Aiyyana Maracle’s Transformation of Sexuality and Gender in Canada

Maddison Schang-Pereira

© 2025 Seneca Polytechnic School of Fashion. This research was published as part of the Seneca Canadian Fashion Diversity Project. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of Seneca Polytechnic School of Fashion, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This twofold research includes the article Aiyyana Maracle’s Transformation of Sexuality and Gender in Canada (below) as well as the practice-led research documentary described by Maddison Schang-Pereira as follows:

The video project Aiyyana Maracle’s Transformation of Sexuality and Gender in Canada brings to light the astounding effect Maracle’s work, her theories, and other supporting sources related to her concepts and artwork have had on the perception of sexuality and gender within Canada. By analyzing how the country’s ideologies for sexuality and gender have changed since colonization, reviewing statistics of gender, sexual, and Indigenous-based violence in Canada; as well as the theories of other scholars and writers as they relate to her work, Maracle’s own analysis of the country’s ideologies of these identities being rooted in eurocentrism is shown to be accurate. Through her work, she states that it is something that we should stray away from as a society, to eradicate discrimination and foster positive relationships within our communities. These various aspects of research are shown within the video through illustrated visuals paired with an audial analysis and overview of a select few of Maracle’s pieces of work and sources that support her theories. The messages and concepts Maracle presented in her work are supported by evidence from other scholars and statistics throughout the animation, proving how this is a social issue that has become a very identified issue within Canadian society. Through this video project Maracle’s theories and their importance as they relate to modern issues within our time are brought into focus. These works together shed a light on how Canadian society can combat oppression as it is directed towards minorities due to colonialist views, especially Indigenous and LGBTQ+ individuals.

Aiyyana Maracle’s Transformation of Sexuality and Gender in Canada

For this academic research article, the term Indigenous will be used to identify the Inuit, Métis, and First Nation people within Turtle Island, also known as Canada, yet it does not disregard that they have various cultural differences.

Aiyyana Maracle, a Mohawk-transformed woman who loved women, was a multimedia artist well-known for decolonizing sexuality and gender for Indigenous and LGBTQ+ people with her teachings, artwork, performances, and writings throughout her life. As a transformed woman, Maracle had been identified as a male when she was born until she discovered later in her life that she was a woman. Her existence and transformation were based on the cultural continuum of Indigenous people, as she states this herself in her personal article ‘A Journey in Gender’ (Maracle, 2000). One of the key issues Maracle advocated for throughout her work was the decolonization of gender and sexuality, stating that Eurocentrism has changed the scope of how many North Americans view aspects of their life, including their own identities. During the colonization of the United States and Canada, the British and French attempted to eradicate numerous aspects of various Indigenous cultures, which included their perceptions of gender and sexuality. Although their cultures are not identical, many of North America’s Indigenous inhabitants such as Lakota, Hopi, Navajo, Cree, Anishnabe, Haudenosaune, Shoshone, Sac and Fox, Timucua, Zuni, Crow, Paiute, Tolowa, Heiltsuk, Salish, and Kwakuitul believe that the determination of our gender comes from our sense of spirit (Maracle, 2000). People who are a part of these communities appreciate people who identify outside of being cisgender or heterosexual, with those who are neither women nor men often becoming healers, storytellers, visionaries, artists, and artisans because of the belief that they have connections to spirits (Maracle, 2000). Even though there were gender specific roles, every person was treated equally regardless of gender or sexuality (Jacobs, 2000).

Maracle recognized how colonization has erased these aspects of Indigenous gender and sexual expression through her self-discovery of becoming a transformed woman at the age of forty. By embracing her own Indigenous gender and sexual orientation, Maracle discovered that oppression continues to happen towards Indigenous gender and sex ideologies in Canada based on imported concepts from Europe. Colonization still influences North America’s standards for sexuality and gender today, as even though it is a free country, those who do not fit into what has been normalized for different sexualities and genders commonly face discrimination. Although Maracle discussed how this has affected Indigenous peoples’ identities and culture specifically, her work relates to all who do not fit into the existent sexual and gender standards so common in North American society today. With the passing of 82 anti-trans bills throughout the United States (Trans Legislation Tracker, 2023), a rise in hate crimes towards drag queens and transgender people within Canada (Boynton, 2023), and an overall increase of discrimination towards members of the LGBTQIA+ community throughout the two countries (Jones, Kishi, 2022) (Aiello, 2023) Maracle’s work and her history have become very important to analyze and understand sexuality and gender identity further. By researching and examining Maracle’s history and her artistic work we can have a clear comprehension of the fluidity of gender and sexuality, while also discovering how North Americans continue to face cultural censure, homophobia, and violence due to the belief in the pre-eminence of European culture.

Personal History of Maracle

Aiyyana Maracle was born on November 25^th,1950, near the Grand River residing close to Ohsweken, Ontario within the Six Nations Reserve, being assigned male at birth. She resided there with her parents Kitty Maracle, Leonard Maracle, and her five other siblings for the first year she was born. At a year old, Maracle, her siblings, and her parents were evicted from the Indigenous reserve they lived on as her father did not have an Indian Status during a time when the Canadian government began to make distinctions between status and non-status Indigenous citizens. Once they were evicted from the reserve the Maracle family moved to the United States where they lived in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. As an Indigenous person, she felt stranded within New York as she was constantly discriminated against, referring to herself as being seen as the ‘ugly little Indian boy’ by others. Not only was she not able to connect to her community because of her Indigenous background, but she could also not understand her background through her family as an Indigenous person as well, with both of her parents’ seeing integration and assimilation as a form of survival within North America due to their Armed Forces backgrounds. This left Maracle as an outcast, relying on various books like dictionaries and National Geographics as forms of entertainment and companionship. Yet despite the struggles she went through Maracle still refused to assimilate to Eurocentric standards, discovering her own Indigenous identity herself.

During her childhood and teen years, Maracle also began to learn of the discrimination towards various genders and sexualities, understanding quickly, many people saw being queer as an unforgivable transgression. With her parents also judging her sister’s indiscreet actions, Maracle was scared to embrace her own gender identity. As Maracle grew into her later teens and early twenties she began to live in a variety of various places such as Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, moving on from her own family. She ignored her growing feelings towards her own gender and sexual orientation at this time, and eventually got together with an Indigenous woman to not burden her children from having to face further discrimination. In the year of 1969, Maracle also completed one year of a bachelor’s degree in architecture at Pennsylvania State University, along with completing various transfer courses at Vancouver Community College in 1984 which were the only forms of secondary education she received at the time. During the 1960’s Maracle also began to get involved in civil rights politics through her parents, eventually leading to her becoming involved in conservative politics during the 1970’s where she was labelled as being too ‘radical’ due to her familial background and beliefs. Her involvement in civil rights politics continued for twenty years. Maracle realized she was a humanist significantly early on in life by connecting with various communities through her social activism. She saw her perspective as more global rather than focusing on her nationality.

