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Redesigning the Two-Spirit Flag for Pride Month 2025

𖤓 Happy Pride Month Everyone! 𖤓

I wanted to share the designs I have been working on for the Two-Spirit pride flag, as we continue the ongoing fight for LGBTQIA+ rights worldwide and honor those who have lost their lives for the movement. 

𖤓 The Original Flag 𖤓

The most prevalent Two-Spirit pride flag is the traditional pride flag (or the trans or nonbinary flag) with the symbol of a circle, denoting oneness, and two feathers, signifying female and male. This flag design was initially submitted by Tumblr user 2Sanon on December 17th, 2016. 

Although I like the traditional design, I wanted to create additional variations of the Two-Spirit flag so that our community has options as to which flag they’d like to display to celebrate their identities. I belief that the Two-Spirit flag should foster pan‐Indigenous solidarity and reject the colonial labels placed upon Indigenous LGBTQIA+ individuals. With that being said, here they are (with explanations as to my thought process)!

𖤓 Redesigned Two-Spirit Pride Flag 𖤓

For my initial redesign for the Two-Spirit pride flag, I took inspiration from Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, Mapuche, Inuit, and Sámi flags. Although that's an expansive selection, I wanted to gain a comprehensive picture of the colors which have traditionally held meaning to a variety of Indigenous peoples. It’s important to allow Two-Spirited people to attach their own meaning to the stripes and circular symbol, however, here is a guide which explains their symbolic meaning as a Two-Spirited individual to me: 

𖤓 The design contains a red stripe, which traditionally has represented global Indigenous solidarity and a call to action for the MMIW Movement. 

𖤓 Green symbolizes the Earth, healing, endurance, new growth and the sovereign rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands. 

𖤓 White, as in the transgender flag, represents those who are intersex, consider themselves to have a neutral or undefined gender, or are in the process of transitioning. 

𖤓 The lighter blue stripe represents the sky or the universe, as well as a connection with spirituality or the sacred. This specific shade of blue is drawn from the flag of Nunavut, where it represents the North Star. 

𖤓 The darker blue stripe represents knowledge and assurance, as well as the elixir of life, water. 

𖤓 The yellow circle at the center of the flag represents oneness, as the circle does in the traditional Two-Spirit flag, as well as symbolizing the sun or the moon.

A concise history of Two-Spirit identity

For those unfamiliar with the history of the term “Two-Spirit” or “Two-Spirited,” it’s an English translation of the Anishinaabemowin term niizh manidoowag. Queer Indigenous activists in Canada and the United States created the official term for alternative indigenous gender roles and identities during Third Annual Native American, First Nations, Gay & Lesbian American conference held in Manitoba in 1990. Two-Spirit identity facilitates the reclamation of indigeneity from Western discourse and combats against the settler-colonial imposition of cis-heteronormativity on indigenous peoples.

For those interested in learning more about the history of Two-Spirit identity, check out these educational articles:

More flag designs!

A variation of my redesign without the circular symbol: 

While researching for this project, I came across this brilliant piece of artwork done for the 10th Annual International Two-Spirit Gathering held in 1997 in Onamia Minnesota. The painting is by George Littlechild and is currently held in the Oakland Museum of California. 

The following alternative redesigns for a Two-Spirit pride flag are inspired by Littlechild’s painting. The colors are drawn from his piece, but retain the same meanings for me as in the initial redesign. 

Thank you for reading this post!

I hope that everyone has a safe pride month. Here are some additional video resources on Two-Spirit identity for those who would like to learn more about how to protect and uplift the community: 

Links to the flags which inspired my designs: 

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Ink Artwork by Endre Penovác

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Ogamiyama Shrine Okunomiya

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riso constellations 💫 noctua & corvus

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love books. because it’s like what if something happened

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titled 'you, human, come here!' c. 1950s.

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crayfish galore!

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who let this bird on the train

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Peter Randall-Page: 'Hundred Year Stone' (1995)

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Bill Mayer: 'The Offering' (2017)

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Emily Dickinson, from her poem titled "1188," featured in The Emergency Poet

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Sankt-Peter-Ording I by Alexander Schönberg

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(ID: a digital drawing of jun and keema from the spear cuts through water by simon jimenez. they are drawn from the waist up and in profile. keema is cradling jun’s face with his hand while they touch foreheads. behind them is an early sunrise, stars and a crescent moon above their heads. END ID)

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Isanotski Peaks, Alaska - by Chris Owens

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Greg Sellers | Sunset Lily