🔥 The fire emoji because to me it has two uses. First to burn down all the societal structures that continue to bind everyone in systemic racism, homophobia and transphobia. And second, because what you said, who you are, or what you are doing is so hot it’s fire! Your flame is so hot is warming the coldest heart.

💋 A kiss. Languages have so many words but it’s how you string those words along that can create so many different emotions. A kiss is an action your lips can do to create connections, a kiss on the cheek to greet an old friend, a good night kiss from a parent, an intimate kiss between lovers. A farewell. A hello. A kiss can and should always be magical. I love love.

What's your go-to karaoke song and what's the story behind it?

I was gifted the gift of gab. I can go into any situation and smoothly integrate myself into the conversation or talk to a room of thousands but my ancestors never gifted me the gift of a melodic voice. Has that stopped me from karaoke? No. I’ll always sing Stop by the Spice Girls but as the years go on less and less people sing along with me. I am usually politely told to let other people have a try the mic after they’ve heard me.

Share a space where you feel most authentically yourself:

I’ve always strived to make my home my haven. My home needs to be my place I can escape and just shift down to my underwear and eat ice cream and watch movies and use the washroom with the door open.

Out in the world where all variables are not controlled by me I feel most authentically myself in queer spaces. I grew up going into spaces always needing to know where exits are or to sit with my back against a wall. The first queer space I went into there was an ease and my shoulders were less tense. I strive to try and create that feeling for everyone.

Your comfort food is ___ and it tastes like home because ___?

My comfort food is blueberries and cream. Just a simple dessert but it is my mothers favourite. Growing up in Northern Yukon there wasn’t a lot of fresh fruits (we ate a lot of canned items) but when my mother was able to get her hands on blueberries it was a special moment and we’d always sit around the table and eat our blueberries and cream. The cream also needed to be unwhipped whipping cream. There was wild blueberries in the Yukon and we would go out picking them but they were used to make preserves so we had something for our bread during the cold winter months. So sparing some for a simple dessert was special.

Name your top hype person and their best way of showing up for you:

This question is so hard. And I don’t know how to answer it.

Which ancestors, chosen or blood family, would be proudest of you right now and why?

I feel my grandfather on my mothers side would be proud of me. He was an old indigenous man that lived past 100. He didn’t speak English well but we understood each other. I always felt at peace and calm around him. I didn’t get to see him during the final decade of his life, my family moved to BC and he was up in the Yukon and financial barriers made it hard to visit but I think of him often. There isn’t a lot of people that have made me feel mentally safe (ive had many people make me feel physically safe) and he was someone that I didn’t need to hide from.

What generational gift or pattern are you either keeping or releasing?

As an indigenous queer person (I identify as two-spirit) there is so much intergenerational trauma that I am learning to release. I have an inability to get close to people and I keep people at arms length all the time and I need to learn that connections do not mean a future hurt. I spoon feed everyone little bits of myself so that a narrative I create gets told of who I am. With my podcast Denhta I have been able to connect with fellow indigenous people and I have been able to open up more. It’s a scary road because my experiences of opening up have always led to people weaponizing my truths to try and hurt me. These are all things I am learning to release so I can be a more true and light filled person I know I am capable of.

The generational gift I am keeping is the gift of healing. Saying this after I just wrote what I wrote can be confusing. I have always been the person people would go to for help or a shoulder to cry on or just an ear to listen. I turned my back on that and tried to be more selfish with my time but my work with indigenous two-spirit activism has reminded me that this is where a strength of mine lies. I just need to learn that I have friends in my life that would let me lean on them if I needed.

Who were you before the world told you who to be, and how are you reclaiming that?

I use to be such a silly and carefree child. I didn’t mind being goofy and a clown. Then I was told that I needed to be more to be respected in this world. I need to act more white. Less indigenous. That created a sense in me that I needed to act a certain way so I would fit into different spaces.

I use to make faces whenever a camera was out and we had a roll of film developed and I remember my father looking at these pics and then looking at me saying, “why do you always ruin every f-ing picture with your stupid looks.” There was so much anger in his voice and I feel that was the day my silly side died. It’s burnt into my brain. That same year I turned 10 and my dad sat me down and told me I was a big boy now and that boys don’t cry so from now on we don’t show emotions.

My drag career has helped me reclaim my silly. I still find it hard being anything other than a witty foul mouthed statuesque goddess and catch myself doubted what I’m doing but forcing myself to do a karaoke song or to try out for a play or do a silly clowny number is terrifying but I know that doing these things are healing my soul. I’ve got a lot of work to do and I’ll get there. Thankfully I have people in my life that allow me to be more open. I just need to accept that and embrace those moments

What's something you wish your younger self knew about belonging?

I wish my younger self knew that you’ll find your people and community and the future isn’t something to be afraid of. When I first realized I was queer I started distancing myself from everyone. I pushed my parents away, my friends, my sister because i had a feeling they’d abandon me when I came out as gay. I learnt to be reliant on myself and to only trust myself. I was a teenager in the 90s and there was no social media so the stories I heard about coming out where predominately negative and not a lot about positive family outcomes. So my brain went to believing that once I came out I would be alone. I was 12. That is not the case. You’ll find people that honour and respect you and it’s ok to be open and it’s ok to your authentic self and you don’t need to always guard and protect yourself. If my younger self knew that then I’d have so much more time to foster friendships instead of aiming to be my own island. I already see myself as an unstoppable force. Can you imagine who I’d be if I grew up in a space that allowed me to be myself? I would be OP (over-powered). That’s why my ancestors created those barriers, they knew I needed to have obstacles so I can harness my greatness for good.

Future you is thriving because…

I’ve made the necessary changes in my mental well being to feel I belong in the spaces I help create and not just a facilitator of them.