Overview
What indigiqueer means.
Indigiqueer is Indigenous plus queer, and the order matters. It names being queer in a specifically Indigenous way: in gender, in orientation, in sex characteristics, or all three. It holds both the traditional roles that Two-Spirit points at and the newer, contemporary ways of being Indigenous and queer that no nation’s traditional gender system ever had a word for.
It exists because Two-Spirit did not fit everyone. Wikipedia records that the term was coined by Cree filmmaker TJ Cuthand, originally spelled Indigequeer, for people who did not feel comfortable with a title that implies two genders in one body. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki dates it to 2004 and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, and credits the writer Joshua Whitehead with carrying it further. It is a word about the present and the future of being Indigenous, not only about the past.
It is closed. Indigiqueer is for Indigenous people, and both records fetched for this page say so in the first line. If you are not Indigenous, it is not your word, however well the shape fits. Non-Native use of Two-Spirit is recorded on Wikipedia as appropriation, and Indigiqueer inherits the same boundary. Read it as a guest.
A word for Indigenous people who are queer in Indigenous ways, covering gender as well as orientation, and closed to non-Indigenous people.
Indigiqueer in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
Indigiqueer (originally spelled Indigequeer) was coined in 2004 by Cree filmmaker TJ Cuthand for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, according to both the LGBTQIA+ Wiki and Wikipedia's Two-Spirit entry. It was created as an alternative for Indigenous people who did not feel Two-Spirit — a pan-Indigenous English umbrella term coined in 1990 at an Indigenous lesbian and gay gathering in Winnipeg — fit their experience, particularly because Two-Spirit's 'two genders in one' framing does not match every nation's own gender concepts or every individual's identity.
Métis writer and scholar Joshua Whitehead is credited with popularising the word in the years after its coining, including through his own writing. The term is explicitly about being Indigenous and queer in Indigenous-specific ways — covering gender, sexual orientation and sex characteristics — set against a colonial history in which European settlers imposed a strict two-sex, heterosexual gender order onto Indigenous nations that had often recognised a wider range of gender roles.
- Coined by
- TJ Cuthand
- First recorded
- 2004
- Where
- Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Canada
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
You are Indigenous, and gay or trans or non-binary describe your life accurately and still leave out the reason for it.
Two-Spirit was offered to you and the two did not land.
Your gender is not a pair of anything.
You do not want a word you might have to be recognised in before you could use it. You want one you can pick up on a Tuesday and put down if it stops fitting.
In queer spaces you are the Native one.
In Native spaces you are the queer one. Neither room is exactly home.
You know your nation had its own way of arranging this, and you may not know the word for it, and that gap sits somewhere under your ribs.
Being Indigenous and queer feels like a future to you, not a museum display someone is explaining to you.
You have had to prove you were Native enough in one room and queer enough in another, in the same week.
Pronouns
Pronouns
Nothing about the word fixes a pronoun. He, she, they, two sets, or a nation’s own ungendered word. Many Indigenous languages do not gender pronouns at all, which can make the whole English argument feel like someone else’s problem. Ask.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You are not Indigenous. There is no route around this, and being drawn to the word is not one.
- 2Two-Spirit already fits you and your community uses it. You do not need a second word to make the first one real.
- 3Your nation’s own word is alive and reachable. Many people would say use that one first.
- 4You want a gender word with no people attached to it. Non-binary, genderqueer and agender are easier to carry alone.
Close by
Related identities
Two-Spirit
The older pan-Indian umbrella, chosen in 1990, carrying ceremony, role and community weight. Indigiqueer was built alongside it for people who wanted the Indigenous part without the two-genders framing or the ceremonial claim. Many people use both, in different rooms.
Read
Genderqueer
Queer about gender, open to anyone. Indigiqueer is queer about gender and about being Indigenous, and it is not open to everyone. If the Indigenous part is not yours, this is the word that is.
ReadNon-Binary
Defined against a two-box system. Indigiqueer does not start from that system; it starts from being Indigenous. Plenty of people are both, and say non-binary on forms and Indigiqueer to their own.
ReadThird gender
The flattening word outsiders use for every culture’s arrangement at once. Indigiqueer refuses that flattening on purpose. It is a word from inside.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Indigiqueer and Two-Spirit?+
Two-Spirit is a pan-Indian umbrella from 1990 that points at traditional third-gender and gender-variant roles, and often comes with ceremony and community recognition. Indigiqueer, coined by TJ Cuthand, was built for Indigenous people who did not feel that title fitted, especially the two-genders implication, and it also covers contemporary forms of Indigenous queerness that no traditional system named. Neither replaces the other.
Can a non-Indigenous person be Indigiqueer?+
No. Both the LGBTQIA+ Wiki and the Two-Spirit record on Wikipedia treat Indigenous words as belonging to Indigenous people. The queer half of the word is open to anyone; the Indigenous half is not.
Is Indigiqueer about gender or sexuality?+
Either or both. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki record covers orientation, gender and sex characteristics. It is on this site because for many people it is a gender word, not only a word for who they want.
The flag
Designer (lvxlvn) recorded with year 2022 only; colours named in words (tan, blue, red, green, brown) with no hex values and no image file on the wiki page.
Sources
- Indigiqueer — LGBTQIA+ Wiki Definition (an exclusive identity for Indigenous people queer in specifically Indigenous ways, covering orientation, gender and sex characteristics), the 2004 coinage by TJ Cuthand for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, and Joshua Whitehead’s role in spreading it. Fetched 2026-09-03.
- Two-spirit — Wikipedia Confirms Indigiqueer (originally Indigequeer) as coined by TJ Cuthand as an alternative to Two-Spirit for people uncomfortable with its dual-gender implication; records non-Native use of Two-Spirit as cultural appropriation. Fetched 2026-09-03.
- Two-Spirit — history of the term (1990 Winnipeg gathering) Fetched 2026-09-06 (re-check of existing source). Confirms Two-Spirit's own 1990 coining at a Winnipeg gathering, used here to date what Indigiqueer was offered as an alternative to.
Still figuring things out?
Twenty questions, four minutes, and a few words worth trying on.