Claiming Space, Shaping Futures: Preparing for Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride 2025

I’m incredibly honored to participate in Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride 2025 (DBIWP), a global celebration of 2SLGBTQIA+ Indigenous artistry and storytelling. Taking place on May 30 at Arena Stage and June 1 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC, DBIWP coincides with World Pride and centers the voices of Indigenous Queer and Two-Spirit people on an international platform.

This event is more than a celebration, it’s an act of resistance, reclamation, and radical joy. It brings together performers, artists, filmmakers, and leaders from global communities to share space, knowledge, and spirit in ways that deeply honor our identities, histories, and communities.

I’m especially excited to be part of the “Indigeneity, Gender, Sexuality & Decolonization” panel, an educational and global conversation about Indigenous gender and sexuality through a decolonial lens. This crucial conversation will be moderated by Oswin Latimer and features a brilliant lineup of panelists, including Dr. Mandy Henningham, Lucimara Patté, and me. Together, we’ll explore the complex and diverse realities of being Indigiqueer across different nations and cultural contexts, while pushing back against colonial frameworks that continue to distort or erase our truths.

This panel represents the heart of what DBIWP is about: not just visibility, but sovereign visibility, a space where we define ourselves, speak our truths, and reconnect with the expansive understandings of gender and sexuality our ancestors carried long before colonization.

In addition to wonderful panel discussions, there will be powerful performances by Tony Enos, Rivolta Sata, Lady Shug, Ritni Tears, 9a, Yaffa, and a special guest appearance by Rayceen Pendarvis, Empress of Pride and Goddess of DC.

To be in community with other Indigenous queer thinkers, artists, and changemakers is a gift I do not take lightly. I’m humbled to share space with such powerful voices and look forward to learning, unlearning, and growing together.

If you’re in the DC area for this incredible event, I encourage you to join us. All events are FREE, and you can reserve your tickets here.

For a full schedule and list of panelists and performers, visit https://crushingcolonialism.org/decolonized-beatz-indigenous-world-pride-2025/

Come ready to celebrate and to be part of something as revolutionary as it is restorative. Our stories matter, our joy matters. And our presence, here and now, is more important than ever, if for no other reason than to continue asserting that WE ARE STILL HERE.