Indigenous Sexual Futures
Imagine talking about sexuality like we talk about food! It’s time to bring conversations of healthy sexuality to the kitchen table and be the future that our ancestors envisioned. It’s not just about sex; it is about the expansiveness of sexuality that encompass our understanding of the world, our relationships to land and water, and solving health issues that affect our communities. Indigenous Sexual Futures are stories of hope, truth, reclamation, strength, survivance and thrivance. Let’s feast while we imagine a new future that builds on the strength of Indigenous Knowledges on sexuality and embraces wholeness and health in our communities.
Indigenous Sexual Futures
Ep.8: Indigiqueer Futures with Joshua Whitehead
Ep.8: Indigiqueer Futures with Joshua Whitehead
In Episode 8, Doris invites Joshua Whitehead, Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1) to the table to share what underpins his writings and their connections to Indigenous Futurisms. While studying at the University of Winnipeg as a youth and beginning to contemplate writing, he recalls how very little representation there was of two-spirit characters in books and wanted youth to see themselves depicted, “I wanted Indigenous readers, specifically Indigenous youth to see themselves represented”, and says that they were not being fully represented in that contemporary/urban way. He pays homage to what he calls the first wave of Indigenous authors and positions himself as part of a second wave of Indigenous authors. He says he was drawn into the romance of language but wanted to write about the grit rather than write about romanticizing the land which he inadvertently did do with his book, a memoir titled, Making Love with the Land. What he really wanted to write about was “the healthy, powerful and sometimes hurtful beautiful queer Indigenous relationships.” He also unpacks the usage of the term Indigiqueer and acknowledges the youth legacy that underpins what we are currently seeing with Indigiqueer/Two-Spirit Indigenous youth who are blazing a trail forward to the future. Joshua Whitehead is Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary and is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies.
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OUR FEATURED GUEST
Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer, Jonny Appleseed, Making Love with the Land, and Indigiqueerness: a Conversation on Storytelling as well as the editor of Love after the End: an Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction. Currently, Whitehead is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary (Treaty 7) where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies.
We would like to acknowledge the following for their contributions towards Episode 8 of Indigenous Sexual Futures
Special Guest(s)
Joshua Whitehead - Oji/Cree
Host Storyteller/Producer
Doris Peltier
Technical Producer
Paula Burrows - Jupiter Productions
ISF Theme Music and Creative Sound
Cozmic Cat, Classic Roots, Elder Gayle Pruden
Indigenous Knowledge Advisory
Feast Centre Council of Elders and Gathering Lodge Committee
Executive Producer
Feast Centre - Randall Jackson
Feast Centre Staff
Will Gooding (National Director), Justin Macdonald (Research Assistant), Jordan Carrier (Research Assistant), Sabina Rajkumar (Research Assistant) and Doris Peltier (Community Engagement Coordinator)
Podcast Branding Design
Compassion Creative
Podcast Web Development
Jordan Carrier
We acknowledge our funders:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Indigenous Sexual Futures is produced on the ancestral lands of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations within the lands protected by the “Dish with One Spoon” wampum. We acknowledge the ancestors of this terr
Suggested Reading list coming soon...