Maracle also became a multi-disciplinary artist in her thirties as well, focusing on using it to spread her messages concerning race and culture. Yet, despite her success as an artist and activist, in her adult years, Maracle was also diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She treated her diagnosis with both medication and therapy for several years. Her situation became worse when Maracle was forty years old, as that was when her family began to have severe issues. After her four children grew up and left home her relationship with her second partner of twelve years began to fall apart, eventually leading to them leaving one another. Not only was she losing her partner, but her mother-in-law as well. She was severely ill with cancer at the time, and Maracle was remarkably close to her and saw her as a mother. As her cancer worsened Maracle became her primary caregiver. With her children now being adults and her divorce from her wife finalized, Maracle had the time to stay by her side until her passing. Months after she began to care for her, Maracle’s mother-in-law passed away in the hospital alone. During the time Maracle was sent to get something from her mother-in-law’s home until the hospital called and said she had passed. After the death of her mother-in-law, Maracle recalled that with her passing all the negative emotions Maracle had left as well, which was the beginning of her transformation into a woman. Maracle stated that she felt a physical energy that in a way felt like it was cleansing her, removing everything that was pessimistic from her body. To commemorate her mother-in-law she cut her hair, representing how her mother-in-law freed her from the constraints of her bitterness and rage. For three years Maracle shifted through numerous different gender identities before she discovered her identity as a transformed woman who loved women in 1993. She found the European terms such as transgender to be too limiting to her own feelings surrounding her gender, deciding to identify herself through the means of Indigenous expression.

During her research and travels around the world where she had the opportunity to speak to several Indigenous communities, she realized that they had a view of gender beyond simply being male and female. This perspective of gender for Maracle was how she saw her own expression of gender identity, something that was a new identity of its own. Thus, she settled onto the identity of being a transformed woman, as this definition was the correct way to describe her feelings towards her own gender. This was the same case for her identification of loving women rather than being a lesbian, among other quite common European terms used for women who love women, as she saw neither fitting her own identification of her sexual and romantic feelings. Maracle through her own self-discovery also came to the realization that she did not identify with the common Indigenous term two-spirit either, believing that it did not fully address the concepts of gender as broadly as she did. Throughout her time travelling and meeting other Indigenous communities while discovering her own identity, Maracle was inspired to spread the Indigenous message of gender and sexuality diversity. During 1992 she curated many queer and Indigenous art festivals such as the Queer Series/Two Spirit Festival in 1993 and Woman @ The Front in 2003. Maracle also went back for further education, receiving a Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College in 2006 with a specialization in interdisciplinary media. Afterwards, Maracle even taught at Canadian universities between 2002 and 2007, such as Concordia University in Montreal. As Maracle focused more on becoming a multi-disciplinary artist her work began to challenge the concept of gender binary and the reliance of European ideologies for gender and sexuality.

Throughout her twenty years of writing, performing, and creating art her goal was to tell her own story of her gender discovery while also challenging others to work towards decolonizing gender from European ideologies and terminology. Starting from 1992 to 2015 Maracle was a part of many performances such as Gender Möbius (1995), Death in the Shadow of the Umbrella (2015), and Facets of Human Sexuality (1995) to name a few, while also producing several illustrations. She also wrote literary works focusing on Indigenous identity and gender, such as her well-known article A Journey in Gender (2000). Maracle’s success led to her being the first Indigenous person to ever be awarded the John Hirsh Prize in 1997, being commemorated for being the most artistically exciting new director at the time in Canadian Theatre. In the year 2003, she was also given an award by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, also known as Indspire. In 2010 Maracle was able to complete gender-affirmation surgery in Brussels, Belgium as she continued to produce her work, which led to her moving back to the Six Nations of the Grand River afterwards to live with one of her children. Maracle eventually became a great-grandmother several times which she took much pride in being, as this is another aspect of herself that was consistently mentioned in her writings and interviews. In 2012 Maracle also co-affiliated with a support group known as Gender Journey run out of the Grand River Community Health Centre in Brantford, Ontario.

Sadly, Aiyyana Maracle passed away on April 24^th, 2016, surrounded by her loving family and friends. She left the world with her work that continues to encourage the power of performance as a form of identity expression, self-love, and the acceptance of others especially concerning sexuality, gender, and culture. Today, Maracle’s work continues to be analyzed within both Indigenous and gender and sexuality study spaces, to recognize the connections that are existent between colonialism, sex, and gender expression, and the beliefs and perspectives of a variety of Indigenous communities within Turtle Island. Despite her unfortunate passing, she will continue to have an influence on the decolonization of sexuality and gender in Canada, being a primary figure who has directly challenged and analyzed these concepts.

Literature Review

As Maracle’s work addresses the connection between colonialism, cultures, and gender and sexuality expression, these concepts have also been heavily covered by many other cultural, societal, post-colonial, and queer studies scholars as well. Many of these scholars and Maracle have also greatly discussed how these themes can be represented and discussed through many forms of art. Aiyyana Maracle (2000) through retelling her life experiences inferred that Indigenous culture’s identification of sexuality and gender fell outside of the confines of the binary that now exists today in Canada due to Eurocentrism. Maracle’s analysis initiates the idea of how colonialism has led to repressed identification. Abel R. Gomez (2022) taking reference from queer Indigenous people, including Maracle, contends that Indigenous individuals continue to experience the ramifications of colonialism that prohibits their gender and sexual variance connected to their cultural values. This demonstrates how Eurocentrism has a continuous effect on Indigenous peoples’ expression of identity, and how Canadians can learn how to appreciate individuality from the teachings of Indigenous communities. Kathleen Cross (2001) through her biography made the voices of trans people heard and shared their experiences and life stories, including Maracle’s, to demonstrate the discrimination and harassment they have faced due to their identities. Cross addressed the existent suppression of gender and sexuality identity through the experiences of trans people, and how society neglects their identities based on current societal standards.

