Ma-Nee Chacaby

Last updated

Ma-Nee Chacaby
Born (1950-07-22) July 22, 1950 (age 73)
Ombabika
NationalityCanadian, Ojibwa-Cree
Occupation(s)Author, activist
Notable workA Two-Spirit Journey (2016)
Website ma-nee.art

Ma-Nee Chacaby (born July 22, 1950) is an Ojibwe-Cree writer and activist from Canada. [1] She is most noted for her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder.

Contents

Early years

Born and raised in the remote Northern Ontario indigenous community of Ombabika, [2] [3] Chacaby escaped the Indian residential school system only because she was away hunting and trapping with her stepfather when government agents arrived in the community during the Sixties Scoop. [2] She later lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Thunder Bay, Ontario, and sparked a local controversy when she openly identified herself as a lesbian in a television news story for Thunder Bay Television in 1988. [2] She remained a local activist on LGBTQ and indigenous issues, and later began to create and exhibit work as a painter, [4] before writing and publishing A Two-Spirit Journey. She is fluent in both Cree and Ojibwe. [5]

Publications

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder was co-authored by Mary Louisa Plummer and published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2016. [2] It is the 18th title in the Native History Series published by the press. Methodologically, it combines social science and indigenous oral history. [6] The authors conducted over one hundred hours of interviews as part of their writing process, and the book deals with themes of child abuse, alcohol abuse, sexuality, and post-traumatic stress disorder. [7]

Critical acclaim

The biography was awarded the U.S. Oral History Association's 2017 Book Award, [8] as well as the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 Alison Prentice Award for Best Book on Women's History in Ontario. [9] In addition, A Two-Spirit Journey was a shortlisted Lambda Literary Award finalist for Lesbian Memoir/Biography at the 29th Lambda Literary Awards in 2017, [10] and was shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2017 Manitoba Book Awards. [11]

In 2019, A Two-Spirit Journey was published in French as Un Parcours Bispirituel by Les éditions du remue-ménage. [12] That same year, Chacaby served as one of the grand marshals of the Fierté Montréal parade. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anishinaabe traditional beliefs</span> Religion

Anishinaabe traditional beliefs cover the traditional belief system of the Anishinaabeg peoples, consisting of the Algonquin/Nipissing, Ojibwa/Chippewa/Saulteaux/Mississaugas, Odawa, Potawatomi and Oji-Cree, located primarily in the Great Lakes region of North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ojibwe</span> Group of indigenous peoples in North America

The Ojibwe are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and throughout the northeastern woodlands. Ojibweg are known by several names, including Ojibway or Chippewa. As a large ethnic group, several distinct nations also understand themselves to be Ojibwe as well, including the Saulteaux, Nipissings, and Oji-Cree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake of the Woods</span> Lake on the United States–Canada border

Lake of the Woods is a lake occupying parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba and the U.S. state of Minnesota. Lake of the Woods is over 70 miles (110 km) long and wide, containing more than 14,552 islands and 65,000 miles (105,000 km) of shoreline. It is fed by the Rainy River, Shoal Lake, Kakagi Lake and other smaller rivers. The lake drains into the Winnipeg River and then into Lake Winnipeg. Ultimately, its outflow goes north through the Nelson River to Hudson Bay.

Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario. As of 2006, there were 2,680 Algonquin speakers, less than 10% of whom were monolingual. Algonquin is the language for which the entire Algonquian language subgroup is named; the similarity among the names often causes considerable confusion. Like many Native American languages, it is strongly verb-based, with most meaning being incorporated into verbs instead of using separate words for prepositions, tense, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ojibwe language</span> Central Algonquian language of North America

Ojibwe, also known as Ojibwa, Ojibway, Otchipwe, Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language family. The language is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anishinaabe</span> Indigenous ethnic groups of the United States and Canada

The Anishinaabe are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing and Algonquin peoples. The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midewiwin</span> Indigenous religion of North America

The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a religion of some of the Indigenous peoples of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew, and the practices of Midewiwin are referred to as Mide. Occasionally, male Midew are called Midewinini, which is sometimes translated into English as "medicine man".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ojibwe writing systems</span> Writing system

Ojibwe is an indigenous language of North America from the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is one of the largest Native American languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers and is characterized by a series of dialects, some of which differ significantly. The dialects of Ojibwe are spoken in Canada from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta and British Columbia, and in the United States from Michigan through Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as migrant groups in Kansas and Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oji-Cree</span> First Nation in Ontario and Manitoba

The Anisininew or Oji-Cree are a First Nation in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, residing in a band extending from the Missinaibi River region in Northeastern Ontario at the east to Lake Winnipeg at the west.

