The film “1 Contrary 5 Agokwe-Nini” is a talk-show style documentary film hosted by the one and only ‘contrary’ Alik Beavers (aka Sharp Dopler), and features 5 Agokwe-nini guest speakers: Ashley Grenstone, Benny Michaud, Theo Paradise-Ottawa, Kole Peplinski and Carmel Whittle. They discuss gender, sexuality, Indigenous identity, traditional two-spirit roles, terminology, accessing ceremonial spaces, and safe spaces in mainstream society.
In Anishinaabemowin (the Ojibwe language), the world is structured around the animacy of the universe - animate/inanimate, or in simpler terms living/dead - it is not structured around gender - masculine/feminine, him/her - such as many European languages. Thus in the Ojibwe worldview, it can be said that we’re less concerned with one's gender and more focused on living a good life. In Anishinaabemowin, there are words that were traditionally used to describe people who chose to dress and live as a woman or a man, regardless of the gender they were born into. They took on the gender-roles they felt most comfortable in and this was normal and socially accepted in traditional Anishinaabeg communities. If someone was assigned female at birth, but later in life chose to take on the gender-roles of a man, they were called Agokwe-Nini, which literally translates as ‘wise-woman-man’. Another word is Ogichidaakwe (Warrior woman), which was also used to describe someone that was born female but chose to take on the gender-roles of a man.
https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/event/1-contrary-5-agokwe-nini-documentary-film-screening
http://www.g101.ca/exhibits/1-contrary-5-agokwe-nini-documentary-film-screening
Gallery 101 gratefully acknowledges, the City of Ottawa, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Gallery 101 thanks our members, volunteers and supporters. G101 honours and respects the original people of the territory we currently occupy: unceded and unsurrendered Anishnaabe-Aki who have been living and working on this land since time immemorial.