Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

Overview

The 2021 Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag with the two-feather-and-circle device attributed to 2Sanon set over the rainbow field. Who first combined them is not documented. The earliest located documentation is Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario, which had raised the flag by 24 June 2022 as part of its Pride Month activities and the opening of its Pride Centre: "As part of its Pride Month celebrations, Cambrian College has also raised its new one-of-a-kind Pride flag. The College has added to its progress pride flag the symbol of two feathers in recognition of Indigenous people who identify as Two-Spirit." ^[1]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

Two-Spirit people

Subcommunity

Two-Spirit people within Queer and Indigenous communities

Movement

Two-Spirit visibility

Racial / Ethnic Context

Two-Spirit is a pan-Indigenous umbrella term whose meanings vary among Nations, cultures, communities and individuals.

National Context

Canada; documented instances in Sudbury, Ontario and in Alberta

Two-Spirit is a term used by some Indigenous people whose meanings vary among nations, cultures, communities and individuals; it is not an Indigenous equivalent of a Western category and is not a term to apply to anyone who does not claim it. Cambrian's release glosses it as a translation of the Anishinaabemowin term niizh manidoowag and "a way for Indigenous communities to reclaim lost traditional ways of viewing gender, sex, sexuality, and spirituality". ^[1] 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations describes its own research as reclaiming Indigenous traditional knowledge, cultural practices and the roles of 2-Spirit and Indigenous Queer communities. ^[3]

Creators

Origin

Origin Type

not documented

Physical Origin Status

Creation origin unknown; not documented in any located source.

Earliest documented use: Cambrian College, Sudbury, Ontario, on the traditional lands of the Anishnaabe People of Turtle Island, with Atikameksheng Anishnawbek as local host. The creation origin of the combined design is not documented. ^[1][6]

Indigenous land context

Atikameksheng Anishnawbek — local host First Nation of the documented instance's place. Cambrian College's own acknowledgment: 'We acknowledge and respect that we are gathered on the traditional lands of the Anishnaabe People of Turtle Island and proudly recognize our local host Atikameksheng Anishnawbek.' ^{[6] [6]}

Wahnapitae First Nation — recognized in the college's acknowledgment. 'We also recognize the contributions of Wahnapitae First Nation and the Metis Nation of Ontario.' ^{[6] [6]}

Métis Nation of Ontario — recognized in the college's acknowledgment ^[6]

Where and by whom the combination was first made is not documented. The earliest located documented use is Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, by 24 June 2022; that is a place of use, not an asserted place of design. ^[1]

Indigenous Identity Context

Nation

Pan-Indigenous term; no Nation-specific affiliation documented for this flag

Related Nations

Métis (the infinity-symbol variant)

Territory

Documented use: the traditional lands of the Anishnaabe People of Turtle Island, local host Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (Sudbury, Ontario). ^[6]

Geographic Scope

pan-Indigenous

Colonial State

Canada (state of the documented use)

Traditional Knowledge Notice

Yes

Nations / Communities

Métis (the infinity-symbol variant)

Affiliation Type

identity_framework

Pan-Indigenous

Yes

A pan-Indigenous device applied to the intersex-inclusive Progress flag, documented in institutional use from 2022. A later Alberta photograph documents a related variant in which smaller feathers are superimposed on a white infinity symbol for Métis representation; Flags of the World does not identify its designer or precise location, and it is a variant rather than evidence that the Cambrian flag is specifically Métis. ^[2] Whether Two-Spirit representation is best carried on a combined flag or on a separate one is itself a documented question among Two-Spirit people (see Discourse). ^[7] The communities using these flags are the authorities on them.

