What does it mean to reclaim gender traditions my ancestors practiced before colonization?

There's a particular kind of power in claiming what was taken or erased. Sor Juana lived in a moment when indigenous knowledge was being systematically suppressed, yet she wrote anyway—documenting, preserving, insisting on the value of what colonizers wanted invisible. Reclaiming ancestral gender traditions works similarly. Before European contact, many indigenous nations had roles and identities beyond man/woman: Haudenosaunee nations honored people across the gender spectrum; many Pacific Northwest nations had recognized gender-variant people; Navajo nation has a living two-spirit tradition. Reclamation isn't about perfection or performing authenticity for others. It's about researching your specific nation's history, listening to elders and community members who've kept these traditions alive, and asking what resonance these frameworks have *for you*. It might mean ceremonies, it might mean language, it might simply mean knowing your ancestors had words and spaces for people like you. Start with curiosity rather than pressure. Your nation's traditions belong to you, and the work of remembering—even fragmentary remembering—is its own form of resistance and healing.