Unstoppable in heels: Metis drag queen rare role model for Indigenous and two-spirited

“I’m always terrified when I get on stage. But the second that I start performing, I literally feel like I’m myself,” Trixx told paNOW. “I feel like I’m finally, you know, in my final form, and that I’m unstoppable…the best thing I get out of performing is just happiness.”

While Trixx considers herself first and foremost a Metis person—she also considers herself “a witch’s cauldron” of identities with a mixture of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Russian, German, Ukrainian, you name it, she said—she also feels she could have been more vocal about her heritage in the past.

Going to school at Westmount in Saskatoon, their Metis and First Nation teachings gave her back some of that heritage that wasn’t always celebrated among her family. Now as an adult, she wants to start digging into ways to speak about it and teach others about it, especially through her drag.

“We never really practice anything like cultural. So, you know, looking back on that we probably should have and I feel like I would have benefited a lot more from it.”

Trixx herself took pride and inspiration in Ilona Verley’s performance during season one of RuPaul’s Drag Race Canada. The first Indigienous and two-spirited contestant to appear in either the American or Canadian versions of the show brought traditional elements of Indigenous culture into their dress and performance.

“It was eye opening for everyone. It was huge. It was a big moment,” said Trixx. “Bless her for that, because it was very, very good to really show people who they are as well as you know that, you know, they are here.”

For Trixx, she is finding it challenging at the moment to bring Metis elements into her performance, besides the sash and the infinity symbol that graces the Metis flag. However, she does want to start more research into her heritage so she can bring her Metis identity more to the forefront of her drag.

Trixx is currently touring around Saskatchewan this year with the XYE Drag Collective’s Drag Me Across Saskatchewan tour, Trixx knows that young LGBTQ2S+ people in smaller communities don’t always have someone they can look up to.

No matter where the tour has landed, whether that be in big cities or small towns, Trixx and the other kings, queens, and monarchs have seen big, welcoming, and loving crowds cheer them on.

In the small town and cities especially, they want young people to know there is a whole other world out there for them, said Trixx.

“La Ronge, or Creighton, or in Kindersley, they’ve never had anything pride wise before. So it’ll just be nice to show them that they have options in this world and that they can, you know, really live free.”

While there are very few Saskatchewan drag queens, kings, and monarchs that are also Indigenous or Metis, said Trixx— including former Saskatoon queen Cheryl Trade, who now lives in Vancouver, and fellow YXE Drag Collective performer, Chelazon Leroux—to everyone who is excited to try drag for themselves, Trixx advice? Just do it.

“If you have the opportunity to, do it. Get dressed up…There’s a whole loving community out there that is willing to accept you with open arms.”

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becky.zimmer@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @bex_zim

by Becky Zimmer

Unstoppable in heels: Metis drag queen rare role model for Indigenous and two-spirited

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