Harlan Pruden is a two-spirit member of the Cree first nation who has devoted his life to two-spirit and Indigenous activism. He is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, but grew up with his mother on her reservation with the Beaver Lake Cree Nation.
He is a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia and has extensive experience in Aboriginal health and two-spirit culture.
He is an educator at the British Columbia Center for Disease Control's Chee Mamuk, an Aborignal health program. He is also the managing editor of the Two Spirit Journal, an interactive multi-platform two-spirit media and news website.
He co-founded and formerly held the position of director for the NorthEast Two Sipirt Society. He was also the principal two-spirit consultant to the USA's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Center.
He was appointed to the United States' Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. He was appointed as an American representative to the International Indigenous Peoples Working Group on HIV and AIDS. He is a board member of Qmunity, the home for Vancouver's LGBTQ+ and two-spirit community.
All of this information and more background on Harlan Pruden can be found here.
My colleague, Shanice Pereira, had an opportunity to speak with Mr. Pruden while we were in the Yukon via phone. Excerpts from the interview can be found below. But first, here are some important terms to be familiar with. (Slideshow by Shanice Pereira).
Pruden says the residential school system imposed a rigid gender binary in which there were only two options: male and female. Any notions of gender held by Indigenous nations were excluded.
He says Indigenous people who went through the residential school system adopted the European binary understanding of gender; that there was only male and female. This differed from the diverse beliefs of gender in various First Nations.
In Pruden’s Cree tradition, “we see someone from a trans experience as having a gift and a purpose, as someone walking a new path. For that, you have something to offer that I, as someone who is cisgendered, cannot offer. We celebrate that,” he says.
Click play below to hear Pruden talk about colonization and two-spirit resurgence:
Pruden acknowledges the multi-faceted term that is two-spirit. While the term in general can be used as an umbrella term among Indigenous communities to mean they belong to the LGBTQ+ community, Pruden says the term changes amongst Indigenous people.
He hopes his work can offer a framework to start reclaiming two-spirit identities across different First Nations from when they were oppressed during colonization.
Click play below to hear Pruden talk about the term two-spirit:
Pruden says colonization means an erasure of not only two-spirit identities but any identity outside of the gender binary. The gender binary is a system of gender belief which only accepts male and female.
The gender binary was used as tool of colonialism by settlers as they erased not only Indigenous culture but any teachings, experiences, or identities related to experiences outside of strict male and female gender categorization. In First Nation communities before contact, some communities recognized three, five, or even up to seven genders.
Because of the erasure that has happened around the traditions of more than two genders, Pruden says, often people don't know they can make a choice between male and female. "Often they feel like they have to choose between being gay and being Indigenous," he says, "this is a false choice. Being forced to choose between the two is an act of colonization."
Other acts of colonization which destroyed two-spirit identity came in the form of residential schools. While residential schools were horrible in many ways, they were especially effective in erasing two-spirit identities.
Pruden says the residential schools imposed the rigid binary gender system which erased and silenced the other genders present in Indigenous communities.
Click play below to hear Pruden discuss the impact of residential schools on two-spirit identity:
Pruden says that to heal from the impacts of colonization and residential schools, people need to be able to talk, to embrace their humanity, and remember sacred teachings.
Thank you for hearing from Haraln Pruden. Click here to return to the Yukon Stories home page to see other profiles.