Fonds SC536 - Aiyyana Maracle fonds

Aiyyana Maracle (1950-2016) was a transgender Haudenosaunee artist and educator, born on Six Nations territory near Grand River, Ont., to Leonard and Kitty Maracle. She was one of six children, and was assigned male at birth. After her family was evicted from the reservation—due to her father’s lack of official Indian status—they moved to Rochester, N.Y. then Buffalo, N.Y. Maracle later became estranged from her family, and spent time in Vancouver, Toronto, Chippewa territory, and Montreal. She married and had four sons before beginning her gender transition at age 40. She underwent gender reassignment surgery in Brussels in 2010, and ultimately returned to Six Nations territory with her son. She was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she treated with medication and therapy.

Maracle was a multi-disciplinary artist, whose art explored her experience as a First Nations person and created and directed performance art, theatre pieces, and art installations. Her performance art includes “Gender Möbius” at grunt gallery (1995) and an untitled piece at “LIVE at the End of the Century” festival (1999). In 1992 she began curating queer and Indigenous arts festivals, including The Queer Series/Two Spirit Festival (grunt gallery, 1993) and women @ the front 30th anniversary exhibition (Western Front, 2003). She won Canada Council’s 1997 John Hirsch Prize for “the most artistically exciting new director of promise in Canadian Theatre.” She was also a seamstress, filmmaker, and painter, and created her garments and sets for her performance work.

As writer, Maracle wrote an unpublished autobiography, Chronicle of a Transformed Woman, as well as plays, exhibition anthologies, and essays, such as “Journey in Gender” published in torquere (2001). She took her MFA at Goddard College (2003-2005). From 2002 to 2007, Maracle taught courses and delivered guest lectures at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Concordia University, and other Canadian and international universities. She returned to Six Nations territory in 2010 and from 2012, she co-facilitated Gender Journey, a peer support group in Brantford, Ont. She passed away at her home on April 24th, 2016.