Sara Ahmed (2006) investigated how queer identities disarray and reorder social relations by not following standard paths, associating the concept of orientation with queer studies and phenomenological research. Through Ahmed’s analysis, she has offered a new way of identifying the spatiality of gender, sexuality, and race, one that is fluid and is never a straight path. bell hooks (1984) proposed that the discrimination and exploitation of different genders are connected to various intersectional relations such as ethnicity, class, imperialism, etcetera. Relating to Maracle’s work, hooks’ theories inferred how imperialism and culture affect the acceptance of gender and sexuality differences. Amartya Sen (2006) opposed the division of society by race, religion, class, etcetera while presenting an inspiring outlook of a world that can move toward peace and away from its current hatred. Sen displayed how reductionist division has influenced discrimination and oppression towards people of varying identities, such as Indigenous people and those who are LGBTQ+ in the case of this research. Eve Tuck along with Maile Arvin and Angie Morrill (2013) have addressed the connection colonialism has to feminism and gender representation, and affecting how North America perceives it. Tuck, Maile, and Morrill all state how Indigenous feminist and gender studies are vital to improving structural change in North American society.

Karyn Recollect among several other writers within Me Artsy (2015) discussed how art is important for promoting social change, and how the arts themselves are heavily tied to Indigenous culture. Through her article, Recollet infers that music performances, in her case of research hip-hop music, have close connections to Indigenous knowledge systems, media, and feminism. Recollet touched on how through the expression of music, these concepts are reshaped and analyzed, much like the same Maracle does with her own work. Leanne B. Simpson (2017) critiques North America’s status after settler colonialism and how it has changed many aspects of North American society. Stating that the coordination of colonialism has led to the destructive behaviors of hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation, Simpson instructs how resistance can be initiated. Scott Lauria Morgensen (2012) analyzed the existing intersections of gender, sexuality, and colonialism and what impact they have had on our society. Morgensen primarily addresses how the concepts of colonialism as they relate to gender and sexuality continue to influence our perspectives today, both within Indigenous and settler communities. She explores the concepts of heteronormativity, binary gender roles, and sexual violence as they specifically relate to Indigenous communities and how members of the communities have rebelled against these concepts in some cases. Sandeep Bakshi, Suhraiya Jivraj, and Silvia Posocco (2016) have also put together a collection of essays that have provided insights into how sexuality has been perceived transnationally within colonial contexts. Through analyzing this concept of colonialism and how it relates to sexual orientations, they offered their own perspectives on decolonizing sexualities and how it would impact us, majorly relating it to how these concepts also connect to systems of power and oppression in our society.

These pieces of literature together theorized how the pre-eminence of European culture is connected to the discrimination of Indigenous peoples’ views of gender and sexuality, along with how LGBTQ+ people are neglected by society. They also present the idea of how the arts themselves can be a way of reanalyzing these concepts while separating them from Eurocentrism.

Art Practices

Throughout her years as an artist Maracle has held a variety of artistic performances in North America, which all focused on her main concepts of Indigenous identity, gender, and sexual orientation as they relate to Eurocentric views of the world. With each of her works she strived to change her audience’s perceptions of what they truly defined gender and sexuality to be, demonstrating her own perception of them from her view as an Indigenous transformed woman. Maracle demonstrated though her art practices the power that the arts have as they connect to research and existent social issues, highlighting how the dramatic and visual arts have the power to diverge peoples’ existent perceptions of the world around them. Unfortunately, many of these performances Maracle has done over her years as an artist have been lost to time, with a variety of them being undocumented. Regardless of this loss, the few acts of Maracle’s that remain in the online world years after her passing continue to tell her story and messages of acceptance. Each tackles their own individual issues as they relate to the decolonization of gender and sexuality, a concept that proves to still be vital in our modern Eurocentric society.

Gender Mobius

One of Maracle’s most notable performances was her act known as Gender Mobius, which took place on June 3^rd, 1995. Maracle co-organized the Halfbred Performance Festival in Vancouver, Canada, hosted by Grunt Gallery, which is where her performance took place. Grunt Gallery is a Canadian artist-run centre that was founded in 1984 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The centre has become a well-known space which hosts both LGBTQ+, Indigenous, and other minority artists’ works at a grander scale than a variety of other galleries. After Maracle’s passing, Grunt Gallery has also been one of the most well-known sources to have archived her work online, as a variety of Maracle’s performances are posted through their Vimeo account. The performance of Gender Mobius is one that features Aiyyana Maracle herself as the primary character, with the entirety of the act including music and dialogue. Along with Maracle are other performers who appear at other instances of the show, yet unfortunately their names could not be found with Mike MacDonald’s documentation of the performance for Grunt Gallery. During this performance, the stage is adorned with vines, flashing televisions, and a variety of ceremonial objects. Maracle herself initially appears wearing skins and a fur headdress with black and white paint on her face, until later in the performance when her body is uncovered to reveal her bare skin covered in black Mohawk war paint.

Gender Mobius begins with Maracle’s fabricated arrival of Columbus to the Americas, where Maracle descends from a ladder to the stage below. She is shown to be alone on the stage, only accompanied by the thumping of drums and chanting, signifying the point of time before contact with Europeans. Maracle then pulls out a black strip of paper, which is then joined together to form a loop, the mobius of the performance. After connecting this loop Maracle is startled, calling out Columbus across the stage. As she says this a projection is activated to show footage of the British on a ship, celebrating their arrival to North America, and a colonizer which is portrayed by another Indigenous actor then saunters onto the stage. This actor yells profanities at Maracle related to her Indigenous and LGBTQ+ identities. While the colonizer continues to spout insults at Maracle she is cornered by them on the stage, pulling up Maracle’s skirt to reveal her genitalia, then pushing her away while saying “They tried to tell us they were special, had healing and seeing powers! That God was she / he and they were like them,” the colonizer then pulls out their sword, and says “No, no, no, we can’t have that,”. The performance continues forward with this assault against Maracle’s person and her identity, not only portraying her experience, but the impact colonization has had on Indigenous cultures and ideologies in the past and present.

