Decolonizing gender through ICT: a semiotic analysis of web images from Two-Spirit people websites

ABSTRACT

Freedom of self-expression is essential for human development. Recent studies have investigated ICT’s role in bringing visibility to activist movements working to improve the lives of gender and sexual minorities. However, this literature often characterizes visibility based on gender or sexuality alone, with little regard for ethnic identity and gender traditions of Indigenous cultures. This paper conducts a semiotic analysis of images from Two-Spirit websites to examine how websites bring visibility to Two-Spirit people. Two-Spirit is a contemporary term used by Indigenous Peoples of North America that denotes the fluidity of gender identity through the coexistence of feminine and masculine qualities. The analysis shows how values of empowerment, supportiveness, and restoration in web images bring visibility to Two-Spirit people through cultural emancipation. This study contributes to the ICT for development literature by broadening our understanding of ICT’s role in bringing visibility to efforts for self-expression free of racism and homophobia.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender and sexual minority
• Two-Spirit
• decolonization
• web images
• semiotics
• visibility

1. Introduction

Freedom of self-expression is essential for human development (Welzel et al., 2003). Self-expression, free of any form of discrimination, strengthens people’s subjective orientations toward choice. According to Sen (1999), human choice, the capacity of human beings to choose the lives they want, should be the ultimate measure of human development. In the face of discriminatory social conditions that restrict self-expression, people are forced to conceal their identity, which generates psychological costs that diminish life satisfaction (Meyer, 1995). Self-expression requires freedom and choice and cannot unfold under pressing social conditions.

However, for gender and sexual minorities, self-expression is often constrained by ideologies of heteronormativity and homophobic prejudices associated with European colonialism (Alcoff, 2005). Gender and sexual minorities include people whose gender identity diverges from mainstream conceptions of masculinity and femininity or whose sexual orientation differs from the majority (Mayer et al., 2008). Societies rarely happily accept people who openly express their gender or sexual minority self, and those who do, face being labeled with terms that designate the abnormality (Wilson, 2004). Gender and sexual minority populations thus often endure adverse mental effects from discriminatory societal attitudes (Meyer, 1995; Ragins et al., 2007; Webster et al., 2018). Rates of suicidal thoughts have trended upward among gender and sexual minorities in the US over the last years, with the highest percentage among underrepresented ethnic groups (Powell, 2022), as these populations must often contend with the compounding effects of homophobia and racism (The Trevor Project, 2020).

The information and communication technology (ICT) research literature on gender and sexual minorities has recently examined ICT’s role in bringing visibility to activist movements aimed at improving the lives of gender and sexual minorities (Blackwell et al., 2016; Ciszek et al., 2021; McKenna & Chughtai, 2020). A review of this literature reveals a tendency to characterize visibility on the basis of gender or sexuality alone, with little regard for ethnic identity. Ethnicity, gender, and sexuality are interconnected (Crenshaw, 1989; hooks, 2000) – and for many Indigenous Peoples, the cultural heritage grounded in their ethnic identities is essential in defining gender roles and sexuality. The literature has, nonetheless, overlooked millennia-old gender traditions in Native cultures­ shaping current initiatives promoting the visibility of Indigenous gender and sexual minorities.

These shortcomings in the literature are consistent with the Special Issue call for papers on Feminist and Queer Approaches to ICT for Development. The Special Issue call recognizes that studies of gender in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) literature have focused on the feminine-masculine binary category, disregarding knowledge of gender fluidity and sexual diversity advanced by Indigenous cultures that challenge colonial structures of patriarchy and heteronormativity. Motivated by these gaps in the literature, the Special Issue call recognizes a ‘pressing need for research in the ICT4D field that challenges existing power structures’ through decolonial approaches centered on investigating the use of ICTs by and for vulnerable and marginalized groups.

This paper responds to this call by examining how websites provide visibility to Two-Spirit people. The term ‘Two-Spirit’ is a contemporary term used by Indigenous Peoples of North America that denotes the fluidity of gender identity through the coexistence of feminine and masculine qualities in a single person (Smithers, 2022). Many Indigenous Peoples have found in Two-Spirit a concept that embodies traditions of gender and sexual diversity within their respective tribes as an alternative to mainstream Western gay and lesbian identities (Jacobs et al., 1997). For many Indigenous gender and sexual minority Peoples, Two-Spirit embodies decolonization efforts centered on developing and expressing an identity free from the dual prejudices of homophobia and racism (Smithers, 2022).

As advances in Internet and computer imaging technologies accelerate visual communication, websites have increasingly relied on images to convey culturally rich messages (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011) and promote particular beliefs and values (Salinas, 2002). Given the relevance of images in communications across the Web, this paper centers on the analysis of images from Two-Spirit websites collected from the Two-Spirited People Web Resources preserved by the University of Winnipeg Library. The Two-Spirited People Web Resources collection includes a curated selection of web resources collected since October 2019 that pertain to Two-Spirit people, such as web pages of Two-Spirit organizations in North America, autobiographies, and narratives (University of Winnipeg Library, 2019). The collection aims to support research centered on recognizing Two-Spirit and the needs of their communities (University of Winnipeg Library, 2019).

Studying images’ role on websites in providing visibility to underrepresented groups requires understanding how images signify the purpose and values of the sites of which they are a part. Therefore, the nature of our research question led to an interpretive research methodology (Klein & Myers, 1999). Furthermore, the visual nature of the web images called for a semiotic analysis, which led to the web-image signifiers theory (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). The analysis drew on the web-image signifiers theory as a ‘sensitizing’ (Sarker et al., 2018, p. 761) device that provided a ‘pre-theoretical vocabulary’ (Berente et al., 2018, p. 1) to guide the discovery, interpretation, and presentation of several values as these emerged from the web images analysis.

The following section reviews the literature on gender focusing on Indigenous gender traditions, Two-Spirit, visibility, and web images. Next, the paper elaborates on web-image signifiers theory and the semiotic approach to analyzing web images. It follows the description of the research methodology and presentation of the findings centered on the discovery of three values: empowerment, supportiveness, and restoration. Building upon these values, the paper proposes the concept of cultural emancipation to explain how websites bring visibility to Two-Spirit people. The paper then discusses its contributions to the IS research literature on ICT4D.

