Photos by Jah Grey

Nenookaasi Ogichidaa, or hummingbird warrior in Ojibwe, is a two-spirit powwow dancer who is Black, Ukranian and Ojibwe, a First Nation based in Canada and the U.S.

Two-spirit is an umbrella term that Indigenous people from North America use to describe their place on a spectrum of genders and sexualities. Neno goes by two sets of gender pronouns: they, their and them, as well as she and her. For Neno, its important to be identified by those pronouns as they navigate the world.

TORONTO When Nenookaasi Ogichidaa dances fancy shawl, its like watching a butterfly in flight, looping and spinning through the air.

Nenookaasi, or Neno for short, wear a yellow shawl, blooming with fiery wings that trails into fringes. On their feet are handmade moccasins, decorated with flames and enforced with reclaimed leather from couches dumped curbside.

A nearby Chinese lion dance performance begins and the sound of the pounding drums carry. Neno takes off in circles. The butterfly spins.

I missed this so much, they say.

Neno is dancing in front of a Medicine Wheel outside Torontos City Hall. A recent addition , the wheel is a tribute to Indigenous peoples living on the land now known as North America.

For First Nations and Inuit communities, its four colors symbolize, among other things, the emotional, spiritual, mental and physical components of wellbeing.

Neno describes dancing as their medicine work and the joy it brought was essential to their recovery from a car crash in 2009.

Under their shawl, they wear a pullover hoodie . Across their chest are the words, Resilient And Relentless words that Neno embodies. Depending on how you meet the 37-year-old, youll see a different side to their resilience. How you refer to them may change, too. Neno looks at gender pronouns as descriptors of responsibility.

Theres the powwow dancer who blazes through gender norms . The mental wellness navigator who works with Black and Indigenous communities in Ontario. The artist standing alone on city streets at night. The queer woman in love, who gushes over her wife and three kids (four, if you count Ra, the recently adopted puppy who joins us for the day, too).

Being two-spirit, its not about gender roles. Its about the responsibilities that we play. And sometimes those responsibilities, they is appropriate, Neno says. When Im doing advocacy as a woman, thats really important.

Two hours before their dance, our interview starts at an urban conservatory in Toronto thats open to the public year-round. Its one of Nenos favorite places, and its here that I am introduced to the activist, who stands their ground.

During our conversation, two employees approach us. We are told that using my phone to record our conversation breaks policy. The sleeping puppy Neno cradles does, too.

This is your place of [work], I understand that. But this is a public place paid for by taxpayers, Neno points out. Were having conversations right now, were allowed to do that.

Around us, several unbothered visitors snap photos of tulips and palm trees with DSLR camerasprofessional photography is barred without a permit on city-owned property. Given the unfairness of the scrutiny, I ask if Neno wants to leave.

No, lets keep doing this. I cant pause every time somebody else is feeling uncomfortable around me, they say.

Neno regularly encounters the uncomfortable. As a person of mixed heritage, theyve struggled with their sense of self. Growing up, they were estranged from their Ukranian roots and were the only mixed person in their Jamaican family. Whitewashed, was what people called them when they spoke. When Neno started coming to Indigenous community gatherings, they werent seen as someone who belonged. They took to referring to their identity as Black-Nish (Nish referring to Anishinaabe a collective term for culturally related First Nations in Canada and the United States).

Folks would ask, How are you native? I would say, My left toe is native. Im tired of explaining and going through my genealogy tree, they say. We know a lot about slavery, we know a lot about Indigenous genocide and colonization. But we dont talk about how they merge with each other.

Through the Americas, across Turtle Island , Neno says, referencing an Indigenous term for the continent that predates North America, Theres Black Indigenous people . Its [hardly ever] talked about.

Nenos plurality as a Black Indigenous person of Ukrainian descent is something they refuse to stifle. That extends to their two-spirit identity.

As Neno told HuffPost Canada , they didnt like powwows gender confinement: men and women are expected to only perform certain dances, wear certain outfits. Their hopes to show their fluidity between gender responsibilities by wearing both male and female regalia were dismissed.