As the performance continues Maracle then appears on the stage no longer adorned in the skins, only having her own bare skin with the Mohawk paint exposed. While the thumping of a drum plays, Maracle recounts her teachings of oral Indigenous traditions, how she was taught to love her physical form while embracing her woman spirit by her ancestors. Maracle’s speech then continues onwards describing her turmoil with gender throughout her past within the educational system and as an adult, in a community and nation that was centred on following Eurocentric perceptions of life. Maracle then addresses the point of time when her grandmothers reached out to her, whispered to her who she was meant to be at the age of forty, as she climbs up the stage. This enlightenment and acceptance of herself is displayed visually by Maracle as she reaches the highest point of the stage as she describes this awakening moment in her life. While on this ledge of the stage Maracle crouches before a hanging noose, which she grips onto and pulls down, declaring that she accepts herself to simply exist and will not let anyone place her within a box. Maracle then states that even though she is unsure of where her life will take her, Maracle’s grandmothers and children will be with her, and after saying these words Maracle descends from the edge of the stage by swinging off with the noose.

The performance then ends with Maracle landing onto the stage and being encased by various other actors, which she appears out from beneath their legs, stating that she is back as herself and free. Throughout this performance Maracle wanted to define her own history with colonization and her identity, while also addressing to the audience the existent connections between gender expression and European ideologies. As Maracle demonstrated during her performance with the strip of paper, a mobius strip is a one-sided flat surface with a one boundary curve, made by twisting a flat surface until the ends touch one another. This infinite loop developed by the ends touching is how Maracle believes we should perceive gender, something that is unlimited and a never-ending loop. Maracle’s Gender Mobius is a performance and concept that strives to teach her audience that gender is something that should be free to exist, something that grows as we do as humans. Through displaying her own journey through womanhood as an Indigenous woman through this first-person narrative, Maracle displayed how colonization has troubled her understanding and has led to her disregarding who she was deep inside herself for several years. She encourages her audience to not just accept her own identity and those of others, yet to explore and find new ways of transformation, to continue developing as humans. Through this performance Maracle wanted to spread freedom, to end the continuation of targeting individuals who stray away from what is seen as ‘normal’ with their gender identities or any identity, to encourage acceptance.

PLAY: Grunt Gallery’s 10^th Anniversary Collaborative Series

Another one of Maracle’s performances that was documented by Grunt Gallery was her opening act for their performance series PLAY, which was hosted to celebrate the gallery’s 10^th anniversary. The performance took place on September 24^th, 1994, and was documented by Mike Macdonald. The footage is now an archive of the Grunt Gallery which has been posted on their Vimeo account, unfortunately with the name of the performance being unknown. Like Gender Mobius this performance by Maracle also features dialogue, song, and instruments yet it is an act performed only by Maracle alone, without any additional actors. During the performance Maracle is nude and covered in intricate patterns created with a dark paint. The stage itself is completely void of any props unlike Gender Mobius and lacks light which in points of the video makes Maracle appear to be in complete darkness. The performance itself begins with Maracle entering the stage in darkness, stating that “we sing to honour the death of colonialism, we sing to honour all that we have lost,” which after saying she begins to play the drum she is carrying with her. As Maracle continues to play the drum she also begins to sing an Indigenous song to the beat of it. While the song continues a shaker is incorporated alongside the drum, immersing the audience further into the Indigenous performance.

After time of singing and playing the instruments, they eventually come to a sudden end, and the stage slightly brightens its lights to reveal Maracle. After placing down the instruments Maracle then begins to recite various words related to positivity such as joyous, faces, warmth, proud, yet over time these change into more worrisome language such as contorted, changing, pain, shamed, and anger. As these harsh words continue, they then begin to develop into some kind of acceptance, as Maracle also calls out the words of renewed language and acquired knowledge, and afterwards returns to the use of the words proud, warmth, joyous, faces, and the inclusion of voice. After listing these various words Maracle once again begins to beat the drum and continue the Indigenous song, until the performance ends. By the end of the performance Maracle simply bows to the audience and exits the stage. Although the performance is relatively short, when compared to the length of Aiyyana’s other works, like Gender Mobius, there is a strong meaning behind the performance as it relates to colonialism, Indigenous identity, and gender identity. Like all her other art practices, Aiyyana incorporated these themes into this piece of work as well. This is shown from the very beginning of the performance itself, where Maracle states to appreciate the death of colonialism and to honour what has been lost.

Colonization throughout North American history has taken away so much from Indigenous communities, just as Maracle stated in her performance by honouring what was lost. She wanted to be straight-forward with the fact that her message was to resist the continued influence of modern colonialism, so it could no longer take anything else from her people. This journey of colonialism as it relates to Indigenous communities is portrayed throughout the entirety of Maracle’s performance, with her use of dialogue. As stated, Maracle’s dialogue shifted from being positive at the beginning, negative towards the middle, and then positive once again at the end, representing the struggles of Indigenous communities throughout colonialism. Before colonialists arrived, like Maracle stated, they were joyous people filled with warmth for their cultures and ideologies, yet this was stripped away from them during colonization. As Maracle also portrayed using the words of contorting, pain, anger, and resistance the colonizers were a force that tore away so much from Indigenous communities, to attempt to assimilate them into European culture. Although this was a traumatic and horrific experience for Indigenous communities throughout history, with the ending of her dialogue Maracle brings hope to what their history has left for them.

Stating once again the positive words she used during the beginning of her performance, paired with the words of renewed spirit, acquired knowledge, and voice, Maracle attempted to assert that this has made her people stronger and has helped them develop further as more knowledgeable communities. Thus, through their power and that of the support of others, Maracle believes that we should all strive for the death of colonialism to rejuvenate Indigenous sovereignty. Although this performance was focused on decolonizing our nation, it was also related to Maracle’s own personal journey as a transformed Mohawk woman as well. Like how she portrayed the journey of colonization, Maracle was someone who started off being very joyous in her life, until she began to feel like an outcast by the society around her. This loneliness paired with the confusion of her own identity caused Maracle to feel ashamed and angry, just as she stated during the play. As Maracle began to grow as a person, she accepted her own identity as a transformed woman, she acquired knowledge and renewed her own spirit with the help of her grandmothers. From then on, Maracle had been living as a woman who was joyous and proud for who she was, comfortable within her own body and mind.

Thus, this performance was one that explored the impacts of colonialism on the entirety of our society, but also Maracle as an independent person as well. Through this performance, Maracle wanted to inform her audience that they should work together to eradicate colonialism and to support the acceptance of Indigenous cultures and ideologies, especially in the case for Maracle those related to gender identity.

Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella

Maracle’s other piece of performance art that has become one of her more well-known pieces, and was also her last act before her death, was Maracle’s performance called Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella created in 2015. Maracle performed Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella at the Queer Arts festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, which was documented by a video recording from Bradley A. West that is now accessible from Vimeo. As the name implies, that Queer Arts festival that takes place in Vancouver promotes art from the LGBTQ+ community, striving to bring the community together, appreciate queer history, and to support the social issues the artists arise through their works. Compared to Maracle’s other performances that are majorly reliant on her dialogue and music, this act has none of those features. Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella was a performance quite different from Maracle’s other acts, as it relied heavily on audience interactions. The performance proved to be something that mixed both the dramatic and visual arts to create an interactive experience, which told just as strong of a message without any audial identifications like her previous performances, demonstrating her adaptability to various forms of art.

The performance itself had Maracle decorated with a fur and an animal skin mask covering the entire half of her head, which was paired with bright red paint covering the entirety of her body. Within both of her hands she also held a large feather, which she let visitors to pick up from her hands to write messages onto her body with white paint. Maracle stood in a very straight pose on top of a mat decorated with Indigenous art of a turtle, while behind her were various other items and visual cues that represented the message behind her work. Along the bare walls of the performance hall was the sentence “Safety for whom?” written across with red paint, which was paired with a bright pink blanket. In front of this backdrop against the wall was a black umbrella, with the word “trans” written onto it. Hanging from this umbrella on various shaped pieces were different gender identities and terms labelled, such as “pan”; “gender”; “gender diverse”; “female to male”; “non-op”; “non-binary”; and many more. Supporting the umbrella and these ornaments was also a sturdy bag, which had the label Two-Spirit. Below these hanging ornaments from the umbrella was then also the silhouette of a body outlined with purple string, which had written inside it the word transsexual women.

Throughout the entirety of the performance as visitors passed by to admire her work and analyze it, the more people added to the interactive art piece by taking the opportunity to write on Maracle’s body with the paint. By the end of her performance, recorded on Maracle’s own body were various positive and encouraging messages, drawings and words written along with those associated with gender appreciation. These messages included: ‘strong,’ ‘I love you,’ ‘courage,’ ‘joy,’ and ‘beautiful’ to name a few, which was accompanied by illustrations such as hearts and forms of linework. The performance of Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella then ended with Maracle holding her arms out across either side of herself and slowly turning her body around, to show both the camera man and her audience the outcome of the visitors’ work on her body. Continuing to slowly spin her body around, she then held her arms upwards towards the sky, in a pose that appeared to be showing that she was thankful. This can be assumed to be directed towards Maracle’s Indigenous ancestral grandmothers. Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella is a performance that is specifically directed towards trans inclusive spaces, and their treatment towards transsexual women or transformed women like Maracle in particular.

Through this performance of encouraging others to write positive messages on her body as a transformed woman, which is then paired with the various elements included in her space, Maracle attempted to send a clear message about the current situation for trans women within trans inclusive spaces. Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella is a performance that criticized the existent discrimination that continues to be directed towards trans women, which is even present in spaces that are meant to accept them for who they are, questioning if this inclusivity was true for people like herself. Unlike other gender minorities, Maracle states that trans women are more often targeted, the conceptual possibility of trans women being denied even by a few feminist and lesbian writers. Rather than them being appreciated during their lives, through the silhouette placed on the ground Maracle states that our society values the lost lives of trans women more, and that people like Maracle are appreciated more once they leave the living realm. Through this performance, Maracle wanted to change the perspectives spaces that claim to be trans inclusive have towards trans women, along with the rest of society as well. She wanted to educate to her audience that trans women just like her should matter more than their deaths, and that like everyone else it is within their human rights to live freely as they are and to be appreciated for it. Like several of Maracle’s other performances, her main message for Death in The Shadow of The Umbrella was focused on acceptance, appreciation, and support for those discriminated and critiqued for attempting to find comfortability with their own identities.

Arts-based Research and Identity

Maracle’s use of arts-based research is one of a plethora of examples that prove how powerful this form of qualitative analysis is. Arts-based research is a form of qualitative research that focuses on analyzing and understanding various subjects focused on human experiences using various forms of art. In the case of Aiyyana Maracle, she uses the arts of song, performance, and illustration to critique and examine gender, sexuality, Eurocentrism, and how these human behaviors and aspects of culture interact with one another. By making knowledge more accessible and engaging for a larger audience compared to other forms of examination, arts-based research is an excellent alternate form of inquiry. It allows a variety of people to learn and analyze topics brought into question through various forms of art, as any person can interact with an art piece, performance, or song and grasp the message it is expressing. Arts-based research and its application to collect, create, interpret, and analyze data is also always evolving as the arts allow researchers to access forms of communication and experimentation. This form of research allows researchers to embrace their studies not just verbally but also physically and emotionally, expressing their feelings and concepts in a visual form that can take on any shape they desire.

An aspect of arts-based research that also allows it to be so compelling is the ties it has to identity. The arts have always been used as a form of personal expression as behind every form of art is emotion and a message. The artist’s beliefs, personality, and expression are shown through their art intentionally or not. Every form of arts-based research in some aspect becomes an extended expression of the scholar’s identity. Maracle in her studies applies her own identity to her research exclusively, using her identity as a Mohawk-transformed woman who loves women to critique and investigate the North American understanding of sexuality, gender, and colonialism. Expressing her identity alongside her work through arts-based research also gives her audience a thorough understanding of her message and its importance, while simultanrously allowing Maracle to understand her research on a more personal level. The audience through Maracle expressing her own identity in her work can begin to connect what Maracle is analyzing to their own identities as well, helping them understand the issues addressed with these concepts further. Arts-based research is empowered by this connection the arts have to identity as it brings a personal aspect to this form of study. Qualitative research is enhanced by the researcher being able to not only inquire about their subject but also apply personal aspects to it.

The application of identity to the research and the broad forms of data collection and design allows arts-based research to be a form of qualitative study that continues to become more favored among researchers. It allows researchers and their audience to be able to personally and easily connect to many subjects brought into question through the arts, in a way that is constantly evolving and transforming to improve research and analyzation capabilities.

