A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder

Shortlisted for Canada Reads 2025

From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community, Ma-Nee Chacaby's extraordinary story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social and economic legacies of colonialism.

As a child, Chacaby learned spiritual and cultural traditions from her Cree grandmother and trapping, hunting, and bush survival skills from her Ojibwa stepfather. She also suffered physical and sexual violence, and in her teen years became an alcoholic herself. At twenty, Chacaby took her children and, fleeing an abusive marriage, moved to Thunder Bay. Despite the abuse, racism, and indifference she often found there, Chacaby marshalled the strength and supports to help herself and others.

Over the following decades, she achieved sobriety, trained and worked as an alcoholism counsellor, raised her children and fostered many others, learned to live with visual impairment, and came out as a lesbian. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in Thunder Bay.

Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, and humour. Her memoir provides unprecedented insights into the challenges still faced by many Indigenous people.

Author: Ma-Nee Chacaby
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
Published: 04/22/2016
Series: Critical Studies in Native History #18
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.8lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780887558122


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/23/2017

About the Author
Ma-Nee Chacaby is a Two-Spirit, Ojibwa/Cree Elder. She was raised by her Cree grandmother in a remote Ojibwa community near Lake Nipigon, Ontario.

Mary Louisa Plummer is a social scientist and a long-time friend of Ma-Nee. Much of her professional work has focused on public health and children's rights.