2. Literature review

2.1. Gender

Gender refers to socially constructed characteristics based on birth sex (Mayer et al., 2008). Western societies often regard gender as two distinct, opposite categories of feminine and masculine following conventions and stereotypes that date back to colonial notions of heteronormativity (Connell, 1987). These conditions dictate how men and women should behave and interact, producing behavior patterns that influence how we organize all of society (Connell & Pearse, 2014). Furthermore, gender identity, a person’s internally held sense of their gender (Butler, 1986), and sexual orientation are often entwined through the sexualization of bodies in broader cultural flows (Fleming, 2007). Thus, ‘it is difficult to speak of gender today without reference to sexuality and vice versa’ (p. 241).

Sexual orientation and gender identity can differ from those of the majority and be at variance with gender conventions and stereotypes. Gender and sexual minorities are thus conformed by individuals associated with minority status on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity (Mayer et al., 2008). Western societies rarely happily accept people who openly disclose their gender or sexual minority self, and ‘those who do face being labelled with terms that designate the abnormality, the going-against-nature of their behavior, or what they are’ (Wilson, 2004, p. 84). Gender and sexual minority populations, like members of other stigmatized minority groups, ‘must contend with negative societal attitudes and stigma’ (Meyer, 1995).

2.2. Gender in indigenous cultures of North America

For centuries, Indigenous peoples in North America have recognized gender differently from the rigid feminine-masculine gender binary conceived by Western cultures (Smithers, 2022). Many North American Indigenous cultures embrace the concept of gender-fluid identity in which individuals embody both feminine and masculine features instead of conforming to a fixed category of gender (Wilson, 1996). Gender fluidity subscribes to the cultural dynamism of Native communities that has allowed their members to adapt to ever-changing environments by taking on roles based on evolving skill sets, communal needs, and kinship ties (Smithers, 2022). In efforts to decouple gender fluidity from racialized and heteronormative thinking associated with written records of European colonialism, researchers suggest gender-fluid individuals may have occupied positions of spiritual and ritual importance (Smithers, 2014, 2022). For example, accounts of Native communities in Florida in the sixteenth century of intersex people carrying out the deceased bodies of fallen warriors in battle suggest that these individuals may have ‘performed the ritual and spiritual roles of priests’ (p. 640).

Researchers underscore the relevance of kinship in Native communities before European colonization as a means of establishing the social responsibilities of kin members and those outside the boundaries of kinship (Smithers, 2022). Accordingly, gender influenced the distribution of work, in which many Native communities regarded gender-fluid individuals as responsible for maintaining the balance of kinship ties (Smithers, 2022). In traditional Ojibwe communities during the early nineteenth century, for example, gender-fluid individuals ‘transcended male and female roles’ by playing leading roles in ceremonies and ‘brining men and women together in dance and prayer’ (p. 92). Accounts like this led researchers to believe that prior to European colonization, Native communities did not ostracize what we understand today as gender and sexual minorities by placing them outside the boundaries of kinship (Lougheed, 2016). Instead, scholars posit that the spectrum of fluid gender and sexual identities that prevailed in the Ojibwe and many other Native societies contributed to maintaining kinship relationships and bringing harmony to the community (Smithers, 2022).

2.3. The colonization of gender and reclamation of indigenous gender traditions

Native traditions of gender fluidity breached the strict masculine-feminine binary conception of gender brought by Europeans upon their arrival in North America. Native American scholar Paula Gunn Allen attributed European notions of patriarchy and Christian heteronormativity as the root cause of the degradation of millennia-old gender traditions in Indigenous societies and the ‘devaluation of lesbian and gay tribal members as leaders, shamans, healers, or ritual participants’ (Allen, 1992, p. 196). Colonizers combined ‘gender, sexual, and racial ideologies’ (p. 32) to justify invasions, the territorial dispossession of Indigenous communities, and cultural genocide (Smithers, 2022). Colonial practices prevailed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the opening of boarding schools designed to drive Indigenous cultures to extinction (Adams, 2020; Brave Heart et al., 2011; Ing, 1991; Thornton, 2005).

In an attempt at forced assimilation, generations of children were forcibly separated from their families and placed in boarding schools where speaking their native languages was forbidden, resulting in the loss of values and practices taught by Indigenous parents and elders (Ing, 1991). Critical to boarding school curricula was conformity to Western gender norms (Smithers, 2022).

Boys and girls received a gender-specific education, boys learning manual skills or trades, girls receiving instruction in sewing and the ‘domestic arts.’ No child was permitted to blend gender roles, cross-dress, or alter their physical appearance to resemble that of the opposite gender. (p. 94)

Such oppressive policies have exacerbated the historical discrimination and marginalization of Indigenous Peoples (Brave Heart et al., 2011).

After the dissolution of many boarding schools during the mid-twentieth century (Adams, 2020), the marginalization of Indigenous Peoples continued in North America for decades. Testimonies of Indigenous activists account for the homophobia and racism experienced by Indigenous Peoples during the Gay Liberation Movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s (Smithers, 2022). In her poems, Menominee Two-Spirit writer and activist Chrystos (1988) wrote, ‘gay white America same as straight white’ (p. 95) in reminiscence of the racism against Indigenous Peoples at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights held in 1987. The dual prejudices of racism and homophobia compounded by the HIV/AIDS epidemic spurred the emergence of Indigenous activism centered on reclaiming the ‘extraordinarily rich traditions of gender and sexual diversity’ (p. xix) in North America (Smithers, 2022).

2.4. Two-Spirit

Despite colonial efforts and policies of later federal governments to eradicate Indigenous cultures (Fixico, 1980), Native cultural traditions prevail and still shape the lives and communities of Indigenous Peoples across North America (Wilson, 1996). ‘Today, most leaders in Indigenous communities express a commitment to traditional spirituality and an Indigenous worldview’ (p. 306). Under this commitment, Native activist leaders and their organizations paved the way for the adoption of ‘Two-Spirit’ as a new Pan-Indigenous term in English-language that ‘advanced the process of decolonizing LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer] identities’ (p. 189) throughout Native communities and beyond (Smithers, 2014).

