Your Two-Spirit Aunties Podcast
Welcome to the adventures of your Two Spirit Aunties! Join us for laughs, truth, heart, and all things Two-Spirit! #yourtwospiritaunties. Get in touch at yourtwospiritaunties@gmail.com or on Instagram @yourtwospiritaunties
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Your Two-Spirit Aunties Podcast
Episode 1: Welcome to our Podcast!
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Brianna and Shilo introduce themselves and why they chose to do this podcast! In hilarious and trauma-informed fashion, they give listeners tips on how best to listen to the podcast and what you can expect in future episodes. The second half of the episode they discuss what it means to them to be aunties and the cultural significance of "auntieness".
You have reached your two spirit aunties podcast. Please leave us a message after the tone. Testing, testing. Oh ancestors, help us be good people today. Hi, welcome to your two spirit aunties podcast. I'm one of your co-hosts, Shiloh, Cool Babe George. And I am here, and Brianna is here to take you on a journey into our brains, our spirits, our understandings of the world, and share with you some of the things we think, many of the things we talk about. This is kind of, I guess, your entry point into our pretty much daily conversations about the world. So with that, welcome to our space. And yeah, I could be really choosing to be like, welcome to our virtual tepee. What do you think, Brianna? Brianna's laughing. Yes, please. Yes, please. Let's do that. Welcome to our virtual teepee. We hope that you are warmed by the fire in our hearts and spirits. Welcome everyone. And also welcome, colonizers. Just make sure you keep your shit together during these conversations. So this isn't about you. It's about us. I mean, yeah, you're not wrong. We are your two spirit aunties. And as someone, a friend on Facebook recently pointed out on a cool photo that I posted of a new uh Fedora hat that I got. Um, that I'm a deadly auntie. And I just really am, I'm really feeling that energy, deadly anti Shiloh. Um, whatever you want to take from that is is up to you. So I suppose I should introduce myself. I use pronouns she, her, and they, them. And I am Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho. Now I want to be very clear about this identity. There's a lot of complexity about indigenous identity and about tribal identity and who's an Indian and who's not, and all these other things. So I want to be very clear for all of our listeners that I am not a tribally enrolled member of my nation. I, however, am I do have ancestry of being Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. My grandfather's sister, my auntie, was an enrolled member of our tribe and her children are. And there's a whole complex story about why I'm not enrolled and blah, blah, blah. And we're probably not going to get to that maybe for a while. I'm certainly not going to tell it to you here. It's a pretty personal story. But I just want to be very clear that I do identify as Cheyenne and I have Cheyenne ancestors, and I'm still always learning about what it means to be Cheyenne. I'm also a part of Portland, Oregon's urban indigenous community, urban native community. I've worked in our community, volunteered in our community, and I'm a part of the community for like 20 years. I did not grow up with my traditions. So I'm still a baby learning everything. So keep that in mind. I want to be humble in that way and transparent. I do identify as two spirit and I do identify as queer. Those are two separate and different things. And we will be going over those things later in a podcast. I also am fat, super fat in particular, and a fat activist. I live in a fat body. And I am also disabled and have been kind of learning how to navigate a chronic ill body and life. And so yeah, so those are some of my identities. Those are some of the ways that I move through the world. And yeah, I mean, I guess you'll get to know a little bit more about me as we go forward. I try to be really honest and transparent, show up authentically. I love to use humor. And I also sometimes am blunt, but I always try to be kind as well. So I'm gonna hand it off to you, Brianna. Um, go for it.
