Ma-Nee Chacaby
Ma-Nee Chacaby | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 22, 1950 Ombabika |
| Nationality | Canadian, Ojibwa-Cree |
| Occupation(s) | Author, activist |
| Notable work | A Two-Spirit Journey (2016) |
| Website | ma-nee |
Ma-Nee Chacaby (born July 22, 1950) is an Ojibwe-Cree writer and activist from Canada.[1] She is most noted for her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder.
Early years
[edit]Born and raised in the remote Northern Ontario indigenous community of Ombabika,[2][3] Chacaby escaped the Indian residential school system only because she was away hunting and trapping with her stepfather when government agents arrived in the community during the Sixties Scoop.[2] She later lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Thunder Bay, Ontario, and sparked a local controversy when she openly identified herself as a lesbian in a television news story for Thunder Bay Television in 1988.[2] She remained a local activist on 2SLGBTQ+ and indigenous issues, and later began to create and exhibit work as a painter,[4] before writing and publishing A Two-Spirit Journey. She is fluent in both Cree and Ojibwe.[5]
Publications
[edit]A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder was co-authored by Mary Louisa Plummer and published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2016.[2] It is the 18th title in the Native History Series published by the press. Methodologically, it combines social science and indigenous oral history.[6] The authors conducted over one hundred hours of interviews as part of their writing process, and the book deals with themes of child abuse, alcohol abuse, sexuality, and post-traumatic stress disorder.[7]
Critical acclaim
[edit]The biography was awarded the U.S. Oral History Association's 2017 Book Award,[8] as well as the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 Alison Prentice Award for Best Book on Women's History in Ontario.[9] In addition, A Two-Spirit Journey was a shortlisted Lambda Literary Award finalist for Lesbian Memoir/Biography at the 29th Lambda Literary Awards in 2017,[10] and was shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2017 Manitoba Book Awards.[11]
In 2019, A Two-Spirit Journey was published in French as Un Parcours Bispirituel by Les éditions du remue-ménage.[12] That same year, Chacaby served as one of the grand marshals of the Fierté Montréal parade.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ "What being two-spirit means to Indigenous elder Ma-Nee Chacaby". The Next Chapter (CBC Radio), June 9, 2017.
- ^ a b c d Scott Paradis, "Book chronicles two-spirited elder's struggle and redemption". TB News Watch, May 21, 2016.
- ^ Chacaby, Ma-Nee (2016). A Two-Spirit Journey. University of Manitoba Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0887558122.
- ^ a b Anouk Lebel, "Ma-Nee Chacaby : le parcours hors du commun d'une militante autochtone bispirituelle". Ici Radio-Canada, August 17, 2019.
- ^ Pyle, Kai (2018). "Naming and Claiming: Recovering Ojibwe and Plains Cree Two-Spirit Language". Duke University Press. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ Leung-Pittman, Emily. "A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer." The Goose, vol. 16 , no. 2 , article 26, 2018, https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol16/iss2/26.
- ^ Pyle, Kai (2017). "Review of A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 29 (2): 95–98. doi:10.5250/studamerindilite.29.2.0095. ISSN 0730-3238. JSTOR 10.5250/studamerindilite.29.2.0095.
- ^ "2017 OHA Awards". Oral History Association. 18 September 2008.
- ^ "Two-Spirit Elder's Autobiography Recognized with Provincial Award" (PDF). Ontario Historical Society.
- ^ Becky Robertson, "M-E Girard, Vivek Shraya among 13 Canadians nominated for 2017 Lambda Literary Awards". Quill & Quire, March 14, 2017.
- ^ Sue Carter, "Katherena Vermette, David Bergen, Ma-Nee Chacaby nominated for Manitoba Book Awards". Quill & Quire, March 24, 2017.
- ^ "Un parcours bispirituel: Récit d'une aînée ojibwé-crie lesbienne". Les éditions du remue-ménage. 11 March 2019.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 21st-century First Nations writers
- 21st-century Canadian women writers
- 21st-century Canadian women artists
- Artists from Ontario
- Canadian women painters
- First Nations painters
- Canadian LGBTQ rights activists
- Canadian LGBTQ painters
- Lesbian memoirists
- Lesbian painters
- LGBTQ First Nations people
- Living people
- Ojibwe women writers
- Ojibwe writers
- Cree women writers
- Cree writers
- Writers from Thunder Bay
- Two-spirit people
- 21st-century Canadian memoirists
- Canadian lesbian writers
- Canadian lesbian artists
- Canadian women memoirists
- 1950 births
- 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people
- Cree women artists
- Cree artists
- Ojibwe women artists
- Ojibwe artists
- Non-binary lesbians