Two-Spirit represents the outcome of recent efforts by Indigenous Peoples to decolonize gender by creating an umbrella term that captures the notion of gender fluidity in Native cultures (Robinson, 2020). ‘Two-Spirit’ is a contemporary term that denotes the fluidity of gender identity through the coexistence of feminine and masculine qualities in a single person (Smithers, 2022). The term was presented in 1990 during the third Indigenous Gay and Lesbian Conference in Beausejour, Manitoba, Canada (Thomas & Jacobs, 1999). Since then, Two-Spirit has been a flexible and adaptable term that has come to mean different things to different people. For many, Two-Spirit blends aspects of sexuality and gender with cultural elements of Indigenous Peoples. Wilson (1996) explains,

In many Indigenous American cultures, Two-Spirit people have specific spiritual roles and responsibilities within their community. They are often seen as ‘bridge makers’ between male and female, the spiritual and the material, between Indigenous American and non-Indigenous American. The term Two-Spirit encompasses the wide variety of social meanings that are attributed to sexuality and gender roles across Indigenous American cultures. (p. 305)

Many Indigenous Peoples have found in Two-Spirit a concept that embodies traditions of gender and sexual diversity within their respective tribes as an alternative to mainstream Western gay and lesbian identities (Jacobs et al., 1997). Two-Spirit has provided Native Peoples with a sense of Pan-Indigenous unity that recognizes identities and cultural traditions made almost invisible by settler colonialism (Smithers, 2022).

2.5. Visibility

Visibility, the state of being able to see or be seen, is essential to the recognition of social identities (Brighenti, 2007). Social identity is integral to an individual’s self-concept, which derives from their knowledge of membership in a social group (Tajfel, 1981), including those based on ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992). Ethnicity and gender are mutually intertwined categories of human experience (Crenshaw, 1989) that operate as our penultimate visible identities (Alcoff, 2005). Ethnicity and gender are thus constituents of social identity that are fundamental rather than peripheral to the self (Alcoff, 2005) – ‘unlike, for example, one’s identity as a Celtics fan or a Democrat’ (p. 6) – as they operate through visual markers of the body. The truth of one’s gender and ethnic identity, then, is widely thought to be visibly manifest (Alcoff, 2005).

Visibility has crucial consequences on the relationship between minority groups and mainstream society (Brighenti, 2007). In modern society, only what is visible can generally be recognized and achieve the status of accepted truth (Alcoff, 2005). Reality is thus influenced by the realm of the visible, which dominates the recognition of social identities (Alcoff, 2005). For minority groups, being invisible often means lacking recognition of their social identity (Brighenti, 2007). Furthermore, social prejudices that prevent a person’s visible expression of their social identity can cause insistent anxiety (Alcoff, 2005), leading to fear and a sense of disharmony and alienation from society (Meyer, 1995). Therefore, reducing the prejudices that prevent minority groups from expressing and living according to their social identities requires bringing visibility to activist movements challenging negative societal attitudes and discrimination.

Information and communication technology (ICT) mediates spaces that enlarge the field of the social visible, liberating it from the constraints of the ‘here and now’ (Brighenti, 2007, p. 326). It is worth noting that social identity is a social construct in that its meaning is constructed through culturally available values (Alcoff, 2005). Values represent attitudes, behaviors, or outcomes held with high regard or preference (Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). Social identity thus involves processes of meaning construction on the basis of values that are given priority over other sources of meaning (Castells, 2004). In this sense, meaning is the ‘symbolic identification’ (p. 7) by a social actor of the purpose of their action. The systemic disintegration of spatiotemporal constraints for accessing information influences the process by which minority populations construct their social identity (Benjamin et al., 2014). According to Castells (2004), the construction of social identities occurs nowadays in a ‘network society’ in which ICT facilitates the ‘visibilization’ (George & Leidner, 2019, p. 13) of meanings that prolongate communal resistance.

ICT brings visibility to organizations and activities through actions such as commending initiatives that benefit gender and sexual minorities, as well as denouncing oppression that afflicts these populations (George & Leidner, 2019). For example, the literature has examined efforts to raise awareness through social media by activist organizations exposing abuses against gender and sexual minorities (Selander & Jarvenpaa, 2016), political campaigns promoting equality (Becker & Copeland, 2016), and parenting rights of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (Blackwell et al., 2016). Studies have also looked into visibility practices by transgender people in social media (Ciszek et al., 2021; DeVito, 2022) and virtual worlds (Freeman & Acena, 2022). Researchers have recognized the role of virtual worlds as safe havens for gender and sexual minorities (Blodgett et al., 2007; McKenna, 2020). Consistent with this view, McKenna and Chughtai (2020) explain how activists conduct campaigns in virtual worlds to resist power imbalances in their communities resulting from repressive policies.

The review of ICT studies on gender and sexual minorities reveals a tendency to characterize visibility on the basis of gender or sexuality alone. These studies tend to use what Crenshaw (1989) calls ‘single-axis frameworks’ that ignore other markers of social identity, specifically ethnicity and race. Researchers have signaled the prevalence of single-axis analysis frameworks in the ICT literature that have left unaccounted for the intersectionality of ethnicity and gender on power relations and inequalities (Trauth, 2013; Zheng & Walsham, 2021). Furthermore, inadvertently ignoring the ethnic identity of gender and sexual minorities not only accentuates the marginalization of underrepresented ethnic groups (Crenshaw, 1989; hooks, 2000) but also fails to recognize the rich traditions of gender and sexual diversity of Indigenous cultures. This view echoes Brighenti (2007)’s argument that efforts to recognize minority populations can also deny recognition of groups whose social identity is ignored or excluded. ‘Distortions in visibility lead to distortions in social representations, distortions through visibility’ (p. 330). The research literature, therefore, has yet to recognize ICT’s role in efforts by Indigenous gender and sexual minorities to gain visibility.

Websites are one of the most prolific forms of ICT activist organizations rely upon to communicate their causes to broader audiences (Selander & Jarvenpaa, 2013; Selander & Jarvenpaa, 2016; Young, 2018). Websites’ wide-ranging capacity for discourse (Kenix, 2007) has made many activist movements possible and, thus, given marginalized communities an opportunity to express their voices (Ortiz et al., 2019). As advances in Internet and computer imaging technologies accelerate visual communication, websites increasingly rely on images to convey culturally rich messages (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011) and promote particular beliefs and values (Salinas, 2002). Motivated by the lack of emphasis on ethnic identity in the ICT literature on gender and sexual minorities, this manuscript analyzes web images to examine how websites bring visibility to Two-Spirit people. The following section reviews the literature on web images, elaborates on their role in conveying culturally rich messages, and lays the theoretical foundation for analyzing images from Two-Spirit websites.