SPEAKER_00Great. Thanks, Shiloh. Um, so being on a podcast is a really big leap in vulnerability for me personally, but here we are and here we go. Those that would know me would laugh at that statement, but it's true. So hi everyone. My name is Brianna. I use they or she pronouns. I am biracial, I'm Yangdensu, Norwegian, French, and turns out a little bit of Irish. I'm two-spirit, I'm queer, I'm polyamorous. I'm also fat and I live with a disability and I live with chronic pain. Let's see, I grew up in an urban setting. So on Duwamish, Snohomish, and Talelep territories in the greater kind of Seattle area and north of Seattle, but I have family kind of all over. I'm settled now in the Portland area community and consider myself part of the Portland native community. I am a social worker by trade and kind of in the native traditional sense of social worker, I am also one by heart. I have kind of done that my whole life. My life is very messy, it's very big, it's very busy, it's very full. I work a lot. I work two jobs. I work in public health for my people and I work part-time at a nonprofit that I co-created with Stephanie Robertson, the Uprise Collective. And you'll probably hear Shiloh and I talk kind of frequently about what we do for work and what we've done in the past because it's tied up so closely with our hearts and the reason for this podcast. But in my downtime, I really like to craft. I bead, I read, I garden, and I love taking mini adventures in my camper van. Her name is still be determined. Um, so uh that you have to look forward to.
SPEAKER_01Can I put in a uh early entry of that your camper van should be named Shiloh?
SPEAKER_00I yeah, I mean, so my partner has recently become best friends with Shiloh outside of me. So I am certain that she will take that under advisement.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel good about this. I just wanted to put that out there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's there.
SPEAKER_01I I've been turned down many times on for children, naming children after me. So I've I've got a thick skin. So if it doesn't work out, I understand.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, and I also have a dog named Muffin, and she's amazing. I think that's a that's a good intro into me and my life. And I think that as this podcast continues, there will be things that we kind of unroll and uncover that is the onion of who I am and who Shilo is, right? And how our worlds intertwine. Shiloh, should I talk a little bit about us and the podcast?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, please do. I loved your intro, by the way. So good. And now I feel like I need to re-record mine. But I would, I'm not gonna do that, but I would say that you're kind of like what you were talking about around like your work and interwoven with love and and that type of thing, like really resonates with me as well. So, but yes, please talk about how we know each other. Sounds good.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that's kind of like a really good reminder of how we know each other, right? Because we both kind of move through this world with that as kind of like our core in all of our work, right? That love and that that passion for people that we care about. So Jilo and I, I don't know how long has it been like six years that we've been friends in the like traditional colonial sense.
SPEAKER_01Yes, but we've been friends forever in our spirits.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I was gonna say that. Like it honestly feels like it's been we've been friends like before we consciously knew of each other. Yes. For like ever. Yes. But concrete colonial terms, six years or so. But I think that this is true for both of us, that everyone that has known us kind of like independently has been like, hey, get a podcast. My partner in particular has been like, hey, get a podcast. And I think that's mostly because she's tired of being the first and only person to hear my rants. So she's been telling me for years, like, go get a podcast. And I think that's just her way of being like, shh. So uh we'll see how this goes. So anyway, one day Shiloh and I were talking on the phone, as we do almost every day now. And it was one of our famous like two, two and a half hour conversations. And Shiloh pitched the idea of having a podcast. And then as we were talking, I was like, wow, this would be a really great topic for your podcast. And then Shiloh, I think you were like, Well, why don't we just talk about it together? And I was like, Okay, so we're starting a podcast, and you were like, Oh, yes. And that's uh why we are here with you today. And then I think it was like within a couple of weeks, we had a list of Google Doc list, of course, of podcast episode titles. So I'm excited for this journey that we have with you all.
SPEAKER_01I mean, our road is winding and never linear, really. So we can give you like an idea, but always know that it's an iterative process.
SPEAKER_00So also, like our road is not paved, so enjoy.
SPEAKER_01Definitely not paved. Um, and I I just going back to your intro about like having a big life and being very messy. I don't work two different jobs, I have my own business. I guess it's like having multiple jobs because you're doing like multiple things. It's like adulting at a level I've never adulted at, and thank God I'm not terrible at it so far. But, anyways, you're not yes, not a paved road, very messy, but I think we I think we do a good job.
