Ma-Nee Chacaby (born July 22, 1950) is an

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

- Cree writer and activist from Canada. She is most noted for her memoir, ''A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder'', which was co-authored by Mary Louisa Plummer and published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2016.Scott Paradis
"Book chronicles two-spirited elder's struggle and redemption"
'' TB News Watch'', May 21, 2016. The biography was awarded the U.S. Oral History Association's 2017 Book Award, as well as the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 Alison Prentice Award for Best Book on Women's History in Ontario. In addition, ''A Two-Spirit Journey'' was a shortlisted

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

finalist for Lesbian Memoir/Biography at the

29th Lambda Literary Awards The 29th Lambda Literary Awards were held on June 12, 2017, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2016.Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

indigenous community of Ombabika, 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 The Sixties Scoop was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up," Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which ...

. She later lived in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

and

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...

, Ontario, and sparked a local controversy when she openly identified herself as a lesbian in a television news story for

Thunder Bay Television Dougall Media is a Canadian media company, which has several television, radio and publishing holdings in Northwestern Ontario. Television Dougall Media owns CKPR, a CTV affiliate (formerly a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2014), and CHFD, a ...

in 1988. She remained a local activist on LGBTQ and

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

issues, and later began to create and exhibit work as a painter,Anouk Lebel
"Ma-Nee Chacaby : le parcours hors du commun d'une militante autochtone bispirituelle"

Ici Radio-Canada ICI or Ici may refer to: Companies and organisations * ICI Homes, builder, Florida. US * Former UK Imperial Chemical Industries ** ICI Australia, later Orica * Independent Curators International, New York City, US * Indian Concrete Institute * I ...

, August 17, 2019. before writing and publishing ''A Two-Spirit Journey''. In 2019, ''A Two-Spirit Journey'' was published in French as ''Un Parcours Bispirituel'' by Les éditions du remue-ménage. That same year, Chacaby served as one of the grand marshals of the

Fierté Montréal Fierté Montréal, also called Montreal Pride, is an annual LGBT pride festival in Montreal, Quebec. The event was founded in 2007 at the initiative of Montreal’s LGBTQ+ communities after the city's prior Pride festival, Divers/Cité, reposit ...

parade.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chacaby, Ma-Nee 21st-century First Nations writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women artists Artists from Ontario Canadian women painters First Nations women writers First Nations painters Canadian LGBT rights activists Canadian LGBT painters Lesbian memoirists Lesbian painters LGBT First Nations people Living people Ojibwe people Cree people Writers from Thunder Bay Two-spirit people 21st-century Canadian memoirists Canadian lesbian writers Canadian lesbian artists Canadian women memoirists 1950 births First Nations women artists 21st-century Canadian LGBT people