2.6. Web images

Websites have become an essential form of communication on which individuals and organizations worldwide rely for transmitting and consuming information (Zahedi et al., 2006). Several studies have then investigated the role of images on websites (web images) in several contexts. For example, e-commerce websites have been the subject of studies centered on using images to increase trust (Cyr et al., 2009; Steinbrück et al., 2002), given the absence of cues people often use in face-to-face interactions to generate trust (Egger, 2000). Cyr et al. (2009) show that including images depicting humans on websites creates a stronger sense of social presence than text, which in turn, can lead to positive attitudes, including the perception of the website as trustworthy. Other studies have focused on systematically identifying cultural values from web images (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011) and designing web images for effective communication among customers from diverse cultural backgrounds (Amant, 2005).

The growth of the Internet and websites has motivated the use of images for other reasons as well – not only to promote products but also to bring visibility to ideas, values, or a particular ethos (Salinas, 2002). Accordingly, web images can also act as symbols that convey social meanings understandable by a given society or group (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). As web images communicate messages that take on meanings influenced by their cultural context, the literature has advanced theories on the strategic composition of web images with cultural significance. The configural view of web images, or configural theory for short, theorizes images on websites as configurations with a significance that extends beyond their material, graphic form to their cultural consequences (Salinas, 2002).

3. Configural theory

Configural theory subscribes to the notion of images as cultural artifacts in that they suggest and communicate values of the image creator to the viewer (Berger, 1990). Configural theory asserts that both image makers and viewers are active participants in constructing and assigning values to images (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). For example, Zahedi and Bansal (2011) explain that the image on a website depicting a man wearing a red, white, and blue hat not only functionally represents the objects (a man wearing a colorful hat) but also signifies the man’s patriotism. A U.S. viewer understands this value, may identify with the patriotic sentiment, and feel culturally and emotionally connected to the website. In contrast, a viewer who is not familiar with the colors of the U.S flag and the tradition of wearing such a hat as a symbol of the wearer’s patriotism may consider the man in the image to be odd and rebellious against the norm of the somber colors for men’s attire.

The consideration for the cultural consequences of web images takes on heightened importance due to the growth of business involvement with the Web (Evans & Wurster, 1997; Rappa, 2010), advances in computer imaging technologies (Vimpari et al., 2023), and society’s increased preference for image-intensive communication (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). Configural theory thus provides the theoretical basis to assert that web images are configured to convey cultural messages; hence values in web images exist and can be uncovered (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). Building upon configural theory, Zahedi and Bansal (2011) propose the web-image signifiers theory to deconstruct web images and discover underlying values contingent on their cultural context.

3.1. Web-image signifiers theory

Web-image signifiers (WIS) theory centers on the premise that web images contain elements referred to as web-image signifiers that carry values; thus, the theory formulates a mechanism to uncover these values through semiotic analysis. Semiology centers on signs as the basis for communication and analyzing how signs function (Liebenau & Backhouse, 1990). ‘Within semiology, the sign is a two-sided concept consisting of a signifier and a signified. The signifier refers to the material aspect, while the signified refers to the mental aspect’ (Musson et al., 2007, p. 48). For example, we can use semiotic analysis to examine the word ‘tree,’ in which the signifier is the word itself, and the signified could be an oak, a palm, a bonsai, or several other possibilities, depending on where one lives (Musson et al., 2007). The key idea is that ‘although the signifier and the signified always work together (there can never be one without the other), the actual bond between them is arbitrary (rather than “natural”) and determined by cultural agreement’ (p. 48).

WIS theory regards web-image signifiers as the observable elements of a web image (e.g. the clothing of a person or the number of persons in the picture), and the signified is the value (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). The theory’s semiotic approach to examining the cultural signification of web images consists of identifying the signifier and signified on the image and their interplays to convey cultural messages. Under this lens, cultural signification emerges as the ‘recurrent observed relationship between a signifier and a signified’ (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011, p. 155). Cultural signification, thus, accounts for the recurrent or repeated associations between web-image signifiers and values.

Furthermore, WIS theory also argues that human signifiers are the most prominent signifiers in web images for the signification of cultural messages. Zahedi and Bansal (2011) explain this premise based on evolutionary psychology, given that cooperation and social activities of humans are based on recognizing human features and expressions as depicted by their physical appearance and position vis-à-vis others. Therefore, depictions of humans are the most efficient and least cognitively taxing signifiers for the signification of cultural messages. This is particularly critical in the Web environment, where web elements with high cognitive loads rarely get processed.

4. Research methodology

The research question of this paper is how websites bring visibility to Two-Spirit people. To answer this question, this study followed the interpretive research perspective by Klein and Myers (1999), placing particular emphasis on the hermeneutic circle and contextualization principles for identifying values, as these emerged from the analysis of the web images. The principle of the hermeneutic circle states that ‘human understanding is achieved by iterating between considering the interdependent meaning of parts and the whole that they form’ (Klein & Myers, 1999, p. 72). Applying this principle entailed alternating between the purpose of the ‘whole,’ i.e. the web page of which each image is part, interpreted using text analysis (Lacity & Janson, 1994), and the observable elements in the image (signifiers). On the other hand, the principle of contextualization requires critical reflection on the historical background of the research setting (Klein & Myers, 1999). Applying this principle involved contextualizing the web images by situating them within the history of Two-Spirit people and the evolution of the Two-Spirit movement in North America.

Drawing on configural theory, this study subscribes to the idea that images on websites that support Two-Spirit people convey values representative of Two-Spirit, which can thus be discovered through semiotic analysis. This study thus relied on WIS theory as a sensitizing device to identify web-image signifiers and values from Two-Spirit websites, thereby laying the groundwork for understanding how websites bring visibility to Two-Spirit people. The analysis included 71 web images collected from the whole set of 24 web pages listed in the Two-Spirited People Web Resources collection (University of Winnipeg Library, 2019).

