Queer Indigenous Studies

"This book is an imagining." So begins this edited collection examining critical, Indigenous-centered approaches to understanding gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit (GLBTQ2) lives and communities. This book is not so much a manifesto as it is a dialogue--a "writing in conversation"-- among a luminous group of scholar-activists looking back at the history of gay and lesbian studies in Indigenous communities while forging a path for Indigenous-centered theories and methodologies. The bold opening to Queer Indigenous Studies is indicative of the fresh and creative approach its contributors take in their dialogue about this emergent field of study. Rooted in a conference session held at the 2008 Native American and Indigenous Studies Association meeting, this edited collection represents a growing conversation about the new directions and larger implications of queer Indigenous studies. Through examples rooted in international Indigenous communities and disciplines ranging from literary criticism to anthropology, the contributors to Queer Indigenous Studies analyze the relationship between colonialism and heteropatriarchy. In doing so, they also engage in decolonizing methodologies while centering Indigenous knowledge as a basis. Building upon the work of Andrea Smith, Robert Warrior, Craig Womack, Daniel Heath Justice, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, this volume has the potential to radically reshape and contribute to Native studies, queer studies, transgender studies, and Indigenous feminisms. Based on the reality that queer Indigenous people "experience multilayered oppression that profoundly impacts our safety, health, and survival," this book is at once an imagining and an invitation to the reader to join in the discussion of decolonizing queer Indigenous research and theory and, by doing so, to partake in collective resistance working toward positive change.