Two-Spirit Progress Pride Flag

Overview

In Bowers's words on the organization's page: 'Two Spirit people were the first queer people to live on this land, and they have done so while fighting against colonial oppression such as homophobia and transphobia. They deserve to be represented overtly to ensure that their stories and traditions live on and are handed down from generation to generation.' ^[1]

Mitchel Bowers, a Métis Two-Spirit organizer then serving as board chair of Pride YMM, designed the Two Spirit Progress Pride Flag in 2022 after identifying a lack of overt Two-Spirit representation among the Progress Pride variants then appearing. ^[1] Pride YMM adopted it for its opening ceremonies at Keyano College, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo flew it at Jubilee Plaza. Wood Buffalo Pride continues to publish the artwork and encourages people who wish to use the design to have flags made from its downloadable file: 'We hope others will adopt this flag and have made the file readily available below if you would like to get your own flag made.' ^[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 term used by some Indigenous people for identities, roles and experiences whose meanings vary among nations, cultures, communities and individuals. It is not interchangeable with Indigenous LGBTQ+ generally, and it is not a term to be applied to anyone who does not claim it. Wood Buffalo Pride's own page notes that 'Not all Indigiqueer people consider themselves Two Spirit and that is okay!' ^[1]

National Context

Canada; documented organizational use in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

Mitchel Bowers, a Métis Two-Spirit organizer then serving as board chair of Pride YMM, designed the flag in 2022 after noticing the absence of overt Two-Spirit representation among the newer Progress Pride variants: 'Amongst all of these new flags, we wondered why hadn't one been created for Two Spirit peoples. As a Metis, Two Spirit person, Board Chair Mitchel Bowers took it upon themselves to create the flag they felt was lacking.' ^[1] Bowers is the designer of this flag; its base is Daniel Quasar's Progress Pride Flag ^[6], and the feather-and-circle device is attributed to the Tumblr user 2Sanon, reportedly in 2016, through a third-party repost rather than a recovered posting by 2Sanon. ^[3][4] The later Flags of the World image is Zachary Harden's rendering, not Bowers's artwork. ^[4]

Origin

Country

Canada

Region / state

Alberta

City

Fort McMurray

Origin Type

organizational

Physical Origin Status

Created within the local Pride organization; no drawing place is stated.

Created and first flown in Fort McMurray, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta, within Treaty 8.

Indigenous land context

Cree, Dene and Métis — Treaty 8 territory, traditional territory (Indigenous name: nistawâyâw (Cree) / Ełídlį Kuę́ (Dene)). Wood Buffalo Pride acknowledges 'that the land we occupy is nistawâyâw (Cree) / Ełídlį Kuę́ (Dene), within Treaty 8, the traditional territory of the Cree, Dene and Métis people.' ^[7]

Colonial / settler context

Land status

Treaty territory (Treaty 8, 1899)

Designed by Pride YMM's board chair and adopted by the organization in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta. ^[1]

Indigenous Identity Context

Nation

Pan-Indigenous term; designer identified as Métis

Territory

Treaty 8 Territory (documented use)

Geographic Scope

pan-Indigenous

Colonial State

Canada

Nations / Communities

Métis (the designer’s stated identity)

Affiliation Type

identity_framework

Pan-Indigenous

Yes

Designed by a Métis Two-Spirit organizer for a specific organization in a specific place, and adopted there: Pride YMM raised it at its opening ceremonies from 2022 and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo flew it at Jubilee Plaza. ^[1] The communities who raise it are the authorities on what it means to them.

Two-Spirit is a pan-Indigenous term. The designer, Mitchel Bowers, is Métis and Two-Spirit by the publishing organization's own account. ^{[1] [1]}

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2022

Pride YMM's 2022 Pride observance

2022

Documented

2022 to the present

Creation Bounds

Wood Buffalo Pride's page for the flag captions it 'Two Spirit Progress Pride Flag, designed by Mitchel Bowers, 2022' and states that 'starting in 2022 the Two Spirit Progress Pride Flag will be the official flag raised at our opening ceremonies at Keyano College, as well as the flag flown at Jubilee Plaza by the RMWB.' ^[1] The organization's timeline places it in the same season: 'Pride YMM flies the Two Spirit Progress Pride Flag - created by Board Chair Mitchel Bowers.' ^[2] No dated primary record of a specific creation day or first raising has been located, and none is asserted here.

Official flag of Pride YMM's opening ceremonies at Keyano College beginning in 2022, and flown by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo at Jubilee Plaza. ^[1] The organization's timeline records the same season: 'Pride YMM flies the Two Spirit Progress Pride Flag - created by Board Chair Mitchel Bowers.' ^[2] Wood Buffalo Pride still publishes the artwork and offers it for anyone who wants a flag made. ^[1] The word official here describes the organization's ceremony flag; no record of formal adoption as a municipal flag by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo has been located. Members voted to rename Pride YMM as Wood Buffalo Pride in 2024. ^[2]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Progress Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2016 Tumblr documentation)

Sibling flags

Indigiqueer / Two-Spirit Flag (cedar-maw), Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag, Jewish Progress Pride Flag (Keshet), Sego Belonging Flag, Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Transgender Pride Flag, Inclusive Diversity Pride Flag (TransIphis, 2022), Utopian Pride Flag #6 (2040 Progress Flag)

Two documented components, one author. Daniel Quasar's Progress Pride Flag supplies the base, six rainbow bands with the five-colour chevron at the hoist. ^[6] The feather-and-circle device is attributed to the Tumblr user 2Sanon, reportedly in 2016, through a third-party repost rather than a recovered posting by 2Sanon; Flags of the World repeats that attribution. ^[3][4] Mitchel Bowers made the flag from them in 2022. ^[1] The flags listed as siblings here are the other documented variants of those two parents, not derivations of this design; no descendant of Bowers's flag is documented.