SPEAKER_00Do you want to talk about that road? So, like the this idea for this podcast really came out of this conversation between, you know, friends. We live similar experiences due to the identities that we hold and the work that we do. And I think that like on this podcast, our hope is that we will kind of unpack how those personal experiences and relationships and our work kind of intertwine with this larger conversation of humanity and people and community experiences and really like into colonization and native wisdom and how that all kind of intersects to develop how our lives just flow. I don't know. Does that resonate with you, Shiloh? Is that where we're going?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's a really good synopsis. I think that makes a lot of sense. And so there's, I think, a type of intimacy you might have already experienced in this podcast where we're really just two friends chatting with each other, but also giving a little bit more context to what we're saying, because we know that some of you don't know who we are. So we don't know when we're talking about Stephanie or you know, other friends, Amandep, like whatever. We're gonna bring up our friends' names. And so we'll give you a little bit of we won't spill their secrets necessarily. I mean, they're probably like, oh no, but I we won't spill your secrets, consent, right? But we will say we know this person from Dead of Days, so you kind of know who we're talking about. But anyways, some of our friends are gonna be rethinking, oh, what am I saying to them? But don't worry, we're not gonna talk bad about anybody or anything like that. We won't spill our guts about the thing you just told us in confidence. Wait, where was I going? I'm not sure, but I'm here for it. So yeah, I think the other thing I would say, which I just gave a really great example of, is it's a very nonlinear conversation. I think what might be easiest, especially if you don't know us, is to just stay with a conversation. Like you might be like, where are they going? And just remember you are on an unpaved road that we might just be getting our like machetes out and hacking a new trail. So it might get a little weird, it might get a little nonlinear. And you know, if you're a very linear thinker, this is an opportunity for you to try something different. So trust us on this process and we will navigate through and we will eventually come to a conclusion or an idea, and you'll be like, oh, all right, okay, I see what they just did. Oftentimes we don't know what we're doing, but we just go with it, right? That like that indigenous wisdom, right? To trust the process, to look for the patterns, to trust your instincts, and to rely on your relationships. So that's what Brianna and I do a lot is we rely on our relationship with each other and our relationship with other people to navigate the world that's really hard and a world that's really nasty and full of a lot of confusion. And so, how do we, as two-spirit, indigenous, fat, disabled folks, how do we navigate it in the best way that we can while still bringing our people with us and respecting our ancestors and preparing to be ancestors at some point? What do we want to leave behind for our young ones and things like that? So that was beautiful, Shiloh. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00I'm so glad we hung out with you till we heard the fullness of what you had to share.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Some people even get to the point. And this is like that colonial thinking, right? This is that linear thinking. We got to get to a point, we got to get to no, no, no. Sometimes, well, oftentimes it's the desit the journey that we're on, right? And I know that's kind of like a cliche term, but like I don't know if you would agree with this, Brianna, but like we both do a lot of system like work within government systems and other systems. And I swear to you, these people want outcome, outcome, outcomes. And then they complain about the outcomes they're getting, but then they don't want to look at the process they're going through. And then when we try to slow them down and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, pull back on the reins a bit, buddy. You need to see what you're creating in your process. Then it's the urgency that keeps people from being able to do that, but really and the and the sense of perfectionism, right? So slow down, come with us on this journey. This is a safer way to do it, you know, if you can't do that for yourself and just try it out with us. Hopefully that made sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, that made a lot of sense. Yeah. I think what I had on my mind was we hope that you jump on for this ride. We hope that you hang out with us for, you know, the convos that we're gonna have together. And if not, we hope that you come back and join us another time. I think one of the things too that I really hope for for people in our podcast is that you laugh a lot, that you laugh with us. I don't really mind if you laugh at us.
SPEAKER_01Um but I don't mind, but just don't tell me. You might have my feelings. I'm kind of more tender. I'm a tender person in the heart. So you maybe can tell Brianna if you're laughing at them, but I don't really want to know. But you can totally laugh with me.
SPEAKER_00There we go. There we go.
SPEAKER_01And I would prefer that you laugh at my jokes. I would also prefer that, yes.
SPEAKER_00And we hope that you find some connection. I think that's something else that I really hope for is that you find some connection and you find something that resonates with you from what we have to talk about.
