Chapter 5 - Queer Indigenous Studies, or Thirza Cuthand’s Indigequeer Film

Summary

Although queer Indigenous studies is a new field, there is a growing number of Indigenous-authored and edited critical texts that foreground Indigenous ways of knowing. Interweaving Indigenous ways of knowing – encompassing epistemologies, histories, stories, language, spirituality, legal systems, and artistic practices – with queer Indigenous Studies is integral to Indigenous sovereignty. Using Cree ways of knowing to analyze films of self-described butch lesbian/Two-Spirit filmmaker Thirza Cuthand (Cree) opens up more complex and appropriate understandings of Cuthand’s work. wâhkôhtowin or kinship, interrelatedness, a sense of closeness or intimacy and miyo-wîcêhtowin or the principle of getting along well with others, good relations, and expanding the circle, anchors a specifically Cree reading of Cuthand’s work. Cuthand’s films are not in simply in reaction to colonization and homophobia, but are integral part of wâkhôtowin as she creates community both for herself and for queer Indigenous people.