She Walks for Days Inside a Thousand Eyes: A Two-spirit Story

by Sharron Proulx-Turner

In she walks for days inside a thousand eyes (a two spirit story), Sharron Proulx-Turner combines poetry and history to delve into the little-known lives of two-spirit women. Regarded with both wonder and fear when first encountered by the West, First Nations women living with masculine and feminine principles in the same body had important roles to play in society, as healers and visionaries, before they were suppressed during the colonial invasion.

she walks for days inside a thousand eye (a two-spirit story) creatively juxtaposes first-person narratives and traditional stories with the voices of contemporary two-spirit women, voices taken from nature, and the teachings of Water, Air, Fire and Mother Earth. The author restores the reputation of two-spirit woman that had been long under attack from Western culture as she re-appropriates the lives of these individuals from the writings of Western anthropologists and missionaries.

Sharron Proulx-Turner creates a new kind of epic as she bears witness to the past. With gracious concern for tradition, and sly, soaring language, she retells a vital chapter from Canada's First Nations story.

Genres: Indigenous, Queer, Poetry, Nonfiction, Native American, LGBT

183 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2008

Reviews

[Elizabeth Richmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a poetic book written by an Indigenous Two-Spirit person for Indigenous Two-Spirit people.

I did not understand a lot of this book, but this book was not written for me so that is completely okay. I didn’t resonate with the words the way that someone else would. The first half was confusing to me but I finally understood the structure in the second half. Because of this, I liked the second half a lot more.

This is not a bad book by any means, just not for me and that’s okay! 3 stars.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

sharron is a powerful story teller - telling the stories that have so long been hidden and repressed. Definitely a book of poems that I will have to come back to again.