Examining the web images dataset involved crafting a structure of web-image signifiers and values. This task demanded constant comparison, contrast, and categorization of the signifiers, which led to the use of grounded theory (Birks et al., 2013; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). The grounded theory analysis started with an ‘open coding’ process for identifying descriptive signifier categories by composing images with similar signifiers into groups (Vaast & Walsham, 2013), i.e. putting ‘similar incidents found in the data under the same label’ (Berente et al., 2018, p. 8). Grouping images into signifier categories paved the way for discovering patterns of signification by identifying recurrent associations of signifiers and values in a process described by Corbin and Strauss (2008) as ‘crosscutting or relating concepts to each other’ or ‘axial coding.’ The axial coding led to a deeper understanding of the visibility of Two-Spirit people through web images by providing a ‘parsimonious set’ of values (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011, p. 158). Figure 1 illustrates this sequence.

Figure 1. Summary of the research method.

5. Findings

4.5.1. Themes of Two-Spirit web pages

The principle of the hermeneutic circle guided the interpretation of the web page’s purpose of which each image is part, gained through an interpretivist approach to text analysis (Lacity & Janson, 1994) of the page’s verbal content. Following the steps by Lacity and Janson (1994) for making sense of text data, this part of the analysis consisted of (1) describing facts or social reality shared by all the web pages, (2) determining the meaning ascribed in each web page in terms of causes and effects, and (3) identifying themes that serve as an interpretation of the web page’s content. A common fact all web pages share is recognizing the Two-Spirit identity. Building on this fact, the text analysis of the Two-Spirit web pages identified three themes: life stories, activism, and cultural initiatives. These themes are summarized in the following paragraph and elaborated on in the next section as context for the web-image signifiers and emergent values.

The life stories theme consists of web pages hosted by media organizations that bear witness to the struggle endured by Two-Spirit individuals in their efforts to thrive and fulfill their lives. The cause underlying these life stories is the struggle faced by Two-Spirit individuals to overcome societal prejudices, and the effect is the tenacity of these people to fight back against the constraints put on the expression of their identities. The activism theme includes web pages representing Two-Spirit activist organizations. These web pages reflect the work carried out by these organizations in creating programs and conducting activities, such as gatherings and pride parades, that support and promote Two-Spirit. The cause driving the web pages is thus the marginalization of Indigenous Peoples. The effect consists of actions and campaigns led by these organizations to open spaces in society where Two-Spirit people are safe and free to express their identities. The cultural initiatives theme encompasses web pages by media organizations reporting initiatives ranging from groups fostering the representation of Two-Spirit citizens to projects documenting the legacy of Two-Spirit cultural traditions. These web pages have as a common cause the historical distortions about Indigenous cultures created by colonial practices and policies of federal governments in North America designed to dismantle the identity of North American Indigenous Peoples. The effect is, thus, to challenge these distortions, reclaim, and preserve Two-Spirit heritage.

4.5.2. Emergent values

The analysis uncovered seven signifier categories from the web images: portrait, collectivity, historical, messaging, emblem, artwork, and memorabilia, and three underlying values: resilience, leadership, and restoration. Table 1 shows the signifier categories with an example of each category. Figure 2 shows the signifiers distribution over the web page themes, and Table 2 shows the composition of values across the signifier categories.

Figure 2. Web-image signifiers distribution over web page themes.

Table 1. Web-image signifiers.

Web images	Categories of web-image signifiers^a
Cree singer Angel Baribeau (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20210204230344/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/cree-mental-health-art-programming-angel-baribeau-1.5460008)	Portrait (n = 15) Representation of an individual where the person’s face or upper body and its expressions are predominant
From Montana Two Spirit Society website (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20220702123852/https://www.mttwospirit.org/)	Collectivity (n = 13) People gathered at an event, protest, or carrying out an activity collectively
We’wha, by John K. Hillers, 1886 (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20200110165149/http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/two-spirit-identity-1/)	Historical (n = 12) Significant Indigenous people in history or people in historical or memorable events
From Two-Spirited People of Manitoba Inc. website (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20201202123548/http://www.twospiritmanitoba.ca/)	Messaging (n = 10) Dominated by messages in written words, such as text announcing an event or calling for participation
From Montana Two Spirit Society website (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20220702123852/https://www.mttwospirit.org/)	Emblem (n = 9) Representation of an organization or idea
Welcoming the Newcomers, by Kent Monkman, 2019 (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20220702123938/https://www.kentmonkman.com/)	Artwork (n = 7) People depicted in an art painting or illustration
Pin-back button depicting clothing and a hairstyle associated with women (left) and men (right) (https://wayback.archive-it.org/12894/20200110165149/http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/two-spirit-identity-1/)	Memorabilia (n = 5) Object(s) associated with memorable people or events

The numbers in parentheses in the second column correspond to the number of times the corresponding signifier category appeared in the images.

Table 2. Web-image signifiers and values.

Web-image Signifier	Values
	Empowerement	Supportiveness	Restoration
Portrait	X		X
Collectivity		X	X
Historical			X
Messaging		X
Emblem		X
Artwork			X
Memorabilia			X

4.5.3. Empowerment

Web pages under the life stories themes recognize Two-Spirit people as contributing members of society and their merits in various fields, such as music, scholarship, and science. Examples of these stories include Ma-Nee Chacaby, a Two-Spirit Ojibwa-Cree elder who recounts her struggle to cope with years of backlash after her coming out, and singer Angel Baribeau’s accounts about her credence in music in her fight to come out. The life testimonies of Two-Spirit individuals in these web pages thus attest to Two-Spirit individuals’ capacity to gain control of their lives and make personal life decisions instead of being controlled by luck or powerful others.

Life stories are the most frequent web pages in the dataset. A central feature of these web pages is the use of portrait signifiers (Figure 2), which constitute the most prevalent category of signifiers. This finding aligns with WIS theory’s premise that depictions of humans amount to the most prominent category of signifiers on web images, given their role as efficient signifiers for the signification of cultural messages. Moving forward in the analysis, considering the context of life stories in which the portrait signifiers appear was essential for discovering the value conveyed by these signifiers.

Studies have shown that portrait images are humanizing cues that can act as a form of resistance that facilitates empowerment (Nemer & Freeman, 2015; Saunders et al., 2020; Tiidenberg & Gómez Cruz, 2015). Empowerment connotes gaining control over one’s life and influencing the cultural environment in which one lives (Segal et al., 1995). Given the explicit expressiveness of the individual in portrait images, it follows that portrait images, particularly on public domains like web pages, contribute to the empowerment of individuals with marginalized identities (Saunders et al., 2020). For example, studies with participants from marginalized communities have shown that sharing self-portrait images encourages them to freely express their identities and beliefs and form solid interpersonal ties (Nemer & Freeman, 2015). Supporting this idea, a study by Tiidenberg and Gómez Cruz (2015) reported on the experiences of female participants when sharing online portrait images as a practice of freedom that instills in community members new ways of seeing, changing their views on what is appealing or photographable, which in turn creates a productive context for expressions that are ‘more and more resistant in terms of the normative ideals’ (p. 95).

