Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2005, Zoccole)

Overview

To provide the 2SPFN organization with a visible banner that combined their specific Indigenous Two-Spirit identity with the broader Queer pride rainbow. ^[1]

The 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2SPFN) was founded in Toronto in 1989 as the first Two-Spirit organization in Canada. By 2005, Art Zoccole designed a flag incorporating the organization's logo on a white field with rainbow stripes along the left and right edges. The design served as both an organizational banner and the earliest known purpose-built Two-Spirit pride flag. ^[1][2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

Two-Spirit

Subcommunity

Indigenous Two-Spirit people, particularly those connected to 2SPFN in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area

Movement

Two-Spirit visibility, Indigenous Queer organizing, HIV/AIDS prevention in Indigenous communities

Diaspora Context

Urban Indigenous community in Toronto, many 2SPFN members are Indigenous people living away from their home Nations

Language Context

Two-Spirit as a pan-Indigenous English term, replacing the colonial 'berdache'

Religious Context

2SPFN integrates ceremony-based programming and cultural reclamation into its services

Racial / Ethnic Context

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities in Canada

National Context

Canadian Indigenous context, specifically Toronto's urban Indigenous community

This flag is tied to a specific organization and city, unlike the later 2Sanon design which circulated as a general Two-Spirit symbol. Its origins in Toronto's urban Indigenous community reflect the particular experience of Two-Spirit people navigating both Indigenous cultural identity and urban Queer spaces.

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

Art Zoccole is Anishinawbe Ogokwe from Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation in northwestern Ontario. In his language, the word to describe him is 'Ogokwe,' which he translates as 'wise woman' (though linguistic sources give variant translations including 'hidden woman'). He served as Executive Director of 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations and has been a leading figure in Two-Spirit advocacy, health research, and community organizing in Canada. ^[3][4]

Origin

Country

Canada

Region / state

Ontario

City

Toronto

Place Type

Organizational creation

Digital Origin

false

Created in Toronto, Ontario, on the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (Treaty 13), and the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat peoples. ^[5][6]

Indigenous land context

Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation — treaty territory (Treaty 13, Toronto Purchase, 1805). The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, part of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) Nation, are the primary treaty holders for the Toronto area under Treaty 13 (the Toronto Purchase of 1805). The Mississaugas occupied, controlled, and exercised stewardship over approximately 3.9 million acres in southern Ontario. The 1805 treaty was itself an attempt to formalize a disputed earlier transaction from 1787 in which the original deed was found blank. In 2010, Canada settled the Toronto Purchase Claim for $145 million. ^[5][6]

Haudenosaunee — traditional territory. The Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) also have longstanding connections to this territory, predating the Mississaugas' arrival in southern Ontario. ^[6]

Huron-Wendat — traditional territory ^[6]

Colonial / settler context

This flag was created by the Indigenous organization 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations on Treaty 13 territory within the settler-colonial state of Canada. Two-Spirit identity predates and exists outside colonial gender and sexuality frameworks, yet this flag necessarily circulates through settler infrastructure. ^[5]

Land status

Treaty territory (Treaty 13, Toronto Purchase, 1805; predecessor transaction contested)

Indigenous engagement

Indigenous-authored

Continuing presence

Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation; Haudenosaunee; Huron-Wendat. Treaty 13 claim settled for $145 million in 2010

Created for and by the 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2SPFN), a Toronto-based organization founded in 1989 as 'Gays and Lesbians of the First Nations' and renamed at their 1992 Annual General Meeting. The flag was designed as an organizational symbol rather than a community-wide standard. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki dates the flag to 2005; the exact date of creation within that year is unknown. ^[1][2][7]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2005

Period in Use

2005–present

The flag was used primarily within 2SPFN's organizational context in Toronto. It did not achieve the wider circulation of the later 2Sanon design, in part because it was tied to a specific organization's logo rather than offering a universal Two-Spirit symbol.

