About

All Mno–kwezenhs go to the Spirit World

Shanese Indoowaaboo Steele is an Afro-Indigenous 27 year old, Fat Femme living and learning on the traditional unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin people. Born in Milton, Ontario during a time when diversity meant there was a chinese food restaurant, Shanese endured racism and violence at the hands of children who didn’t know what to do with a Brown little girl with hair bigger than her body. In 2001, along with her mother and her brother Shanese moved to Toronto where she was finally able to connect to Black and Indigenous people outside of her tight-knit family.

With a Black father from Trinidad, with roots in Carriacou, Grenada and a Mixed mother of French and Native ancestry with ties to Nipissing First Nation and the Red Sky Independent Métis Nation, Shanese navigates the world as an Afro-Anishinaabe Kwe. Being Black, Native, Queer and Fat in a world that says all of these things should not exist Shanese uses writing as an outlet to express her fears, joy and dreams.