INDIGIPRIDE 2026: Ballroom Pow Wow

About

**INDIGIPRIDE 2026: Ballroom Pow Wow** This Pride season, we center the brilliance, survival, and futurity of **Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans Indigenous people**. From powwow circles to ballroom runways, INDIGIPRIDE 2026: **Ballroom Pow Wow** brings together Indigenous tradition and Ballroom culture in a shared practice of resistance, joy, and collective care. We honor the ancestors who danced before us, the Houses and communities that built refuge and family in hostile cities, and the culture bearers who continue to move us forward, fierce, unapologetic, and alive. This gathering is rooted in the truth that **our bodies are sacred, our joy is political, and our cultures are living**. In a moment of escalating anti-Trans and anti-Indigenous violence, we reclaim Pride as ceremony, as protest, and as a space where Two-Spirit and Trans futures are not only protected, but celebrated. You are on Indigenous land.\ You are in a space of sovereignty, survival, and shared power. \*\*NO PHONES / NO PHOTOS ON THE DANCEFLOOR!\*\* ⫸ **Why It Matters** Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans Indigenous people have always existed, yet our visibility, safety, and access to care remain under constant threat. Across the U.S., hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, most targeting Trans people, are reshaping daily life, healthcare access, and public belonging. Indigenous communities continue to face compounded harm through systemic violence, erasure, and underfunded care systems. INDIGIPRIDE is more than a party. It is a: - **Platform for visibility**, centering Indigenous and Two-Spirit leadership within Pride and Ballroom spaces. - **Site of cultural survival**, where Pow Wow and Ballroom meet without hierarchy, each holding equal power, history, and futurity. - **Call to action**, naming anti-Trans violence, honoring MMIWG2S+ lives, and inviting community-based resistance. - **Fundraising engine**, sustaining healing, care, and storytelling through **Woven Identities**, a holistic program supporting LGBTQ+ & Two-Spirit community members and Survivors of sexual violence. ⫸ All proceeds directly support **Woven Identities**, which provides: - Individual therapy and Survivor-centered talking circles - Monthly LGBTQ+ & Two-Spirit community circles - A land and water-based healing retreat - A digital storytelling workshop and public campaign ⫸**Impact & Intention** Funds raised through INDIGIPRIDE help make year-round care possible paying Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ facilitators, supporting culturally grounded therapy, creating space for healing outside of colonial systems, and amplifying stories too often silenced. Your presence is not symbolic.\ It is material support for survival, healing, and self-determination. ⫸ **Activations & Highlights** ⫸ **Cultural Performance & Ballroom** - Pow Wow dance (Fancy, Jingle) shared on a custom **T-shaped stage** - Ballroom & Kiki categories with Indigenous, Queer, Trans, and Ballroom elders as judges - Open to all Vogue and runway, open to all levels of experience - DJs blending ancestral house and experimental club music ⫸ **Community & Care** - Memorial altar honoring Trans, Two-Spirit, and MMIWG2S+ lives - Spoken moments naming resistance, survival, and collective responsibility ⫸ **Creative Activations** - Screen printing station (wear your resistance) - Photobooth capturing Indigenous queer futurity - Hair tinsel, braiding, and adornment stations - Tooth gem activation ⫸ **Food & Gathering** - Indigenous food offerings, including Indian tacos - Space to eat, rest, connect, and recharge together ⫸ **EXPERIENCES** Performances and activations that may involve fresh fruit, feelings, mild confusion, time-dilation, and enthusiastic consent. We can’t tell you what’s happening yet — only that it will be weird, wild, and wonderful.