The Severn Ojibwa or the Oji-Cree language is the indigenous name for a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of Oji-Cree communities in northern Ontario and at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Ojibwa is a member of the Algonquian language family, itself a member of the Algic language family.

Woodlands style, also called the Woodlands school, Legend painting, Medicine painting, and Anishnabe painting, is a genre of painting among First Nations and Native American artists from the Great Lakes area, including northern Ontario and southwestern Manitoba. The majority of the Woodland artists belong to the Anishinaabeg, notably the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, as well as the Oji-Cree and the Cree.

Western Ojibwa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, a member of the Algonquian language family. It is spoken by the Saulteaux, a subnation of the Ojibwe people, in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan, Canada, west of Lake Winnipeg. Saulteaux is generally used by its speakers, and Nakawēmowin is the general term in the language itself.

Trish Salah is an Arab Canadian poet, activist, and academic. She is the author of the poetry collections, Wanting in Arabic, published in 2002 by TSAR Publications and Lyric Sexology Vol. 1, published by Roof Books in 2014. An expanded Canadian edition of Lyric Sexology, Vol. 1 was published by Metonymy Press in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Two-spirit</span> Neologism for gender-variant Indigenous North Americans

Two-spirit is a contemporary pan-Indian umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a traditional third-gender social role in their communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin</span> American lawyer

Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, was a Métis Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians attorney, Native American rights activist, and suffragist. In 1914, Baldwin was the first Native American student to graduate from the Washington College of Law. She worked in the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, and was an officer in the Society of American Indians.

Verna Jane Kirkness, is a Cree scholar, pioneer and lifelong proponent of indigenous language, culture and education who has been influential in Canadian indigenous education policy and practice. She is an associate professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and resides in Winnipeg. Kirkness has received numerous awards for her outstanding contributions spanning five decades including the Order of Canada in 1998. Kirkness had an important impact on Canadian indigenous education policy and practice. She is the author of "numerous books and articles on the history of Indigenous education." The University of Manitoba's Verna J. Kirkness Science and Engineering Education Program was established in 2009 and in November 2013 a native studies colloquium honoured her as a national leader in education.

Indigenous peoples of Canada are culturally diverse. Each group has its own literature, language and culture. The term "Indigenous literature" therefore can be misleading. As writer Jeannette Armstrong states in one interview, "I would stay away from the idea of "Native" literature, there is no such thing. There is Mohawk literature, there is Okanagan literature, but there is no generic Native in Canada".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Whitehead</span> Two spirit poet and novelist

Joshua Whitehead is a Canadian First Nations, two spirit poet and novelist.

Jennifer Stacey Harcourt Brown is an American–Canadian ethnohistorian. She is professor emerita of history at the University of Winnipeg and was a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair for Aboriginal Peoples in an Urban and Regional Context. In 2008, Brown was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

References

  1. "What being two-spirit means to Indigenous elder Ma-Nee Chacaby". The Next Chapter (CBC Radio), June 9, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Scott Paradis, "Book chronicles two-spirited elder's struggle and redemption". TB News Watch , May 21, 2016.
  3. Chacaby, Ma-Nee (2016). A Two-Spirit Journey. University of Manitoba Press. p. 7. ISBN   978-0887558122.
  4. 1 2 Anouk Lebel, "Ma-Nee Chacaby : le parcours hors du commun d'une militante autochtone bispirituelle". Ici Radio-Canada, August 17, 2019.
  5. Pyle, Kai (2018). "Naming and Claiming: Recovering Ojibwe and Plains Cree Two-Spirit Language". Duke University Press. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  6. Leung-Pittman, Emily. "A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer." The Goose, vol. 16 , no. 2 , article 26, 2018, https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol16/iss2/26.
  7. Pyle, Kai (2017). "Review of A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 29 (2): 95–98. doi:10.5250/studamerindilite.29.2.0095. ISSN   0730-3238. JSTOR   10.5250/studamerindilite.29.2.0095.
  8. "2017 OHA Awards". Oral History Association.
  9. "Two-Spirit Elder's Autobiography Recognized with Provincial Award" (PDF). Ontario Historical Society.
  10. Becky Robertson, "M-E Girard, Vivek Shraya among 13 Canadians nominated for 2017 Lambda Literary Awards". Quill & Quire , March 14, 2017.
  11. Sue Carter, "Katherena Vermette, David Bergen, Ma-Nee Chacaby nominated for Manitoba Book Awards". Quill & Quire , March 24, 2017.
  12. "Un parcours bispirituel: Récit d'une aînée ojibwé-crie lesbienne". Les éditions du remue-ménage. 11 March 2019.