Kyle Shaughnessy

Bachelor of Social Work, University of Victoria, 2008
Master of Social Work, Dalhousie University, 2021

Kyle Shaughnessy is a trans and Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer educator, social worker, and writer of Tłı̨chǫ Dene, Irish, and Ukrainian background. Originally from the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and rural BC, he has a deep appreciation for experiences and knowledge generously shared with him in his time now living on unceded Coast Salish lands. Kyle has primarily worked within queer, trans, and Indigenous communities throughout his career and has a professional background as a community developer, advocate, clinical educator, curriculum designer, and educational consultant in both healthcare and academic settings. He first developed an interest in Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer community ethics when completing his MSW research in 2021, which focused on cultural values held and practiced by Two-Spirit educators and facilitators.

Reimagining queer Dene ways of being: Connecting land-based ethics and queer kinship values in Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer Dene communities.

Indigenous worldviews and land-based ethical frameworks, such as the Dene Laws, originate in ancestral knowledges gained from surviving and thriving in specific lands and climates. These land-based ethics provide cultural guidance for cultivating and sustaining good relationships with land, community, and self and include principles such as sharing what you have and showing love and respect for our kin. In contemporary queer spaces there are also distinct kinship values practiced and shared among community members, these are often developed in response to a need to survive and thrive amidst a socio-political climate of various forms of hatred and censorship. This is evidenced through generations of inventive strategies for protecting our capacity for collective safety, pleasure, love, joy, and connection through community activism, mutual aid, and underground networking.
Through gathering stories of kinship and survival from queer Dene community members, this research project proposes to hold up the cultural principles practiced and articulated through Dene land-based knowledge and queer kinship strategies, examining how they intersect, complement, and have potential to serve one another in their respective movements. How does Dene land-based knowledge support queer surthrivance? How can queer kinship practices support Dene land justice efforts? In sparking conversations on Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer resiliency from a nation-specific lens, this research provides opportunity to reimagine powerful narratives for queer Dene futurity.

Crosschild, R., Kucheron, R., Liboiron, M., Shaughnessy, K., Whetung, M., Simpson, L., Wilson, A. (2025). Bringing everybody into the circle: Queering Indigenous land-based education. Krill, S. R. and Skavinski, K. P. (Eds.), Bebías Into Ǫhndaa Ke: Queer Indigenous knowledge for land and community. Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Shaughnessy, K. (2025). Standing gay on the shoulders of my ancestors. Krill, S. R. and Skavinski, K. P. (Eds.), Bebías Into Ǫhndaa Ke: Queer Indigenous knowledge for land and community. Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Shaughnessy, K. (2021). “The complexities of family rejection“. Herriot, L. & Fry, K. (Eds.), Trans youth stories: An intergenerational dialogue after the “trans tipping point.” (pp. 35-45). Women’s Press.

Shaughnessy, K. (2021). Indigenous cultural resurgence through Two-Spirit teaching and learning practices [Dissertation, Dalhousie University]. Library and Archives Canada.

Hoogensen Gjørv, G., Kendall, S. S., Christensen, J., Dudeck, S., Greaves, W., Habeck, J. O., Hossain, K., Winsnes Johansen, T. M., Kukarenko, N., Nicol, H. N., Òmarsdòttir, S. B., Sergunin, A., Shaughnessy, K., & Vladimirova, V. (2021). “Security” (chapter) in Pan-Arctic report: Gender equality in the Arctic. Arctic Council.

Saewyc, E., Mounsey, B., Tourand, J., Brunanski, D., Kirk, D., McNeil-Seymour, J., Shaughnessy, K., Tsuruda, S., & Clark, N. (2017). “Homeless & street-involved Indigenous LGBTQ2S youth in British Columbia: Intersectionality, challenges, resilience & cues for action”. Abramovich, A., & Shelton, J. (Eds.), Where am I going to go? Intersectional approaches to ending LGBTQ2S youth homelessness in Canada & the U.S. (pp. 13-40). Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press.

Shaughnessy, K. (2016). “Name game: Being seen in my entirety”. Sharman, Z. (Ed.), The remedy: Queer and trans voices on health and health care. (pp. 25-29). Arsenal Pulp Press.