In honor of Native American Heritage Month, join us for a lunch & learn exploring queer Indigenous identities with Dr. Chris Finley of the University of Southern California.

For most Native communities, being 2SQI (Two-Spirit Queer Indigenous) is traditional. Yet, settler and Indigenous nations, families, and communities are not always respectful and inclusive of 2SQI individuals. Indigenous queer and Two-Spirit issues are discussed infrequently within Native American studies or in Native communities, and marginalized in LGBTQIA+ discourse. Sexuality, since colonial contact, has judgment, normalizing, and discipling ideas attached to it, and no one wants to say the wrong thing, but taking the time to explore queer Indigenous sexual identities, and the associated vernacular (2SQI, Two-Spirit, 2Spirit, Indiqueer, Indequeer) illustrates the beauty of acceptance and decolonizing concepts of community and inclusion.

Dr. Chris Finley is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes in what is now known as Eastern Washington. She received her PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan and is a co-editor and contributor to “Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics and Literature” (University of Arizona Press).

Light refreshments and snacks will be served!