Aiyyana Maracle Archives

Despite the impact Aiyyana Maracle has made on the world through her unique analogies on the decolonization of gender and sexuality, the archives consisting of her work and history as a scholar, teacher, researcher, and artist are limited. The University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives is one of the few establishments documenting her work in depth. This archive is unparalleled, as it documents Canadian activism research more thoroughly than other establishments, especially for transgender activism. Their transgender archive has successfully documented the works of various individuals and organizations that have dedicated themselves to transgender activism, along with the history of transgender studies, which includes Aiyanna Maracle. The University created an archive documenting Maracle’s writings, art pieces, performances, and studies for many researchers to examine. Maracle’s personal belongings are also shown alongside her work as well. Items such as clothing, jewelry, bones, shells, and pearls that were valuable to her are kept in this archive which not only gives a closer look at what Maracle’s life was like but also enhances how personal her studies were to her as a person. Aside from more non-institutional forms of archiving such as public videos of her performances online and news articles, there have not been extensive archives of Aiyyana Maracle. She has been an impactful figure in the discussions of sexuality, gender, and Eurocentrism in North America and offers an extensive and unique understanding of these topics; this should be documented further to study and understand.

Synthesis

Aiyyana Maracle’s work is still something that speaks volumes and proves to continue to be significant even years after her upsetting passing, as many of the messages Maracle intended to spread throughout her work continue to be strongly relevant within our society. The discrimination and violence towards both Indigenous communities and LGBTQ+ individuals continue to remain today, and it is increasing, proving that Eurocentric views towards these identities continue to be upheld. Within Canada, according to a survey completed by Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, one million Canadians 15 or older are a part of a sexual minority population and out of that population one out of ten have said they have experienced violent victimization. This victimization occurrence among sexual minorities has three times more of a chance happening to LGBTQ+ individuals than heterosexual Canadians. Over half of the population of sexual minorities in Canada, which is 57%, also stated they have experienced some form of inappropriate sexual behaviors online, in person, and within workspaces in the past twelve months. Both statistics serve as examples of the continuation of sexual and gender discrimination among the public, how Canadians continue to be ridiculed for their identities that differentiate from Eurocentric standards (Statistics Canada, 2020). During 2022 which was only a few years ago there was also a notable rise in anti-LGBTQ+ actions being taken across Canada, where actions such as vandalism, anti-trans rallies, anti-LGBTQ+ protests, and drag protests were being made against the community (Amnesty International, 2023).

Therefore, demonstrating how actions against LGBTQ+ individuals are still being taken which continue to threaten their freedoms and even in some dire cases safety as civilians of Canada. Like the LGBTQ+ community, there are still many notable social issues occurring among Indigenous communities in Canada as well that relate to Maracle’s teachings. According to General Social Survey on Canadians’ Safety among the Indigenous communities of Turtle Island, known as Canada, four out of ten Indigenous people experience physical or sexual violence before the age of 15. More than one quarter of Indigenous women, totaling to around 26%, also experienced some form of sexual assault by an adult during their childhood, a drastic number compared to the 9% of non-Indigenous women. Among Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Indigenous people, 58% of them have experienced some form of physical or sexual assault compared to the 26% of non-Indigenous people who have faced the same forms of assault (Perreault, 2022). Thus, exhibiting how discrimination continues to be rampant among Indigenous communities, at a massive extent for those who identify as Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ as well. These statistics are also supported by a study done in 2017 published by Sage, which focused on analyzing the impacts of colonization on Indigenous Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ individuals through questioning participants, revealed that the majority have experienced violence and discrimination from childhood up until adulthood (Ristock, Zoccole, Passante, Potskin, 2017). These forms of evidence to explain the recent discriminatory actions that continue to be taken against LGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities in recent years determines why Maracle as a figure along with her work continue to be significant.

As Maracle continuously attempted to explain throughout her writings, performances, and art, colonization and the Eurocentric views that come with it continue to lead to the harsh unacceptance of minorities. Through her work, Maracle offers clarity, reasoning, and a solution as to why Canadians have carried these discriminatory views towards these groups for generations. She revealed how they continue to be opinions rooted within our society since the British and French arrived in Canada, and despite Canada being a progressive nation, are still upheld to an extent. Through analyzing Maracle’s work and the meaning she applied to it, Canada can begin to understand how the decolonization of these concepts of identity can lead to ending Indigenous and LGBTQ+ discrimination within the nation. She opens the possibilities for Canadian society to begin to understand that these concepts against LGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities is not something inherent within our nation’s culture. They are the results of what has been developed through the harsh system of the forced assimilation of Indigenous people within what we now know as Canada. Aiyyana Maracle with her unique background and approach to these concepts is a significant individual as she brings a new perspective to these social issues.

Through examining her work and who she truly was as a person, Canadian society can move forward with a clear understanding of where this discrimination against LGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities began. From that point onwards, Canadians can then begin working towards a brighter future that strives to rid the nation of prejudice and uphold the acceptance of others and their individual identities.

The Project

By analyzing these forms of her work and of others within this parallax animated project, art-based research is displayed as a powerful form of communication as well, as the visuals enhance the information being presented. The illustrations alongside the research being read out loud during the video creates a more interactive and visually pleasing experience for those engaging with the project. Thus, spreading the meaning intended behind Maracle’s work and the main goal this project intended to express further among the population. Maracle’s activism, performances, writings, and artwork were consistently used as a powerful form of expression for her own identity. This animation attempted to take on the same approach of not only presenting Maracle’s theories and work but also showing the importance of expression through art. To fully express Maracle’s impact it is only right to display her work in an artistic manner as she once did. Maracle’s goal was to tell her life story not only for herself to just be heard, but to encourage the world to listen to the stories of other Indigenous and queer individuals as well. As Maracle intended to do with her work and activism, this parallax animation strives to encourage others to take inspiration from Aiyyana Maracle in viewing sexuality and gender as something that is boundless.

Aiyyana Maracle’s Transformation of Sexuality and Gender in Canada, just like the figure the research focused on, attempts to change the public’s perceptions on gender and sexuality, understand how intricately linked they are to colonialist views, and hopefully move forward with a different view on these aspects of our identities.

Conclusion

Through her various forms of work as a scholar and artist Aiyyana Maracle intended to change the world for the better especially in the case of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities. She was a person that strived for the freedom and acceptance of everyone, that as she states has so often been taken away by modern colonialism and eurocentrism. As she examined throughout each of her works, the decolonization of Canadian society could be the key to a more accepting future in Canada, one lacking discrimination and the exclusion of minorities. Like Maracle always affirmed throughout her life, everyone deserves respect and appreciation for who they are, as our identities can co-exist with one another. Despite her continuous positive messages, Maracle has unfortunately still become a scholarly figure that has had little documentation, care, and research being done related to her themes or her as a person compared to others. Aiyyana Maracle in a time where discrimination and exclusion continue to exist for LGBTQ+ and Indigenous people, is a figure whose personal history and oeuvre are vital to understand for a more positive future more than ever. Through this visual project, the main hope is for people to begin to appreciate, understand, and analyze Maracle’s theories and to hopefully take on the same perceptions of the world as it relates to cultures, ideologies, genders, and sexualities as well. Although she has passed, Maracle’s theories and dedication to her craft will continue to live on, and hopefully inspire new generations to continue progressing forward with the acceptance for everyone regardless of differences.