SPEAKER_01I think it would be nice too to address just really clearly like this podcast is about being two spirit aunties. And so the aspect of being two spirit, we identify like that, but we want to wait to really get into what that means to us when we have some future episodes where we talk about that specifically, and we have a few guests who are two spirit themselves because it's a really complex identity and for a lot of people and a lot of nuance. And we want to make sure that we're giving it the time and the space that it deserves. So hold on if you're like, what does this mean? Because you will definitely hear about it in the future. Brianna, do you want to talk about what it means to be an auntie? Because some people outside of our communities may not really get that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure. I remember the first time that like someone called me auntie, and I was like, wait, what? She kind of like graduate into auntiness over time. And I was actually at a powwow, I was at the Delta Park powwow and I climbed out of my tent and I was cooking, and there was just like all these kids running around, and I just started handing them food. And someone was like, Thank you, Auntie, and then like ran away. And I was like, Oh no, I'm an auntie. Not as like a bad thing, just as like a oh no, that's like a whole nother level of responsibility. It's a whole nother like level of you are now responsible for the children around, even if you don't know them. And all of that kind of like goodness that comes with that. You're just at this certain place in your life where it's your job to take care of everyone around you and and kind of like start to learn the pieces of what it's going to be like as you get older, like things you should know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's a really good definition. I've been an auntie for a long time. And I'm an aunt in a colonial sense, and I'm also an auntie in Indigenous community, and both are a little different. Not that I don't think that I'm necessarily different about being an auntie in both spaces, but I think how my nibblings who are not native maybe respond to me or see me in a different way than my niblings that are indigenous. So I think for me that's an interesting kind of aspect of this because I have a lot of nibblings, like a lot of, and I'm using the word niblings as a gender-neutral term for nieces and nephews, because I have nibblings who are non-binary. I don't remember the first time I got called auntie, probably similar to you, where it was at ceremony or when I worked at NEA, which is the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland. I've worked there twice. For me, if I think about being an, and I prefer the term auntie to aunt, it's a it's an honor and a responsibility to be an auntie. I think for me, when I have niblings that just call me Shiloh, that's fine. And I respect that. However, when someone calls me auntie or anti-Shilo, they can just call me auntie. It for me signals a deeper connection and relationship and uh it's a it's a sign of respect from that person, that younger person, that they view you as someone who they connect to, maybe who they trust, um, perhaps someone that they they have learned from or enjoy being around, you know, all those types of things. Whether you're biologically related to them or not, I think that's a really big thing in our community. I have a lot of nibblings that, and I'm an auntie to a lot of people who I'm not technically blood related to. And I think that that's also a thing within kinship systems versus the nuclear family. And I love that about kinship systems. I prefer kinship systems to the idea of nuclear families. And I think the other thing about being an auntie is for me, you know, I don't have my own children. And I always wanted to be a mom. And there's like a lot of reasons why I'm not. And I I've gotten to a place in my life where I've accepted that I'm not going to have children. And I've also gotten to a place with the grief of that has been a renewed understanding of a responsibility of an auntie that feels really good to me, that feels really empowering, that feels really loving, that feels part of the community. Because I think that in like heterosexual, straight colonial society with a nuclear family, if you don't have children, then you're just like this old barren.
SPEAKER_00What's like the old maid idea?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I hate that. And it's so sexist and gross that I think has really made me feel awful and isolated and alone, which is a struggle for me, anyways, with some of my wounds, deep wounds from childhood around abandonment. So the idea of being part of a kinship system and being an auntie and someone who's needed and has a place, even though you don't have your own children, and that you always have something to offer as an auntie feels really good to me. And it feels really natural to me. And it feels really healing. And we need aunties and uncles. We need, I have some friends who are non-binary who identify as sparkles. That's instead of auntie, they're a sparkle, you know, just that love and support. And yes, watching over all the children, whether they're connected to you or not. And all the children are all of our responsibilities and to guide them and to make sure they're safe and to watch over them and to teach them, especially if they're, you know, willing to learn. One of the things about, I know I'm going on and on about being an auntie, but I think it's a really cool thing. And I want to give it its time. One of the things I saw my role as an auntie in a really strong way at NEA is that there's children there all the time and would, you know, be helping out with the summer camps, or, you know, I was doing work with parents, specifically as an advocate and supporting them and their children. And one of the things I noticed that often staff would have me do is talk to children or youth who are struggling as coming in as that auntie, right? Who Comes in with love, but also you know who you are as an auntie. And I don't know how to describe this. Maybe you can help me, Brianna, but like I don't want to say in you you go in with a sense of power, but there is a power that's not dominant over someone. But there is, do you know what I'm saying, Brianna?