Two-Spirit is a pan-Indigenous term. No Nation-specific affiliation is documented for this flag; the earliest documented user is an institution, not an Indigenous organization. ^{[1] [1]}

Dates & Chronology

Earliest located documented public use (by this date)

June 24, 2022

Documented

Documented from 2022

Creation Bounds

The combination's creation date is not documented. Cambrian College's press release of 24 June 2022 states that the college "has also raised its new one-of-a-kind Pride flag", which makes that date a secure terminus for documentation rather than a creation or first-raising date. ^[1] The constituent elements are dated separately: the two-feather device is attributed to 2Sanon in 2016 ^[4], Valentino Vecchietti created the Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag in 2021 ^[5], Daniel Quasar's Progress Pride Flag preceded it in 2018 and Morgan Carpenter's intersex symbol in 2013 ^[5]. Zachary Harden drew the Flags of the World rendering on 13 September 2023. ^[2] The University of Waterloo used the name "Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Pride Progress flag" in June 2023. ^[7]

Raised at Cambrian College's front entrance by 24 June 2022, alongside the opening of the college's Pride Centre, whose ceremony was led by Bradie Granger, chair of Cambrian's Schools of Justice and General Studies, who identifies as gay and Two-Spirit. ^[1] Flags of the World's 2023 entry documents the same Cambrian use and notes the yellow field at the hoist. It also records a later variant photographed in Alberta with smaller feathers, fitting within the yellow and green stripes, superimposed over a white infinity symbol "to include the representation of Métis people"; no designer or precise location is given for that variant. ^[2]

Naming has varied by source. Cambrian called the object a new one-of-a-kind Pride flag and captioned its photograph as the college's new progress pride flag. ^[1] Flags of the World files it under the heading "New Progress Pride variant". ^[2] The University of Waterloo's Office of Indigenous Relations used "Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Pride Progress flag" in June 2023. ^[7] This archive published the entry as the Two-Spirit New Progress Pride Flag until August 2026; that title is kept as a search alias.

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2016 Tumblr documentation)

Sibling flags

5790/2029 Pride Flag, Disability-Inclusive Pride Flag, Progress+ Flag (Disabled Queer Transmasc Variant), Two-Spirit Progress Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Transgender Pride Flag

Two constituent predecessors, documented separately. The base is the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag, created by Valentino Vecchietti in 2021 and identified in the Cambrian photograph by the yellow field at the hoist. ^[5][2] The charge is the two-feather-and-circle device attributed to 2Sanon in 2016, transferred onto that base. ^[4] The Two-Spirit Progress, Transgender and Nonbinary flags are best read as a family of applications of the same device to different base flags rather than as descendants of one another; no source establishes a chronological derivation among them. The Alberta variant with a white infinity symbol for Métis representation is a later documented variant within this intersex-inclusive family, not evidence about the Cambrian flag's creator. ^[2]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 10 records across 7 generations.

Ancestors -6

Original Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -5

Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -4

Rainbow Pride Flag

Ancestors -3

Transgender Pride Flag, Philadelphia Pride Flag

Ancestors -2

Intersex Pride Flag, Progress Pride Flag

Ancestor

Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2016 Tumblr documentation)

This record

Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

Colors & Symbolism

Cambrian's own statement gives the addition's purpose: the two feathers were added to its progress pride flag "in recognition of Indigenous people who identify as Two-Spirit". ^[1] The base flag's meanings are its own, published by its creator. ^[5]

Two-feather-and-circle device

Two feathers, white with black tips, bound at their quills beneath a circle. The reading commonly attached to it, that the two feathers represent woman and man and the circle unity in one, comes from a later third-party post crediting 2Sanon rather than from a located posting by 2Sanon, and is published here with that qualification. ^[4][2]

White infinity symbol (Alberta variant only)

The infinity symbol of the Métis flag, added beneath the feathers 'to include the representation of Métis people' in the variant Flags of the World records as photographed in Alberta. ^[2]

No palette is published for the combined design and none is invented here. The field and chevrons, including the yellow field and purple intersex ring, are inherited from Valentino Vecchietti's 2021 Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag, whose own project describes it as incorporating previous iterations of the Pride flag together with Morgan Carpenter's intersex flag ^[5]; the device contributes black and white. Values for the base belong to that flag's own entry. ^[5]

Design

Aspect Ratio

Not standardized

Ratio Notes

No ratio is documented for the combined design and none is asserted here. The local raster of Harden's Flags of the World rendering measures 346 by 216 pixels, about 8:5; that is the rendering's proportion, not a design rule. ^[2]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

6

Layout

Intersex-inclusive Progress field with an added device

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

Center Symbol

Two feathers bound beneath a circle

Additional Symbols

Intersex-inclusive Progress hoist: chevron of white, pink, light blue, brown and black with a yellow field and purple ring