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 8 records across 6 generations.

Ancestors -5

Original Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -4

Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -3

Rainbow Pride Flag

Ancestors -2

Transgender Pride Flag, Philadelphia Pride Flag

Ancestor

Progress Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2016 Tumblr documentation)

This record

Two-Spirit Progress Pride Flag

Colors & Symbolism

The flag places overt Two-Spirit representation on the Progress Pride Flag, the absence Bowers set out to fill. ^[1] The base flag's meanings are its own, published by its designer. ^[6]

Sampled from the first-party PNG; not an official specification

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

Feather-and-circle device

Two feathers, white with black tips, bound at their quills beneath a circle. A third-party Tumblr repost that attributes the device to 2Sanon reports that 'The two feathers represent woman and man, and the circle represents unity in one'; that reading is the repost's, not a recovered statement by 2Sanon or by Bowers, and the repost itself says its information was 'researched to the best of my ability'. ^[3][4]

Bowers's published statement concerns representation rather than the device's parts. ^[1]

These values are sampled from Wood Buffalo Pride's published PNG and are approximate: they are neither Pantone references nor hex codes published by the creator. Antialiasing and the artwork's irregular edge work produce further pixel colours around every boundary. ^[1]

Design

Aspect Ratio

16:9 · apparent

Ratio Notes

First-party published artwork: 1,771 by 990 pixels, approximately 16:9. The simplified 16:9 is an approximation of the published file, not a creator-declared construction ratio, and no separate manufacturing specification has been located. The ratio is taken from Bowers's file, not from the later Flags of the World rendering, which is drawn at 5:3. ^[1][4]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

6

Layout

Progress Pride field with an off-centre device

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

Additional Symbols

Feather-and-circle device in the fly half, Five-colour chevron at the hoist

Measured from Wood Buffalo Pride's published file, 1,771 by 990 pixels. Six horizontal rainbow bands run the width of the field and a five-colour chevron enters from the hoist. The feather-and-circle device sits in the fly half, well right of the flag's centre: it spans roughly 65 to 88 per cent of the width and 16 to 84 per cent of the height, with its circle above the midline and the feathers hanging across the lower half, overlapping about the orange, yellow, green and blue bands. The artwork is hand-rendered throughout, and the circle, feather outlines, black tips, joins and line work are visibly irregular. ^[1]

No construction sheet or manufacturing specification has been located; the published file is the artwork of record.

A wide, hand-rendered Progress Pride Flag: six horizontal rainbow bands, a five-colour chevron entering from the hoist, and a large black-and-white feather-and-circle device positioned in the fly half. ^[1]

Usage & Adoption

First Users

Pride YMM (now Wood Buffalo Pride)

Organizations

Pride YMM, now Wood Buffalo Pride (official ceremony flag from 2022) ^[1], Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (flown at Jubilee Plaza) ^[1]

Geographic Usage

Fort McMurray, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta ^[1]

Event Usage

Pride YMM opening ceremonies, Keyano College, from 2022 ^[1]

Current Status

Official ceremony flag of Wood Buffalo Pride; artwork still published and offered for flag production

Official ceremony flag of Pride YMM beginning in 2022; also flown by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo at Jubilee Plaza. ^[1] The sources establish organizational use and municipal display; no record of formal adoption as a municipal flag has been located. Wood Buffalo Pride continues to publish the design and invites others to adopt it. ^[1]

Image Archive

First-party artwork

Later reconstruction

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• The image at Flags of the World is Zachary Harden's 2023 rendering, drawn at 5:3 with the device centred and regularized; it is not Bowers's artwork, which is wider, hand-drawn and carries the device in the fly half. ^[4][1]
• Not the Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag, the same device on the intersex-inclusive Progress base, raised by Cambrian College in Sudbury in June 2022 and documented separately in this archive.

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Wood Buffalo Pride's published artwork

• First-party published artwork, offered for download by Pride YMM, now Wood Buffalo Pride. ^[1]
• Later reconstruction drawn for Flags of the World, 13 September 2023; not identical to the first-party artwork. Used non-commercially with attribution per FOTW's terms. ^[4]
• The first-party artwork as published by Wood Buffalo Pride, 1,771 × 990 pixels. ^[1] · Credit: Mitchel Bowers · Wood Buffalo Pride
• A later reconstruction drawn for Flags of the World by Zachary Harden, 13 September 2023. It is not identical to the first-party artwork: it is drawn at 5:3 rather than the published file's 16:9, and its device is regularized and centred rather than hand-drawn in the fly half. ^[4] · Credit: Zachary Harden, Flags of the World · Flags of the World