References

Ahmed, Sara. “Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others.” Duke University Press. 2006. https://www.thequeermathematicsteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Ahmed-Queer-Phenomonology.pdf. Accessed 1 April 2023.

Aiello, Rachel. “Facing calls to act, Canadian lawmakers note ‘rising tide’ of hate and violence against LGBTQ2S+ community”. CTV News. 17 May 2023. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/facing-calls-to-act-canadian-lawmakers-note-rising-tide-of-hate-and-violence-against-lgbtq2s-community-1.6402660. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Arvin, Maile. Tuck, Eve. Angie Morrill. “Decolonizing Feminism: Challenging Connections between Settler Colonialism and Heteropatriarchy”. Johns Hopkins University Press. 19 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170119054500id_/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/504601/pdf. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Bakshi, Sandeep. Jivraj, Suhraiya. Posocco, Silvia. “Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions.” October 2016. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309665404_Introduction_-_decolonizing_sexualities_transnational_perspectives_critical_interventions. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Boynton, Sean. “ As anti-LGBTQ2 hate grows in Canada, advocates say it’s ‘never been as scary”. Global News. 7 July 2023. https://globalnews.ca/news/9393280/canada-lgbtq-hate-trans-west-block/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Couillard, Paul. “In Memorial: Aiyanna Maracle.” 7A*11D International Festival of Performance Art. 28 September 2016. https://7a-11d.ca/in-memoriam-aiyyana-maracle/. Accessed 16 January 2023.

Cross, Kathleen. “The Trans Biography Project.” Women/Trans Dialogue Planning Committee
and Trans Alliance Society. September 2001.https://opseu.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/03/01transbio.pdf. Accessed 16 January 2023.

Davis-Young, Katherine. “For many Native Americans, embracing LGBT members is a return to the past.” The Washington Post. 29 March 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/for-many-native-americans-embracing-lgbt-members-is-a-return-to-the-past/2019/03/29/24d1e6c6-4f2c-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html. Accessed 29 March 2023.

Fraga, Kaleena. “Inside The Brutal History Of Indigenous Residential Schools In Canada.” ATI. 25 July 2022. https://allthatsinteresting.com/residential-schools-in-canada. Accessed 30 March 2023.

Gomez, R. Abel. “Two-Spirit Indigenous Peoples Building on Legacies of Gender Variance.” The Revealer. 6 October 2022. https://therevealer.org/two-spirit-indigenous-peoples-building-on-legacies-of-gender-variance/. Accessed 20 January 2023.

Hanson, Erin. Gamez, P. Daniel. Manuel, Alexa. “The Residential School System.” Indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca. September 2020. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the _residential_school_system/. Accessed 30 January 2023.

Heidinger, Loanna. “Violent victimization and perceptions of safety: Experiences of First Nations, Métis and Inuit women in Canada.” Statistics Canada. 26 April 2022. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00004-eng.htm. Accessed 21 March 2023.

hooks, bell. “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.” South End Press. WordPress.com. 1984. https://funceji.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/bell_hooks_feminist_theory_from_margin_to_centebookzz-org_.pdf.

HRC Staff. “Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ Identities: Today and Centuries Ago.” Human Rights Campaign. 23 November 2020. https://www.hrc.org/news/two-spirit-and-lgbtq-idenitites-today-and-centuries-ago. Accessed 21 January 2023. Accessed 25 January 2023.

Jacobs, Beverly. “The Residential School System.” Indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca. 2000.https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/ marginalization_of_aboriginal_women/. Accessed 30 January 2023.

Jaffray, Brianna. “Experiences of violent victimization and unwanted sexual behaviours among gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people, and the transgender population, in Canada, 2018.” Statistics Canada. 9 September 2020. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002 x/2020001/article/ 00009-eng.htm. Accessed 20 January 2023.

Jones, Sam. Kishi, Roudabeh. “UPDATE | Fact Sheet: Anti-LGBT+ Mobilization on the Rise in the United States”. ACLED. 23 November 2022. https://acleddata.com/2022/11/23/update-fact-sheet-anti-lgbt-mobilization-in-the-united-states/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Kitz, Tim. “Timeline of Canadian Colonialism and Indigenous Resistance.” The Leveller. 26 September 2019. https://leveller.ca/2019/09/timeline-of-canadian-colonialism-and-indigenous-resistance/. Accessed 20 March 2023.

Maracle, Aiyyana. “A Journey in Gender.” Torquere, 2. 2000. https://doi.org/10.25071/1488-5182.36587. Accessed 20 January 2023.

McCombes, S. “How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates.” Scribbr. 2 January 2023. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/literature-review/. Accessed 5 February 2023.

McLeod, Dayna. “Death in the Shadow of the Umbrella by Aiyyana Maracle.” Vimeo. 29 August 2015. https://vimeo.com/137714829. Accessed 30 March 2023.

Miller, R. James. Gamez, P. Daniel. Manuel, Alexa. “Indigenous-British Relations Pre-Confederation.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. 26 May 2015. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-european-relations. Accessed 30 January 2023.

Morgensen, L. Scott. “Spaces Between Us.” 17 November 2011. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816656332/spaces-between-us/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Naumetz, Tim. “One in five students suffered sexual abuse at residential schools, figures indicate.” The Globe and Mail. 17 January 2019. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/one-in-five-students-suffered-sexual-abuse-at-residential-schools-figures-indicate/article20440061/. Accessed March 23^rd 2023.

Nash, Catherine J., and Kath Browne. “Queer Methods and Methodologies: An Introduction.” Queer Methods and Methodologies, 1st ed., Taylor & Francis, 2010, pp. 1–24. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315603223-1. Accessed 26 March 2023.

Noakes, C. Taylor. “Aiyyana Maracle”. The Canadian Encyclopedia. 28 September 2022. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aiyyana-maracle. Accessed 16 January 2023.

