The poster you see above is simple yet elegant in many ways. Firstly, the aesthetic is basic – it’s clearly handwritten in marker. The text is a little slanted, the illustrated Thunderbird at the top slightly askance. It’s in black and white – straight to the point. Here is the thing we are doing, here is when and where it is, here is who is hosting it.
But there’s something a little deeper to it than just the look. This poster is an invitation to a “Tea and Bannock” social gathering hosted by an Indigenous-run LGBTQ+ group local to Tkaron:to (Toronto). Tea and bannock – a simple but inviting menu. Tea is almost ubiquitous all over the world. People have been boiling leaves in water for many centuries, even as far back as 2700 BC, as legend tells. Bannock, on the contrary, is a food specific to Indigenous people of Turtle Island (North America). It came here from elsewhere, but many Indigenous people agree that bannock is an Indigenous food. In concert, however, these two edible items construe a different meaning that reflects the nature of Indigenous gatherings and the idea that community and activism don’t always have to involve grandeur and festivity. Sometimes, you can get together with your queer Native friends and just have some tea and bread, and that’s all you need.
Before we get into the foodie details, I want to contextualize this poster a little bit. The people who made this poster belonged to the North American Indian Gay and Lesbian Society of Toronto, a group formed in the 1980’s in response to the AIDS epidemic . Shortly after their formation, they changed their name to “Gays and Lesbians of the First Nations.” This organization evolved into the “2-Spirits of the 1st Nations,” which still exists today. Their website can be found here. The 2-Spirits have been supporting their community in Toronto throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – a fitting evolution, considering the organization was formed because of a different disease sweeping the community.
The Gays and Lesbians of the First Nations agreed to change their name to 2-Spirits of the 1st Nations at their 1992 Annual General Meeting to “honour their ancestral past” and reclaim their Indigenous identity. Two-spirit (or 2-spirit, or 2S) is an Indigenous gender identity of sorts. Some cite it as a gender identity, others say that it is not a gender identity as it has always existed outside of the colonially enforced gender binary. It depends on your perspective. Generally, two-spirit references an ancient teaching about those who have both “male” and “female” spirits within them. Sometimes, this means different gender expression, sometimes it means men marrying men and women marrying women.
When researching this post, I found myself at a loss for information on the 2-Spirits and their predecessor organizations. There is not much documentation of organizations like it. That’s not to say records don’t exist, but rather that they haven’t been taken down in an “official” capacity. This speaks to a problem with the way we’ve documented queer history, specifically in Tkaron:to, but in other areas as well. “Official” queer archives, like the ArQives in Toronto where I pulled this poster from, are overwhelmingly white. This means that a lot of the history documented by them is also overwhelmingly white. This erasure of people of colour from the narrative of queer history is extremely problematic. A lot of the most foundational work towards queer liberation was done by people of colour, including Indigenous peoples. Kicking that part of our histories under the bed will fail future generations in informing their knowledge of our movements that they can then implement into their own activism. In the words of Syrus Marcus Ware, “we need to consider what we want to remember and how we want to remember it” (171). What do we want future generations to know about the work we have done, who did that work, and how we acted in unity towards a better future for queers across the Earth? Should that documentation include the work of Indigenous people whose land we are all on? (Yes, obviously.)
With the contextualization aside, let’s get into talking about this poster. As mentioned before, it’s a simple thing with a simple premise: a hand drawn poster inviting people for some tea and bannock. There’s something so perfect about it that’s hard to describe. I think that within our current culture, we get caught up a lot in making our activism “appealing.” Pride parades with various sponsors and activities, movie nights with specifically queer movies, round table events with notable queer panelists – it’s all very well-to-do, and sometimes formal, even. We have to have due process, we have to have these events be official, we have to make it appeal not only to queer people but to cishet people so that they think we’re doing activism “right.” Resisting the violence perpetrated against us must involve straight, white teeth, smiles, and parade floats.
And then there’s tea and bannock. A simple welcome to have tea and bannock over some conversation. As mentioned before, tea is nearly everywhere in the world. I can go up to any one of my friends that come from a diverse group of cultures and they will be able to tell me about tea their family drinks, their chai recipes, the ceremony that goes with tea. It’s a common, unifying factor for so many people. Anyone can drink tea, and they can do it anytime, anywhere. Tea is a simple delight that truly anyone can enjoy. It’s amazing that leaves and hot water can bring so many people together.
The addition of bannock makes this space for tea and conversation phenomenally Indigenous. Bannock is a food central to many Turtle Island Indigenous cultures. Bannock originated from Scottish settlers sharing their food with Indigenous peoples. It’s a flat bread, typically made with few ingredients, and everyone’s kookum has a different recipe for the perfect bannock. A survey of Indigenous residents in Winnipeg’s North End neighbourhood revealed it to be something considered a traditional food. From my own knowledge, I know that it is prominent in Indigenous cultures local to the Greater Toronto Area and out east in the Ottawa Valley, too.
Tea and bannock together create a comfortable space for conversation. Everyone drinks tea, and many Indigenous people eat bannock. Comforting, casual spaces like this are deeply important to activism and community of any kind. Activism doesn’t always have to be formal, especially when it’s done by heavily marginalized groups. Often, especially in the case of Indigenous people, those trying to organize don’t have the resources for anything particularly formal. Sometimes, you can just rent out a room at a local community center and bring some tea and traditional foods, and that’s enough to do what you need to get done.
I don’t know what happened at the conversation over hot tea and warm bread in the Pine Room, and I doubt many people do. But, this moment reached out to me through time and showed me, as an aspiring activist and Indigenous person, that sometimes you don’t need things to be complicated and grandiose. Activism doesn’t always have to be marches and blockades. Sometimes the best work can be done over a cup of tea and some bannock shared with friends.
About the Author
Mads Clement (madsclementine) is a disabled, queer, Indigenous student in the Gender and Social Justice master’s program at McMaster University.
Works Cited
“2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations.” 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, https://2spirits.org/.
Brownlie, Robin Jarvis. “Native American LGBT Organizations and Periodicals .” Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America, 1st Edition. . Encyclopedia.com. 25 Oct. 2021 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Cyr, Monica, and Joyce Slater. “Got Bannock? Traditional Indigenous Bread in Winnipeg’s North End.” Indigenous Perspectives on Education for Well-Being in Canada (2016): 59.
Dubrin, Beverly. Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes, & More. Charlesbridge, 2010.
Social Gathering: Tea & Bannock. 18 Mar. 1989. MS Posters from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 340;1989-436 N. Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, link.gale.com/apps/doc/GNNEAL173013124/AHSI?u=ocul_mcmaster&sid=bookmark-AHSI&xid=16f9d946&pg=1. Accessed 28 Oct. 2021.
Ware, Syrus Marcus. “All Power to All People? Black LGBTTI2QQ Activism, Remembrance, and Archiving in Toronto.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 2017, pp. 170–180., https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3814961.