Canada’s largest reserve Six Nations hosts first-ever Pride parade

Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest and most populous First Nations reserve in Canada, is hosting the first-ever on-reserve Pride parade this weekend.

Located about 110 kilometres southwest of Toronto, Six Nations comprises 25,660 members, some 12,271 of whom live on reserve. It is famous for being the only reserve in North America to have all six Iroquois nations — Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora — living together.

The plan for a Pride march was born after a conversation between band member Myka Burning and her young daughter about the oppression faced by people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. Burning, who wasn’t immediately available to comment, was inspired to create the event after her daughter asked her if there were indigenous people who were also LGBTQ.

“I said, ‘Of course!’” Burning told the Two Row Times. “And she said ‘Why don’t we have a Pride parade on the reserve to show Indians we care about them!’ And voila — the seed was planted and we just put it out there to see if the community was interested. And boy were they!”

Burning used Facebook to reach out for help and eventually an informal committee was formed. Upon hearing that a Pride march was being planned, the response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. Posting on Facebook, Burning wrote “I have received so much good feedback and support it’s remarkable.”

Six Nations Pride begins Saturday at 11 a.m. at Veteran’s Park in the village of Ohsweken and will include speakers, singers and drummers, all culminating in a march. Among the speakers planned are two-spirited men and women and the mother of a child who was forced to move off-reserve as a result of harassment.

So far, more than 225 people have said they plan to attend. Burning told the Two Row Times, “We have people coming from up north in the Sault, Kettle Point, Toronto, Niagara, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, London and Peterborough. The general consensus is people have been dreaming about this and waiting for this.”

Despite the positive response, for some Six Nations still carries a reputation as an unsafe place for LGBTQ people. Burning is trying hard to change that.

“Our indigenous communities are filled with wonderful, fabulous and important two-spirited, trans, bi etc people,” she wrote on the Facebook page. “It’s time to come together and celebrate and honour our sons, cousins, sisters, parents, neighbours and show them that they are loved and accepted in our communities.”

Two-spirited (derived from the Anishinaabemowin niizh manidoowag meaning two spirits) is an English term used to represent the many LGBTQ indigenous identities that existed prior to European arrival. It has been used historically to represent a person with both a masculine and a feminine spirit and today it is used by some First Nations people to describe their sexuality, gender or spiritual identity.