Join Ilatsoíí (Wyatt) Bellon for a roundtable discussion of his forthcoming publication, Taking Back Two-Spirit: The Historic and Current War on Indigenous Gender and Sexual Variance. The legacy of cis-heteropatriarchy that colonisation inflicted onto Native peoples within the so-called "Americas" is underrepresented within academia. Taking Back Two-Spirit uses an ethnographic approach to uncover the histories of Native gender and sexual diversity and addresses chronological accounts of violent colonisation toward these identities. Bellon asserts that two-spirit, genderqueer and non-conforming as well as non-heterosexual-identifying Native peoples face systematic oppression and colonisation intersecting at racial, sexual, and cultural powers. The proximity of this research to Bellon’s personal experience makes for a unique look into deconstructing colonial ideologies, white supremacy, and the movement to take back traditional roles within Native communities.

Biography:

Ilatsoíí (Wyatt) Bellon is an undergraduate interdisciplinary Indigenous Studies student at The Evergreen State College. Wyatt’s passion for intersectional activism has led him to the creation of the Celebration of Two-Spirit Artists conference while working as an intern at the House of Welcome on The Evergreen State College campus, and conjoining efforts with like-minded creatives with the fundraising non-profit organisation Cosplay Care Project. He has guest spoken at UW Tacoma’s RSO Cedar Circle about the historic and ongoing colonial effects towards gender and sexual variance within Indigenous communities. Wyatt’s ancestry hails from the Apache borderlands and his adopted home at Wapato longhouse in Yakama Nation.