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Indigenous characters on screen have often been positioned as a gift from the past with innate heroic characteristics, or a problem to be solved in the form of the sad Indigenous person who cannot rise above colonial rule. That these archetypes are framed as positive in their representation is at odds with the need to have representations of the complexity of First Nations peoples. With queer Indigenous representation, characters become reduced to type, frequently reduced to representations of belligerence and difference, or unsubtle complexity that would be challenged in a non-Indigenous queer character. In this article and through the findings of our project Queer As..., we argue that this results in fewer Indigenous characters named as queer, we discuss some of the difficulties of casting and being cast as these characters, and we interrogate how the presence of queer Indigenous characters can deliver a more complete retelling of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the intersectional identities of Indigenous peoples who may walk the path "in-between" Indigenous and settler nationhood, and the implications that reside in that ethically ambiguous space. Employing the use of personal narrative, poetry,1 and decolonizing perspectives, this work positions identity as a politicized construct that continues to surveil Indigenous bodies, marking them as threats to settler advancement. This article asks questions around what it means to be Indigenous in a time of social unrest, when your life is marked by colonial interference but your skin is not; is resisting colonialism enough to create spaces for all Indigenous peoples to thrive? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Western linguists have challenged the notion that a distinct worldview results from the speaking of Indigenous languages in comparison to European languages, Indigenous-language speakers generally support the idea. The Indigenous worldview, they argue, is fundamentally different and evinces an infinite connectedness that is lacking from European languages. However, if different languages do produce distinct worldviews, then each language should be not only structurally different, it should have a unique "look" and "feel". We have been using new media technology to generate language visualizations that will be mapped against distinctive grammatical features of the respective languages. Our theoretical framework fuses new media and Indigenous theories. Our goal is to identify the source of connectedness in language in order to discover a means of re-Indigenizing English. In this article, presented as a dialogue between the authors, we consider some implications and ask whether the project is wise or even possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous knowledge systems and spiritual traditions are intricately interwoven. They sustained First Nations peoples for centuries, are part of the everyday lives of Indigenous peoples and are at the core of Indigenous epistemologies. This paper argues that, despite the adverse impacts of Canada's colonial policies on Indigenous peoples, their ancestral knowledge systems and spirituality guide and nourish them as they navigate their way through contemporary educational and everyday life contexts. I specifically examine how several Indigenous women, many of whom experienced systemic discrimination, use spirituality to cope with and overcome everyday lived oppression. Their narratives form the basis of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]