like, and how to support those spaces.
“We’re really trying to get folks sort of on the same page while recognizing that not everybody, socially or culturally, has had these conversations or have been exposed to these ideas or concepts,” said George. “This is something we want to make sure we’re really starting to build at Woodland and so that was sort of the goal, the concept, and the idea behind it.”
She said she was motivated to host the event after Armando Perla, Co-Director and Chief Curator of the Textile Museum of Canada, received an anonymous letter back in November 2024 following the publishing of a photo of them attending the opening of Woodland’s 1924 exhibition in the Brantford Expositor.
“It was a handwritten, anonymous letter sent to their workplace in Toronto and originally, my reaction was to throw a giant party because, if people are going to act with such hatred and meanness, I wanted to meet it with something beautiful, powerful and celebratory,” she said. “But in discussing the situation with Courtney Skye, one of our presenters today, she pointed out, and very rightly I might add, that not everybody is there yet. Because of that, we wanted to bring people into this conversation and so I’d say this is the first step of many to essentially remind people that Woodland is a place for everybody.”
During the event, Perla spoke virtually about their background, their experience with discrimination back home in El Salvador and in Canada, coming to terms with being true to themselves, and the hate mail they received in November.
Later on, Amy Smoke, Co-Founder of O:se Kenhionkata:tie, also known as Land Back Camp (Willow River Centre), and Courtney Skye, Co-Director of Protect the Tract, took turns walking attendees through their presentations.
Smoke talked about what it means to be Two-Spirit (an Indigenous person who embodies both a masculine and feminine spirit), coming into their own identity, and how they, alongside Bangishimo Johnston, created a space for the Two-Spirit Indigi-queer community in the Waterloo Region.
Smoke also provided attendees with various resources like films and books about the Two-Spirit community, and touched on several points throughout the presentation including the need for cultural and community recognition of the Indigi-queer community, how respecting and using people’s preferred pronouns can save a life, and acknowledging how gender as well as clothing, are colonial constructs.
After a brief question and answer period, Skye then went over various policy work that has been and needs to be done, making changes in the community, and how contemporary society in Canada has been shaped by colonialism.
Skye continued to touch on various points like advocating for change, transforming communities, maintaining safety of individuals, how the nuclear family and heteronormativity have been embedded into society, and the differences between gender, sex assigned at birth and sexual orientation.
Following the presentations, discussions continued as attendees spoke about their experiences and asked questions about creating safe spaces, and how to handle topics that may be difficult to address.
Afterwards, George said that she hoped that those in attendance were able to take something away from the event.
“I hope people may have learned some new language to have these types of conversations and I hope that they’ll reflect on how this might even impact their own organizations, spaces or families. I know for me personally, I also learned things today and I think it’s given me the language and the tools to be able to have these conversations with the staff and with my board, and to work on things like policy so that this becomes part of how we exist as an organization and as individuals.”
She said that while the general public may not be on the same page just yet, making sure that people know that Woodland is in fact, for everybody, is something she’s committed to.
“Helping make this place braver is something that’s really important to me personally and professionally. As I mentioned to the group today, I didn’t use the term ‘safe space’ because I know that we’re not there yet,” said George. “I know this is going to take a lot of learning, for us as staff and as an organization, and I know it’s going to take policy work and community participation. We may not all be there yet but it’s something that I’m really, I’m committed to, and thankfully, my board is as well.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