However, it holds historical significance as the first known Two-Spirit flag and as a document of the early Two-Spirit organizing movement. ^[1]

The earliest known Two-Spirit pride flag design, predating the more widely circulated 2Sanon design (2016) by eleven years. Its organizational specificity (featuring the 2SPFN logo rather than a generic symbol) limited its adoption beyond Toronto, but its creation within an established Indigenous Two-Spirit organization (2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, Toronto) gives it stronger provenance than many later designs created by anonymous online users. ^[1][7]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Rainbow Pride Flag

Direct children

Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2Sanon)

Related flags

Indigiqueer Pride Flag (cedar-maw), Two-Spirit Leather Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Nonbinary Pride Flag (2Sanon), Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2021, sirieko)

Sibling flags

Straight Ally Pride Flag, Chicago Pride Flag (Rainbow Stripes, Purple Stars), Philadelphia Pride Flag

The earliest known Two-Spirit pride flag, serving as the root of the Two-Spirit flag family. The 2016 2Sanon design superseded it in circulation but built on the precedent Zoccole established: that Two-Spirit identity warranted its own pride flag combining Indigenous and Queer symbolism. ^[1]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 7 records across 6 generations.

Ancestors -3

Original Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -2

Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestor

Rainbow Pride Flag

This record

Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2005, Zoccole)

Children

Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2Sanon)

Generation 3

Two-Spirit Nonbinary Pride Flag (2Sanon), Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2021, sirieko)

Colors & Symbolism

The flag bridges organizational identity and community pride. The white background with the 2SPFN logo centers the organization's specific mission and Indigenous identity, while the rainbow stripes along the edges connect that mission to the broader Queer pride movement. The compositional choice (Indigenous identity at center, rainbow at margins) inverts the later 2Sanon design's approach of placing Indigenous symbols onto a rainbow field. ^[1]

Standard rainbow approximation

This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.

2SPFN organizational logo at center

The organization's specific identity and mission serving Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQ people. ^[1]

Rainbow stripes along left and right edges

Connection to the broader LGBTQ community and Queer pride movement. ^[1]

White background field

No stated symbolism documented. Provides contrast for the central logo. ^[1]

The composition places Indigenous identity at center and Queer identity at the margins. The later 2Sanon design inverts this, placing Indigenous symbols onto a rainbow field.

Rainbow edge colors are approximated from the standard six-stripe palette. The 2SPFN logo colors have not been independently verified. No official palette has been published.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

other

Layout

Central logo on white field with rainbow edge stripes

Center Symbol

2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2SPFN) organizational logo

Additional Symbols

Horizontal rainbow stripes along left and right edges

White rectangular field. The 2SPFN logo is centered. Rainbow stripes (in standard pride rainbow sequence) run horizontally along both the left (hoist) and right (fly) edges of the flag.

The logo-centric design means this flag cannot be constructed from simple geometric elements alone, it requires the specific 2SPFN organizational logo.

A white rectangular field with the 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations emblem centered on it. The emblem is a circle edged with sun rays containing two faces in profile (representing the two spirits), a dove above, a medicine wheel at center, and the text '2-Spirits' below. Horizontal rainbow stripes in the standard pride sequence run along the left and right edges of the flag, framing the white central field.

Usage & Adoption

First Users

2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2SPFN), Toronto

Organizations

2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2SPFN)

Geographic Usage

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Current Status

archival_only

Primarily an organizational flag rather than a community-wide symbol. Its circulation remained largely within 2SPFN's operations and Toronto's Indigenous Queer community. The later 2Sanon design (2016) largely superseded it as the widely recognized Two-Spirit flag. ^[1]

Image Archive

Original physical flag, 2SPFN, Toronto

Discourse & Debates

• Indigenous pride flags are underrepresented in mainstream pride flag databases. Of the major English-language flag reference sources, only the LGBTQIA+ Wiki and Flags of the World (FOTW) include Indigenous flag entries, and typically only one design, without context for the broader lineage of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer flags. This gap is notable given that Two-Spirit flags have existed since at least 2005, predating many flags that are routinely cataloged, suggesting that archival omission reflects curatorial blind spots rather than a lack of material.

Common misidentifications

• Rarely seen and often unrecognized, most people associate the feather-and-circle 2Sanon design (2016) with 'the Two-Spirit flag'

The organization uses '2-Spirited' (hyphenated, with 'd') in its name, reflecting early usage. The unhyphenated 'Two-Spirit' has since become the more common spelling.

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

two-spirit-2005-zoccole

• The earliest confirmed photograph of the Zoccole Two-Spirit flag, the original physical flag used by 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2SPFN) in Toronto. ^[1] · Historical / Archival