Ma-Nee Chacaby
Ma-Nee Chacaby | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 22, 1950 Ombabika, Ontario, Canada |
| 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 lesbian 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 suffered physical and sexual abuse from various adults in her life, and turned to alcoholism in her teen years. At twenty, she escaped an abusive marriage by moving to Thunder Bay, Ontario with her children.[4] She also lived in Winnipeg and Manitoba. While living in Thunder Bay, she 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 eventually reached sobriety, and worked as a counselor for alcoholics.[4] She remained a local activist on 2SLGBTQ+ and indigenous issues, and later began to create and exhibit work as a painter,[5] before writing and publishing A Two-Spirit Journey. She is fluent in both Cree and Ojibwe.[6]
In 2013, Chacaby led Thunder Bay's first pride parade.[4]
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.[7] 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.[8]
Critical acclaim
[edit]The biography was awarded the U.S. Oral History Association's 2017 Book Award,[9] as well as the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 Alison Prentice Award for Best Book on Women's History in Ontario.[10] 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,[11] and was shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2017 Manitoba Book Awards.[12]
In 2019, A Two-Spirit Journey was published in French as Un Parcours Bispirituel by Les éditions du remue-ménage.[13] That same year, Chacaby served as one of the grand marshals of the Fierté Montréal parade.[5]
In 2025, A Two-Spirit Journey was named as a finalist for Canada Reads, where it was advocated by actress and podcaster Shayla Stonechild.[14] It was the winner of the competition.[15]
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 c Plummer, Mary Louisa (9 January 2025). "A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby".
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Meet the Canada Reads 2025 contenders". CBC Books. 23 January 2025. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
- ^ "Shayla Stonechild, championing A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, wins Canada Reads 2025". CBC Books, March 20, 2025.
| 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