Described first from the 2022 photograph of the flown flag: six horizontal rainbow stripes, the intersex-inclusive Progress hoist treatment, and the large white-and-black two-feather device over the rainbow field toward the centre and fly side. The yellow field of the intersex-inclusive hoist is visible in the photograph inboard of the chevron bands, which is what distinguishes this base from the plain Progress flag; Flags of the World's note on the Cambrian image draws attention to the same yellow field. The purple ring is not resolvable in the furled fabric. ^[1][2] Harden's 2023 rendering presents the same construction diagrammatically. ^[2]

The Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag, six rainbow stripes with a hoist chevron of white, pink, light blue, brown and black and a yellow field bearing a purple ring, carrying two white, black-tipped feathers bound beneath a white circle over the rainbow field. ^[1][2]

Usage & Adoption

Organizations

Cambrian College, Sudbury, Ontario (by 24 June 2022) ^[1]

Geographic Usage

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada (documented use) ^[1], Alberta (a later related variant with a white infinity symbol) ^[2]

Event Usage

Cambrian College Pride Month and the opening of its Pride Centre, June 2022 ^[1]

Current Status

Documented in institutional use from 2022

Documented institutional use at Cambrian College from June 2022. No further adopting organization has been located, and no individual designer of the combination is named in any located source.

Image Archive

Documented use, 2022

Later reconstruction

Discourse & Debates

• Whether Two-Spirit representation belongs on a combined flag at all is a live question among Two-Spirit people. The University of Waterloo's Office of Indigenous Relations, writing in June 2023 about flying the Two-Spirit Pride flag beside the Intersex-Inclusive Progress flag rather than a combined design, records that "some members of the Two-Spirit community feel that it is important to celebrate Indigenous identity by flying two separate flags." Amy Smoke, a Two-Spirit sessional instructor, is quoted: "Indigenous ways of sexual orientation and gender expression were here long before the 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym, prior to colonization, before the English words lesbian, gay, trans, bi and queer... Personally, I think it's important to honour the distinction and that we don't foundationally see them as being the same." Leith Bulford, a Two-Spirit student special project assistant at the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre, adds: "While it's vital for Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer folks to have a space to embody their identities with pride, members of the broader LGBTQIA+ community must also acknowledge and respect the contextual and cultural differences of our experiences. I think the separate Two-Spirit pride flag is one step towards this." ^[7]

Common misidentifications

• Flags of the World's heading "New Progress Pride variant" is that site's nomenclature for the intersex-inclusive base, not a historical name for this flag. ^[2]
• Not the Two-Spirit Progress Pride Flag created by Mitchel Bowers for Pride YMM in Wood Buffalo, Alberta, which carries the same device on the six-stripe Progress base and is documented separately in this archive.
• Not the 2024 Two-Spirit flag designed by Patrick Hunter for the International Day of Pink, a Woodland-art composition with no rainbow stripes, documented separately in this archive.

Flags of the World calls the intersex-inclusive Progress Pride Flag the 'New Progress Pride flag', which is where this entry's name comes from; Cambrian College's own announcement calls its base simply 'progress pride flag'. ^[2][1]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Documented in use at Cambrian College, 2022

• Published with Cambrian College's press release of 24 June 2022 and preserved in the Education News Canada republication. No reusable licence located; reproduced as historical documentation. ^[1]
• Drawn for Flags of the World, 13 September 2023. Contributor-copyrighted FOTW material; reuse subject to FOTW's published conditions. ^[2]
• The intersex-inclusive Progress Pride Flag carrying the two-feather device, raised at Cambrian College during Pride Month 2022. The college described it as a new one-of-a-kind Pride flag and said it had added the two-feather symbol in recognition of Indigenous people who identify as Two-Spirit. ^[1] · Credit: Cambrian College (photographer not identified) · Cambrian College press release, via Education News Canada
• Zachary Harden, Flags of the World, 13 September 2023: a later vexillological rendering based on documented use, not the 2022 artifact. ^[2] · Credit: Zachary Harden, Flags of the World · Flags of the World