- [Announcer] Dancers come on out, and dance.
(drum music) (singing in native language)
- A Powwow is basically a social gathering.
We come and dance, show our regalia, show our beauty,
and dance to wonderful music,
that has meaning, has spiritual meaning.
(drum music)
Almost like a blessing.
(singing in native language)
I feel that there's this big old bubble of spiritual energy,
just surrounding us.
And of course we have our ancestors here,
that are pretty much dancing alongside us.
(singing in native language)
- Today, we are having our second annual Two Spirit Powwow.
Last year we had her first.
We got a grant from the Pride Organization for Phoenix.
- Last year we had about 24 dancers,
and this year we have 64.
- Traditionally, Powwow is something
that is very gender like bias.
So we kind of wanted to erase gender,
and we kind of wanted to create a safe space for,
two spirit individuals.
- [Announcer] Thank you standing horse dancers.
- [Iann] Good afternoon everyone, my name
is Iann Austin.
I am Mr. Southwest Two Spirit.
I'm also part of the Powwow Committee.
I really wanted to say something specifically,
to the Two Spirit community that is here with us today.
I wanted to let you know that this was created for you,
a safe space for you.
A place that you can go and you can feel welcomed,
and you could feel safe,
and you're free to be who you want to be.
(drum music)
The phrase Two Spirit that was coined back in 1990.
So it's a relatively new term.
And it was from elders within the community,
that were at a Powwow,
and their Powwow didn't have a dance for them.
- It's someone who was able to help wherever needed,
in a village or community.
So, but they're also someone who just feel,
that they are both men and women together.
- Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Te Titla.
I'm your current reigning Miss Supreme Pride 2020,
and your current reigning Miss Apache Diva forever.
It really depends on where you hear it,
and who tells you about it.
I heard the traditional term from my tribe,
my grandpa used to call me when I was younger.
It's not derogatory,
but I didn't know what it was growing up.
I got to know that he knew that I wasn't gonna be,
the average child.
My tribe, the Two Spirit roles they had,
were taking items and information from
the man to the woman.
So he would say go tell this to that.
- We knew as indigenous people,
there's more than a man and a woman.
There's the third gender,
there's fourth gender in some tribes.
- I'm Navajo, and in the Navajo wave,
LGBT people had a place in our tribes.
And because of colonization and religion,
unfortunately, we lost those teachings.
So, my organization Native PFLAG,
we're bringing back those traditional teachings.
- (in native language)
Good afternoon, my name is Vanessa Losey,
I am the currently waiting Miss International Two-Spirit.
I just want to say that the first time I held it,
I won a title.
I was in boarding school, I was 14 years old.
And things were so different back then.
We used to have to lock ourselves in a room and hide,
and perform our pageant before the dorm attendants came in
to check rooms.
And so it's really something to see all of this happening,
and to be able to be here.
- I came from a really small town,
we made fun of it, and it was bad.
That was like the education that I got.
Back in the 80s and 90s, we didn't come out.
- If the Two Spirit Powwow was here,
and there was any type of visibility for anybody,
two spirit, transgender or gay,
it would have made my life so much easier growing up.
- I found out my daughter was dating a girl,
and I talked to her about it.
I wasn't prepared for that discussion at all.
That day that I found out,
it ended in both of us crying,
I didn't understand.
That same day I asked my son,
and at first he denied it.
And then later he said, "Yeah mom, I'm gay, too."
And that was the beginning of my education.
My daughter said some things to me, I'll never forget.
She says, "Mom, why would I do this,
when I know society's gonna be against me."
She also said she wasn't gonna tell me,
until she got to college,
'cause she didn't want to be a disappointment.
And that's really hard for me,
to even think about that to the day because she's amazing.
And I realized,
I hadn't made a safe space in my own family, my own home,
for her to be who she is.
And so when I started learning more about the community,
and all the challenges,
and all the things that are cancer in community,
I say gotta do something.
I have to do something.
Two spirit people were healers.
They were medicine people,
they were mediators, they were part of our culture.
They have been for years and years.
We have to bring that back,
'cause there should be no shame in being LGBT
for two spirit.
There should be no shame in that.
In the Navajo culture,
we say that it's a blessing to have extra special blessing
to have a child who is LGBT,
and I could totally, totally agree with that,
'cause I've gotten so many blessings for my children.
(melancholic drumbeat music)