Piercing through the chaos of chance and unexpected plot twists that we encounter throughout our lives, there is one stark and certain truth: we’re all going to die. Yet, our death-phobic society has taught us to fear the only thing we know for sure. Even talking about death evokes superstitious reactions, as if speaking the […] More »

There are bed bugs in my apartment building, so we have to flee, fucking posthaste. I pack my roommate’s cat up in her little crate and hop into my inheritance from old Auntie Doreen, a blue ‘98 Chevy Lumina. We barely make it out before they have the white and blue bubble wrap covering the […] More »

“When are they taking me away?” This was a question I frequently asked my mom throughout my childhood. The first time I wondered this aloud I was three years old. My foster brother and sister had lived with us on and off for two years by then and I didn’t remember life without them. The […] More »

The smallest First Nations Public Library (FNPL) I’ve heard of consists of two shelves. Yes, two shelves, not stacks. Michipicoten First Nation has a FNPL and fewer than 75 on-reserve residents. The largest FNPL is the Six Nations Public Library, where I am the CEO and director of library services; it houses a collection of […] More »

“Indigenous nations are their own sovereign nations.” It’s a rhetoric stated consistently in a variety of arenas, both political and non-political. It is a truthful rhetoric at that. Being Anishinaabe, and also raising an Anishinaabe/Nehiyaw/Nakoda daughter, has further affirmed the truth that we are, 100 percent, our own sovereign nations as Indigenous Peoples. It has […] More »

Being a Plains Cree non-binary lesbian with a non- functioning uterus makes baby-making hard. And the looming pressure of total environmental and climate collapse has made a lot of my friends choose not to have children at all. Is it selfish to bring a child into the world as it stands now? And can I […] More »

At Wascana Park in Regina sits a group of protesters, their teepees erected around them. They are waiting. Camped out just across from the Saskatchewan Legislature, the group wants justice after the deaths of Tina Fontaine and Colten Boushie, two Indigenous youth whose accused killers were acquitted of murder charges. The camp set up in […] More »

I am reworking my reality.  How does a tranny coexist    with lust,       being told of an    “unattainable” touch even with the saliva of a man    dripping off of my chest   how he bites at my soft parts       and kissed me    rigid. I think this man    could love me,   fuck me       outside of glory holes       a […] More »

EXPLORE THE FEATURE: Editor’s note by Gwen Benaway ● Prose by Kai Minosh Pyle ● Interview with Lindsay Nixon ● Visual art by Fallon Simard ● Interview with Ziibiwan Rivers ● Prose by Jaye Simpson ● Poetry by Arielle Twist A note from the editor: When I was asked to guest edit an Indigenous-specific supplement for This, my first instinct was […] More »

how do i explain my queerness to the gatekeeper of my blood line when she flushed hers out with communion wine and holy water? how do i explain my ever-shifting body to the woman who prayed for damnation for me, rather than my absolution? my grandmother who held me at birth, has prayed for my […] More »

THE MYTH OF THE ATOM i am learning not to be alone. kinship is a practice: it is performed through repeated actions. is it queer to be alone? is not the same question as, is being queer lonely? but i might be forgiven for not knowing the difference. my language has no word for queer; […] More »