Queer Indigenous Gathering

From its 2015 inauguration at Portland State University to its consecutive years at Southern Oregon University, the Queer Indigenous Gathering has grown each year to include Indigenous scholars, artists, poets, musicians, activists, and advocates who represent diverse communities, regions, lived experiences, gender identities, and sexual orientations. A Queer Indigenous Gathering is a celebration of this event along with the community and work that has educated, supported, nourished, and inspired those seeking to defend, value, and center Queer Indigenous theories, stories, knowledges, and lives.From classroom to community the Gathering has provided a shared experience and opportunity to connect and strengthen in a safe environment. "My personal belief is that more than one approach to knowledge production can and should simultaneously exist and that recognition of and valuation of diverse ways of sharing, teaching, and learning creates opportunities for mutual understanding, for problem-solving, and for community building, and can be powerfully healing for all who participate," writes lead editor Brook Colley. Through collaboration the featured individuals in this project share their history, creativity, and struggles in the themes of survivance, settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, heteronormativity, eroticism, love, healing, justice, and community.Given today's uncertain political climate, in which 2SLGBTQIA and Indigenous rights and lives are coming under immediate and severe threats, A Queer Indigenous Gathering reinforces the urgent need for more scholarship in Queer Indigenous Studies and support for the artists and scholars working in this important space. Their efforts will continue to uplift, heal, and guide academics, students, and the public through dialogue and belonging.