Page, M. Morgan. “Aiyanna Maracle.” The Queer Bible. 2019. https://www.queerbible.com/queerbible/2017/7/11/aiyyana-maracle-by-morgan-m-page. Accessed 16 January 2023.

Perreault, Samuel. “Victimization of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada.” Statistics Canada. 19 July 2022. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00012-eng.htm. Accessed 16 July 2023.

P, B. “Understand the Basic Types of Case Study Here.” Myperfectwords. 22 June 2019. https://myperfectwords.com/blog/writing-a-case-study/types-of-case-study. Accessed 2 February 2023.

Ristock, Janice. Zoccole, Art. Potskin, Jonathon. “Impacts of colonization on Indigenous Two-Spirit/LGBTQ Canadians’ experiences of migration, mobility, and relationship violence.” SAGE Journals. 17 February 2017. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460716681474. Accessed 23 January 2023.

Sen, Amartya. “Identity & Violence the Illusion of Destiny.” W. W. Norton & Company. Penguin. Readersbreak.com.2006.http://readersbreak.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/05/Identity_and_Violence_The_Illusion_of_Destiny.pdf. Accessed 1 April 2023.

Simpson, B. Leanne. “As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance.” 2017. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1pwt77c. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Smith, TK. “A Stage for Aiyyana”. Monument Lab. 25 May 2023. https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/a-stage-for-aiyyana. Accessed 24 January 2023.

Taylor, H. Drew. “Me Artsy.” 2015. https://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/book/me-artsy/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Toms, Colleen. “Six Nations Woman Shares Her Transgender Experience.” Hamiltonnews.com. 19 January 2015. https://www.hamiltonnews.com/news-story/5264793-six-nations-woman-shares-her-transgender-experience/. Accessed 24 January 2023.

Twist, Arielle. “Trancestry.” Canadianart. 14 April 2020. https://canadianart.ca/essays/trancestry-arielle-twist-on-aiiyanna-maracle/. Accessed 3 January 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle at PLAY: grunt gallery’s 10th Anniversary.” Grunt Gallery. Vimeo. 29 September 2022. https://vimeo.com/755329130. Accessed 28 March 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle (with DB Boyko) Performance Art Cabaraet,” Vimeo. 23 March 2018. https://vimeo.com/261554934. Accessed 25 January 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle”. Transgender Media Portal. 2023. https://www.transgendermediaportal.org/person/PERS_000537.html. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle.” Artspeak. 29 February 2020. https://artspeak.ca/aiyyana-maracle/. Accessed 25 January 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle”. University of Victoria. (N.D). https://www.uvic.ca/transgenderarchives/collections/maracle/index.php. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle Fonds”. University of Victoria. 2017. https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/aiyyana-maracle-fonds. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle ‘Strange Fruit’.” Vimeo. 16 September 2022. https://vimeo.com/750500552. Accessed 25 January 2023.

“Aiyyana Maracle – 1950-2016”. Facebook. 25 April 2016. https://www.facebook.com/friendsaiyyanamaracle/videos/aiyyana-maracle-1950-2016/794652843997927/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“Anti-2SLGBTQIA+ Hate in Canada Must End.” Amnesty International. 16 May 2023. https://www.amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/anti-2slgbtqia-hate-in-canada-must-end/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“Case Studies.” WAC Clearing House. https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/resources/writing/ guides/casestudies/. Accessed 2 February 2023.

“Culturally Relevant Gender Based Models of Reconciliation.” Native Women’s Association of Canada. March 2010. https://www.nwac.ca/assets-knowledge-centre/2010-NWAC-Culturally-Relevant-Gender-Based-Models-of-Reconciliation.pdf. Accessed 20 January 2023.

“Half of Racialized People Have Experienced Discrimination or Unfair Treatment in The Past Five Years.” Statistics Canada. 16 May 2024. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240516/dq240516b-eng.htm. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“MARACLE, Aiyyana,” 7A11D International Festival of Performance Art. 22 October 2006. https://7a-11d.ca/festival_artist/maracle-aiyyana/. Accessed 20 January 2023.

“Sexual minority people almost three times more likely to experience violent victimization than heterosexual people”. Statistics Canada. 9 September 2020. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200909/dq200909a-eng.htm. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“The Arrival of Europeans: 17^th Century Wars.” Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/popular-books/aboriginal-people-canadian-military/arrival-europeans-17th-century-wars.html. Accessed 24 January 2023.

“Two-Spirit.” Indian Health Service. https://www.ihs.gov/lgbt/health/twospirit/#:~:text=Traditionally %2C%20Native%20American%20two%2Dspirit,a%20distinct%2C%20alternative%20gender%20status.Accessed 25 January 2023.

“What is The Background of a Study and How Should it Be Written?” Elsevier Author Services. https://scientific-publishing.webshop.elsevier.com/manuscript-preparation/what-background-study-and-how-should-it-be-written/amp/. Accessed 2 February 2023.

“The Facts About Gender-based Violence.” Canadian Women’s Foundation. 1 June 2022. https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/gender-based-violence/. Accessed 28 March 2023.

“2023 anti-trans legislation”. Trans Legislation Tracker. 2023. https://translegislation.com/bills/2023. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Cover Image Credit:

(Aiyyana Maracle fonds. University of Victoria Special Collections. Transgender Archives.)

Maddison Schang-Pereira

Professor Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell

Seneca Fashion Resource Centre

Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology

November 18^th, 2024

Maddison Schang-Pereira is a student researcher with the Seneca Canadian Fashion Diversity Project.

The Seneca Canadian Fashion Diversity Project (SCFDP) is a multimedia resource for education about (as well as celebration of) fashion diversity. Hosted on a website supported by the Seneca Library.

For permission requests, please contact: mark.oconnell@senecapolytechnic.ca.

The process of creating the video documentary that accompanied the Aiyyana Maracle’s Transformation of Sexuality and Gender in Canada article was guided by practice-led research, an approach that situates creative practice as both the method and outcome of scholarly inquiry. This research method involved an iterative cycle of theorization, experimentation, and reflection, where the act of documentary filmmaking itself became a site of knowledge production. By engaging with archival materials, personal narratives, and visual storytelling techniques, the research sought to embody and represent Maracle’s impact on Canadian fashion and gender discourse in a dynamic and accessible format. The documentary-making process was informed by an analysis of Maracle’s performances and written works. Through this creative-critical approach, the documentary functioned as both a scholarly investigation and a creative act of storytelling, reinforcing the themes explored in the accompanying article.