Accountability. Intervention. Community.: On the Making of a Two-Spirit Music Video for Pride Toronto Summer 2021

Abstract:This collaborative article, written by a two-spirit Indigenous artist and a queer non-Indigenous scholar-artist with contributions by project collaborators, introduces the context and Indigenous principles of ethics that are woven into the making of the music video "Accountability," which premiered in 2021 at Pride Toronto. We first explain terminology and modes of artistic/activist collaboration, the particular conditions of its creation, and the major concerns expressed. In particular, the work addresses social violence that is directed at two-spirit people (two-spirit) both from outside and inside Indigenous communities. This violence is seen as a legacy of colonial oppression that has hurt the social fabric and value systems of Indigenous societies. As such, the video and the essay are thought of as healing devices and forms of anti-colonial critique and resistance. We then, using time stamps and screenshots from the music video as structural markers, explain in more detail how the creation of the music video as both an artistic and a community-making project integrates ethical and social values in its very process of making and being.