The University of Winnipeg has made history as a new home to pieces of Indigenous LGBTQ2 history.
The school launched the Two-Spirit Archives, a collection of historical materials highlighting Indigenous gender diversity in North America Monday afternoon.
Collected materials include photographs, videotapes, art and more that share stories of Indigenous Two Spirit people from the past 40 years.
“I thought it was a legacy that was important to preserve,” said Albert McLeod, co-director of Two Spirit People of Manitoba.
He said he carried most of the materials and was the main contributor to the collection, believed to be the largest such collection in Canada.
“It is a form of our resistance to that sort of imposition from a colonial construct.”
“I think colonization and the residential schools did a lot to erase that history.”
McLeod said the University of Winnipeg was chosen because of the accessibility for people living in the area.
The archives can be found at the University of Winnipeg library. Some of the artifacts can be viewed on the school's website.
