In these rigorous and challenging essays, writers from Aotearoa and Turtle Island (Canada and the United States of America) explore the well-being of takatāpui, two-spirit, and Māori and Indigenous LGBTQI+ communities. Themes include resistance, reclamation, empowerment, transformation and healing. Central to Honouring Our Ancestors is the knowledge that, before colonisation, Indigenous peoples had their own healthy understandings of gender, sexual identities and sexuality. Some of these understandings have survived the onslaught of colonisation; others require decolonisation so that our Indigenous nations can begin to heal. Through this lens, the writers gathered here contribute their knowledge and experience of structural and social change.

This collection was inspired by two major research projects: the HONOR Project, which investigated well-being in American Indian and Alaskan Native two-spirit communities, and the Honour Project Aotearoa, which investigated Kaupapa Māori strengths-based understandings of the health and well-being of takatāpui and Māori LGBTQI+ communities.

Edited by Alison Green and Leonie Pihama, Honouring Our Ancestors upholds the independent authorities and languages that distinguish our Indigenous nations and celebrates the relationships that bind us. Decolonised Indigenous knowledges are offered as a wellspring of unlimited potential for Indigenous communities and nations everywhere.

Alison Green (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Ranginui) is a mother, a grandmother, and a professor in the School of Indigenous Graduate Studies, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. She holds a PhD in Māori and Pacific Development. In 2019, Alison was awarded the inaugural Misiweskamik Indigenous Post-Doctoral Fellowship to the University of Saskatchewan, where she taught at the Department of Indigenous Studies. She is also the chief executive of a Kaupapa Māori organisation that delivers sexual and reproductive health support, policy, advisory services and research.

Leonie Pihama (Te Ātiawa, Ngā  Māhanga a Tairi, Waikato) is a mother of six and grandmother of six mokopuna. She is a professor of Māori and Indigenous research, director of research at Tū Tama Wahine o Taranaki, and director of Māori and Indigenous analysis. She has held roles as professor of Māori research at Ngā Wai a Te Tūī Research Institute, and director at Te Kotahi Research Institute (Waikato) and the Indigenous Research Institute for Māori and Indigenous Education (University of Auckland). She was a recipient of the Hohua Tūtengaehe Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship and the inaugural Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Senior Māori Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Washington. In 2015, Leonie was awarded the Te Tohu Pae Tāwhiti Award and the Te Tohu Rapuora Award. She has served on the boards of the Māori Health Committee for the Health Research Council, Māori Television, Te Māngai Pāho and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.

Cover art: Kahutoi Te Kanawa

Contributors

Clive Aspin
Annie Belcourt
David J. Brennan
Nicholas Kenneth Gerald Garrett
Alison Green
Tłaliłila’ogwa / Sarah Hunt
Randy Jackson
Michelle Aihina Inkinsh Holhpokunna Johnson-Jennings
Andrew Jolivétte
Elizabeth Kerekere
Sandy Lambert
Rebekah Laurence
Rafael/a Luna-Pizano
Kim McBreen
Albert McLeod
Carl Mika
Tawhanga Nopera
Doris Peltier
Mera Penehira
Leonie Pihama
Matt Roskruge
Shirley Simmonds
Herearoha Skipper
Manawaroa Te Wao
Matthew Town
Melissa Walls
Karina Walters
Alex Wilson