Ma-Nee Chacaby
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| Born | (1950-07-22) July 22, 1950 (age 73)
Ombabika
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| Nationality | Canadian, Ojibwa-Cree |
| Occupation(s) | Author, activist |
| Notable work | A Two-Spirit Journey (2016) |
| Website | ma-nee |
Ma-Nee Chacaby (born July 22, 1950) is an Ojibwe-Cree writer and activist from Canada.[1] She is most noted for her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder.
Born and raised in the remote Northern Ontario indigenous community of Ombabika,[2][3] Chacaby escaped the Indian residential school system only because she was away hunting and trapping with her stepfather when government agents arrived in the community during the Sixties Scoop.[2] She later lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Thunder Bay, Ontario, and sparked a local controversy when she openly identified herself as a lesbian in a television news story for Thunder Bay Television in 1988.[2] She remained a local activist on 2SLGBTQ+ and indigenous issues, and later began to create and exhibit work as a painter,[4] before writing and publishing A Two-Spirit Journey. She is fluent in both Cree and Ojibwe.[5]
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder was co-authored by Mary Louisa Plummer and published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2016.[2] It is the 18th title in the Native History Series published by the press. Methodologically, it combines social science and indigenous oral history.[6] The authors conducted over one hundred hours of interviews as part of their writing process, and the book deals with themes of child abuse, alcohol abuse, sexuality, and post-traumatic stress disorder.[7]
The biography was awarded the U.S. Oral History Association's 2017 Book Award,[8] as well as the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 Alison Prentice Award for Best Book on Women's History in Ontario.[9] In addition, A Two-Spirit Journey was a shortlisted Lambda Literary Award finalist for Lesbian Memoir/Biography at the 29th Lambda Literary Awards in 2017,[10] and was shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2017 Manitoba Book Awards.[11]
In 2019, A Two-Spirit Journey was published in French as Un Parcours Bispirituel by Les éditions du remue-ménage.[12] That same year, Chacaby served as one of the grand marshals of the Fierté Montréal parade.[4]
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