In this way, portrait signifiers act as nonverbal, visual communicators of the thoughts, intentions, and emotions captured by facial expressions and body language. Empowerment thus emerges from these signifiers due to their portrayal of individuals in the context of stories recognizing them as outstanding members of society who have fought against the marginalization faced by Indigenous Peoples.

4.5.4. Supportiveness

The web pages under the activism theme represent Two-Spirit activist organizations, such as Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits, Edmonton 2 Spirit Society, and Montana Two-Spirit Society, that have provided the leadership critical for Two-Spirit peoples to reclaim their culture and languages. Formed in 1998, the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) organization built on the work of a previous generation of organizers to provide a space free of alcohol and substance use and a sense of community that reconnected people with Two-Spirit traditions (Smithers, 2022). Integrating those traditions into contemporary Native culture remains a priority for BAAITS. Accordingly, BAAITS’ mission statement on their website reads, ‘BAAITS exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural, and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people.’ In the same vein, the Edmonton 2 Spirit Society advocates for ‘Two-Spirit peoples to be recognized, respected, and engaged in an integrated manner within Indigenous communities and society at large.’

Other websites representing organizations like the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and Two-Spirited People of Manitoba focus on causes promoting well-being and sexual health. The work carried out by organizations focuses on promoting the well-being of Two-Spirit individuals is essential, as in many cases, these populations lack the support they need from their families (The Trevor Project, 2022). The resources enabled by these organizations thus constitute a means for Two-Spirit individuals to support that may help them to cope with the constraints of their immediate social settings.

Images on these web pages comprise the messaging, emblem, and collectivity signifiers (Figure 2). Collectivity signifiers show actions taken together by a group of people, such as people talking with each other or to an audience, people gathered at an event or carrying out an activity, and people in protest or showing support for a cause. These signifiers follow portrait signifiers as the second most prevalent category of signifiers. Such prevalence can be explained given that humans have evolved to recognize human features, expressions, and their social positions as expressed by their physical appearance and positions vis-a-vis others to cooperate and perform social activities (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). Signifiers depicting people carrying out activities in unison are thus an efficient way of communicating and informing viewers about the social activities and support provided by these organizations. Collectivity signifiers depict people united in pursuit of a common goal, echoing the notion that people act collectively rather than individually because ‘they believe that there is strength in numbers’ (Kendall, 2012, p. 601).

Messaging signifiers share the commonality of capturing the viewer’s attention by showing written text as more prominent than other elements. These other elements, such as Indigenous clothing and pride flag colors, constitute artifacts representative of Two-Spirit’s cultural expressiveness that creates a cultural backdrop that contributes to the message’s salience to its target audience, i.e. Two-Spirit people. Messaging signifiers thus communicate calls for participation to act in support of an activity or cause, fostering a sense of mission that provides a purpose and meaning to the participants and constituents of these activist organizations.

Emblem signifiers, in many cases, denote these organizations’ logos. The organizational logo is an externalized, visible, and concrete representation, standing for the identity of the whole organization (Dandridge et al., 1980). As a visual expression, the organizational logo increases visibility and creates recognizability and awareness about the organization’s values, culture, and actions (Foroudi et al., 2017). In general, websites are often the first, and sometimes the only, interaction people have with an organization (Lowry et al., 2014). Studies have shown that logos play an essential role in fostering the credibility of the content presented on an organization’s website (Haig, 2007; Lowry et al., 2014). Logos trigger favorable credibility judgments about the organization’s website, leading to greater trust and willingness to interact with the organization (Lowry et al., 2014). Emblem signifiers enable visitors to identify the activist organizations behind these web pages, thus contributing to the credibility of the information and support provided by these activist organizations.

One of the main tasks of the Two-Spirit activist organizations representing the web pages under the activism theme is to protect and support their members and the communities they advocate. In line with this task, the value of supportiveness emerges from the collectivity, messaging, and emblem signifiers occurring in the context of activism web pages. This value thus emphasizes the social work and the degree to which members of Two-Spirit organizations promote safe spaces for Two-Spirit people.

4.5.5. Restoration

The recount of history is of central importance to Two-Spirit people, given the distortion caused by colonial practices and efforts of later federal governments in North America to eradicate Indigenous cultures alongside racialized perspectives held by professional anthropology. Web pages under the cultural initiatives theme thus focus on projects intended to reclaim millennia-old gender traditions and social roles associated with Two-Spirit. Many cultural initiatives reported on these web pages add to ongoing decolonizing efforts by Two-Spirit organizations to change public perceptions of Indigenous Peoples distorted by colonial archives and anthropological research (Smithers, 2022).

Cultural initiative web pages involve the most diverse signifiers, including historical, artwork, memorabilia, collectivity, and portrait signifiers (Figure 2). Historical signifiers include images of We’wha (1849–1896), a Native American of the Zuni tribe of the southern United States. The Zuni lived in a matrilineal society (Smithers, 2022) that has traditionally recognized the lha’mana, a gender role corresponding to male-bodied individuals who took on tasks usually performed by women (Gutierrez, 2019). Also known for her weaving skills, We’wha served as a representative for Indigenous Peoples in Washington D.C., where she met with several officials, including President Grover Cleveland, in 1886 (Gutierrez, 2019). Feted as the Zuni ‘priestess and princess,’ We’wha embodies the concept of gender fluidity of Indigenous cultures at variance with Western cultures’ male-female gender binary. Artwork signifiers are also present in web pages whose decolonial impetus focuses on bringing back the diversity of Native roles and ‘inverting the heteropatriarchal gaze’ (Smithers, 2022, p. 228) of Indigenous sexuality that characterize the American colonial art and paintings. The website of Cree playwright and painting artist Kent Monkman accomplishes this effort through artwork that revitalizes the expressions and emotions of Indigenous characters in striking contrast from the ‘expressionless, out-of-focus’ faces and ‘demonic expressions’ of paintings produced during the colonial expansion (Smithers, 2022, p. 229).