SPEAKER_00Like it's like an it's an innate part of a relationship that you have. It's the relationship dynamic that you come into a space with that trust that allows for, you know, guidance and advocacy and respect.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And I think that that that's clear when I would have conversations with a lot of youth, like that were struggling with their behavior. Maybe they said something to somebody that was really hurtful, you know, having me come in and have that conversation. I feel like that's part of my responsibility as an auntie is to sometimes have those difficult conversations. So, anyways, that's my long spiel about being an auntie and how much I love it and how powerful I think it is, and how much we need more aunties.
SPEAKER_00I think that, like overall, too, what I'm hearing from you is sharing that like auntiness is like a journey that kind of gets developed. You go from being this kid who's a, you know, who might help out at different things, who might show up because your mom's there or your aunties brought you, you know, um, to somebody who is now responsible for making sure that those kids get there and learn their culture, for making sure that those kids get there and are safe and taken care of. You go from just listening to somebody to having to make those decisions that are going to impact your community, like having to make the decision about who to go to for counsel around those things, right? And having to remember those stories, not just be the one that's like constantly receiving them, but having to retell them, right? And now you're responsible for carrying those with you so that when it's your turn to be an elder, you have that knowledge and that skill and you've done those jobs so that you can help the next set of aunties learn also. So it's just like this beautiful cycle and journey that you get to be in. I don't know. That's that's kind of how I see it. Welcome to the journey of auntiness with us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. I love that it's a journey because it really is. It's about learning and about sharing, and it is a lot of humor. And I recently, my friend Grady's two girls asked me if I would be their auntie. And I I absolutely loved it. I was like, yes, 100% yes. And so, you know, people don't have to ask that. They're not, they're they're not native children. And so I think a lot of our native children know they don't need to ask, but that was something that that was the way they approached it, and that's totally fine. And I love, you know, I love them so much. So yeah, like Reesa and Lainey are now um my two recent nibblings. You and I both strongly identify as two spirit and also strongly identify as aunties. So the idea about this with a podcast is like some insight into the conversations we have with each other about what does it mean to be who we are and all the different facets that we are, and what does it mean to go on a journey of our identities developing and processing through struggles that we've had in conversations or trying to understand something that maybe is new to us, supporting each other in that. So just wanting to make those conversations open to the public, right? And what those can look like and be like. And what are some conversations that are maybe different to the larger society that maybe folks in the larger colonized society aren't aware of these concepts and ideas and thoughts? Maybe you never thought about what an auntie was, besides an, you know, like an aunt who is your parents' sister or whatever. So expanding upon these ideas is is one of the ways that we can offer our auntiness to you and that we love you and we support you, like even though we may not ever hear from you or you may not ever know us in person, like we still love you and we can feel you in our hearts and our spirits. We're all connected in a big web. So even listening to this podcast, just know that like the love that we have for each other, Brianna and I, are also love that we have for you too. Like you're part of the web with us. So absolutely. And with that, enjoy. Yeah, I never know how to end this stuff. Like the red button. I can't push the red button because that will end the zoom. I know it's the red record button on the bottom.
SPEAKER_00Actually, I think it's on the top for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was saying there's no red repeat. Okay. Oh, this is so confusing. Okay, is it okay? That pop okay, there we go. Thank you for listening to our podcast. And as always, we want to thank our amazing friend Hannah Bueller for editing and just being amazing. Thanks, Hannah.