Jay, Lalonde (2020):
""I Am My Own Best Medicine": Joshua Whitehead's Jonny Appleseed and Two-Spirit Resurgence." Eds. Clausberg, Philipp; kentwell, forrest; Licznerski, Alexander; Luebeck, Simon; Reintjes, Janis; Schmieder, Katja; Schumacher, Marie; Spieler, Sophie; Trautmann, Denise; Valle, Josef; Weber, Lena; Weiss, Isabell. aspeers 13: 37-58.
Journal Article
Abstract

This article explores how Joshua Whitehead’s novel Jonny Appleseed discusses the complexities of being Two-Spirit on the reserve and in the city in Canada, exposes the double oppression and erasure of Two-Spiritedness, and demonstrates the possibility—and necessity—of queering the struggle for Indigenous resurgence. This article connects Two-Spirit theory with Native feminist theories (and their analyses of heteropatriarchy) and Qwo-Li Driskill’s concepts of “colonized sexuality” and a “Sovereign Erotic.” By close reading the novel and focusing on the themes of performance, erasure, shame, ceremony, and the body, this article aims to show the ways Indigeneity and queerness are interconnected and constantly re-negotiated. This article also aims to show how these links expose the underlying structural heteronormativity and heteropatriarchy in settler colonialism and Indigenous resurgence discourses. It suggests the possibility of radically revising the struggle for resurgence by centering Two-Spiritedness and understanding Two-Spirit desires and identities as inherently anti-colonial.