More recently, in the wave of activism centered on diverse sexual identities and gender expressions, historical and memorabilia signifiers also illustrate initiatives to ‘document this history being made,’ as archivist and librarian Ron Dutton commented on an online news article¹ by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This article narrates the conservation of thousands of photos and documents from the 1940s to the 2000s related to Two-Spirit and the Gay Liberation Movement in Canada. Other historical signifiers focus on contemporary culture by capturing live performances, as shown in an online article² published by the New-York Historical Society describing events organized by Two-Spirit organizations to ‘act on all issues of concern to Indigenous Peoples and increase the visibility of Native cultures within the United States.’ The analysis also revealed the presence of human signifiers (portrait and collective) in cultural initiative pages, which included interviews explaining the creation of groups to foster the representation of Two-Spirit citizens and accounts of how individuals fulfill their cultural roles and responsibilities in their communities as Two-Spirit people.

The presentation of Two-Spirit elements in various forms through historical, artwork, memorabilia, portrait, and collectivity signifiers thus allows a visual appreciation of ongoing initiatives focused on decolonizing Native gender roles and traditions. Drawing on the literature on cultural identity, Young (2018) defines identity restoration as reconstruction efforts to return identity to the likeness of a type it once embodied. Identity restoration thus involves developing a connection with community history and ancestors to overcome the internalization of negative stereotypes. As individuals increasingly learn of their own and others’ identities through media, ICTs provide the means for elevating the negotiation of meaning around identity (Castells, 2004); hence, historically oppressed communities can leverage ICT to restore their identity (Young, 2018). Under this view, the presence of the various signifiers in the context of cultural initiative web pages thus embodies the value of restoration by recognizing Two-Spirit cultural heritage and legacy free of colonialism’s corrosiveness.

4.5.6. Cultural emancipation

The analysis thus far has provided an account of the signification of images on Two-Spirit websites expressed as recurrent associations between web-image signifiers and values. This section now aims to explain how images on websites bring visibility to Two-Spirit by following the generalization principle (Klein & Myers, 1999) in which the emergent values were unified around a central concept, thereby ‘producing an integrated theoretical scheme’ (Berente et al., 2018, p. 8). This task led to the convergence of the empowerment, supportiveness, and restoration values into the central concept of cultural emancipation, explained below.

Brighenti (2007) highlights visibility’s relational quality, given that when the activity of watching occurs among living creatures, seeing and being seen are intimately connected (Brighenti, 2007). As ICT enlarges the field of the social visible, web images mediate an asynchronous form of visibility that enables the interaction between the image creator and its viewers, as both become active participants in the construction and assignment of meanings to the images (Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). Visibility mediated through web images, thus, entails an asynchronous social process of production and consumption of meanings – a process governed by the semantic congruence between the image creator and its viewers. Web images thus bring visibility through signifiers enabling such semantic congruence, in which the viewer sees meanings that, in this case, express values relatable to Two-Spirit’s decolonization efforts, i.e. empowerment, supportiveness, and restoration.

A common thread weaving through these values is an aspiration to express an identity free from social prejudices. This common theme required a concept that captures not only the struggle of individuals and the efforts made by activist organizations to combat compounding social prejudices but also the transcendence of their actions for the betterment of an entire community. This call led to the concept of emancipation, which Young et al. (2021), in their review of emancipation in the IS research literature, define as overcoming constraints that enable members of a social group or community to gain control of their destinies as they transition from an oppressed to a freer state. Under this definition, we can consider empowerment, support, and restoration as signifieds that converge into an underlying current of emancipation, given the ethos in these values of striving for an identity free from the dual prejudices of racism and homophobia. The empowerment value is inherently emancipatory in emphasizing individuals’ capacity to gain control of their lives and express their identity. The supportiveness value speaks to the spaces and resources provided by organizations to help others in overcoming the constraints of expressing and exercising their identity. Two-Spirit represents cultural traditions of Indigenous Peoples in North America centered on fluid gender roles and sexual identities. The restoration value reflects the broader aim of the Two-Spirit community of taking back control of these identities after centuries of colonial distortion. Establishing links with the past to keep Indigenous gender traditions vibrant and alive adds a cultural component to the signification of emancipation. These values thus express different facets of cultural emancipation in the use of ICT to promote Two-Spirit individuals’ freedom to express their identity.

6. Discussion

Through the semiotic analysis of web images, this paper has shown how values of empowerment, support, and restoration converge into an overarching concept of cultural emancipation to explain how websites give visibility to Two-Spirit people. The analysis follows a decolonial approach (Thambinathan & Kinsella, 2021) that centers ‘on the concerns and worldviews of non-Western individuals, respectfully knowing and understanding theory and research from previously other(ed) perspectives’ (pp. 1–2). This article takes a decolonial approach to investigate the use of ICT by and for vulnerable and marginalized groups in response to the Special Issue call for papers on Feminist and Queer Approaches to ICT4D. The contributions of this article to the IS research literature on ICT4D follow.

First, the findings have revealed different forms through which web images illustrate efforts to reconstruct Native traditions of gender and sexual diversity. As mentioned earlier, ICT studies on gender and sexual minorities tend to characterize visibility based on gender or sexuality alone, replicating existing asymmetries between ‘former colonized and colonizing peoples’ (Awori et al., 2016, p. 226). It is the dismantling of these asymmetries in the production of knowledge that is at the core of decolonial approaches (Ali, 2014; Awori et al., 2016; Thambinathan & Kinsella, 2021) based on ideas and concepts that embrace ‘non-Eurocentric perspectives’ (Ali, 2014, p. 2). However, decolonial studies in the ICT4D literature have not yet explored conceptions of gender fluidity advanced by Indigenous cultures of North America. As mentioned in the Special Issue call for papers on Feminist and Queer Approaches to ICT4D, ICT4D studies have focused on the feminine-masculine binary category, and yet gender fluidity and traditions of gender and sexual diversity are key to decolonizing the history of Indigenous Peoples (Jacobs et al., 1997; Smithers, 2022; Wilson, 1996).

Secondly, the decolonial approach followed in this study has extended previous research in ICT4D by emphasizing the freedom of gender and sexual expression embodied in Two-Spirit. Scholars have regarded racialized heteronormative modes of thinking associated with settler colonialism in North America as the root cause of prevailing prejudices of homophobia and racism today (Alcoff, 2005; Allen, 1992; Smithers, 2014, 2022). Two-Spirit embodies decolonization efforts centered on developing and expressing an identity free from these prejudices (Robinson, 2020; Smithers, 2022; Wilson, 1996). These decolonization efforts relate to Welzel et al. (2003)’s perspective of social progress, in which freedom of self-expression constitutes an essential element of human development.

Consistent with Sen (1999)’s view that human freedom should be the primary goal and principal means of development, Welzel et al. (2003) argue that striving for self-expression requires freedom and human choice (Welzel et al., 2003). Striving for self-expression is latent in each person, as it follows from the fact that human beings are self-conscious. Therefore, a social environment free of prejudices and discrimination raises people’s aspirations for self-expression, generating greater satisfaction and fulfillment that contribute to human development. This idea builds upon Anand and Sen (2000)’s view on human development based on the ‘unacceptability’ (p. 2029) of discrimination and neglect of underrepresented ethnic groups and particular sections of the population.

Welzel et al. (2003) further argue that freedom of self-expression requires a process of ‘emancipative cultural change’ that strengthens people’s subjective orientation toward choice. Emancipative cultural change leads to ‘greater tolerance of human diversity, higher life satisfaction, and a stronger emphasis on individual freedom’ (p. 348). The regard for people’s autonomy aims to complement traditional views based on socioeconomic progress that focus on gaining individual resources, such as rising incomes and skills. ‘When growing individual resources widen the scope of possible human activities, the strive for self-realization, autonomy, and emancipation finds greater leverage, strengthening people’s desire to have free choice and control over their lives’ (Welzel et al., 2003, p. 345).

Despite the advancement of Internet technologies in the 1990s and postcolonial theories that have brought awareness to the emancipation of Indigenous communities (Lin & Myers, 2015), the ICT4D literature has just recently paid attention to ICT emancipatory role in these communities (Cibangu, 2020; Hasan et al., 2022; Young et al., 2021). This stream of the literature has focused on the agency of individuals, drawing on frameworks like Amartya Sen’s capability approach to explain ICT’s role in pursuing human development goals (Kleine, 2009; Zheng et al., 2018). For example, Young (2018) studied the design of an organizational website used by the Klamath Tribes in North America to promote and restore their cultural identity. Challenging mainstream views on the commodification of ICTs, Cibangu (2020) examined mobile phones’ role in fulfilling a ‘broader spectrum of capabilities concerning human needs’ (p. 261) to improve the living conditions of Indigenous groups in rural Congo. Furthering our understanding of ICT’s role in contributing to the development of Indigenous populations, Hasan et al. (2022) showed the positive impacts of ICTs usage on Indigenous people’s quality of life in Bangladesh.

These studies represent a shift from the predominant economic orientation of ICT4D projects (Díaz Andrade & Urquhart, 2012) toward a focus on cultural initiatives that promote the recognition and development of Indigenous Peoples and their communities (Heeks, 2016; Lin & Myers, 2015). In line with this focus, this study embraced a decolonial approach to investigate cultural expressions of gender and sexual diversity through the lens of Two-Spirit. This lens allowed a unique understanding of ICT’s emancipatory role in bringing visibility to Indigenous Peoples in their efforts to express gender and sexual identities free from the dual prejudices of racism and homophobia.

7. Limitations and future research

Decolonization is a phenomenon that is hardly exclusive to North America. Countries worldwide are home to Indigenous populations enduring the infamous legacy of colonial marginalization and oppression. In many countries of Latin America, for instance, Indigenous populations lag behind society in terms of health, education, employment, and income due to ‘structural racism’ and ‘violations of the fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (IWGIA, 2021, p. 398). Activist organizations have emerged to support contemporary Indigenous communities in their fight against homophobia rooted in ‘a legacy of Spanish colonialism and the imposition of Catholicism on Mayan communities’ that have diminished Indigenous conceptions of sexuality and gender identity (Human Rights Watch, 2020). In the words of an Indigenous activist in Guatemala,

Homosexuals have traditionally played an important role in spiritual and artistic leadership. However, the imposition of Catholicism changed things: gender stereotypes, ‘do not wear pink shirts,’  … . We have a dualistic spirituality, a god that is man and woman. Catholicism changed this. (Arcadio, 2019)

Future studies could compare this research’s findings with ongoing efforts by activists and organizations in their use of ICT to promote the rights of Indigenous gender and sexual minorities in countries like Guatemala. The findings of this study can also serve as ‘design affordances’ (Bygstad et al., 2016) in the construction of new websites. In this way, the themes of life stories, activism, and cultural initiatives, along with the signifier categories and underlying values, may guide the content for a new website under the value-sensitive design paradigm (Friedman et al., 2006).

8. Conclusion

For the first time in the history of ICT, marginalized populations have found on the Web a means through which they can make their voices heard (Kenix, 2007). Despite websites’ potential to open spaces for those pushed to the margins of society to raise their voices and promote their causes, the ICT literature on gender and sexual minorities has paid little attention to efforts by those with an Indigenous ethnic identity to gain visibility. This paper addresses this gap by proposing the concept of cultural emancipation grounded in the semiotic analysis of images on Two-Spirit websites. Cultural emancipation entails the signification of empowerment, supportiveness, and restoration as distinctive values of Two-Spirit, thereby contributing to our understanding of ICT’s role in bringing visibility to the decolonizing efforts embodied in Two-Spirit for self-expression free of the dual prejudices of racism and homophobia. This study joins calls in the literature for research concerned with how to unleash the positive potential of ICT to support the human development of marginalized groups (Ortiz et al., 2019, p. 32).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Michelle Ghoussoub (2019), After decades in boxes, Vancouver’s LGBTQ archive now has a home. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/after-decades-in-boxes-vancouver-s-lgbtq-archive-now-has-a-home-1.5345714 (article accessed via the University of Winnipeg Library’s Two-Spirited People Web Resources collection).

2 Jeanne Gutierrez (2019), Bar Chee Ampe and Beyond: Uncovering Two-Spirit Identity, Part 3. New York Historical Society. https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/two-spirit-identity-3 (article accessed via the University of Winnipeg Library’s Two-Spirited People Web Resources collection).