Mel Lefebvre BIOGRAPHY

 

Dr. Mel Lefebvre (she/they) is a Two-Spirit Michif, Nehiyaw, Irish traditional tattoo practitioner and community worker based in Tiotia:ke/Montreal. A card-carrying member of the Manitoba Metis Federation, some of her Métis family names include Delorme, Desjardins, Guiboche, Vivier, Malaterre, Jerome, and Roque. Her practice is focused on traditional tattooing as a mode of healing and reconnection for urban Indigenous people with a particular focus on 2SLGBTQ+ and Indigenous women as well as reclaiming and imagining traditional gender-fluid tattoos in contemporary and future contexts. 

Mel is mentored by Nlaka'pamux, Métis, Hungarian traditional tattoo practitioner and independent scholar Dion Kazsas and has been invited to gatherings across Canada as well as events and panels to speak on traditional tattooing, creating safe tattoo spaces, and non-binary perspectives and approaches to traditional markings.

Mel is vice-president of the board for the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal advocating for Indigenous justice and safety particularly in Montreal's child welfare system. A writer for over 25 years, Mel's work has been published by The Walrus, MacLean's, Canadaland, Red Rising Magazine, International Journal of Indigenous Health, and Indigenous Perspectives on Child and Youth Care. 

Healing Through Ancestral Skin Marking documents the labour that goes into tattooing, as well as the joy and connection that is created. Mel’s practice is grounded in Michif and Nehiyaw Plains Indigenous worldviews and offers ancestral skin marking as a mode of healing and (re)connection for Indigenous people, and as a Two-Spirit mother and community worker, this skin marking practice has focused on 2SLGBTQIA+ and Indigenous women. Traditional tattooing by Indigenous cultures in so-called Canada was deemed savage by explorers, missionaries and government, with many communities concealing the practice for fear of reprisals by the church and state. Now, a new generation of Indigenous skin markers is reawakening this practice. Through relational ways of being and protocols of kiyôkêwin (visiting), wâhkôhtowin (kinship), kitimahkinawow (pity and compassion), and tâpwêwin (truth telling), she has also developed a new Michif and Nehiyaw tattoo methodology: O and ∆. These shapes carry and enact meanings related to gender, identity’s belonging, transformation, healing, and connecting to ancestral frequencies. Through these symbols we can understand, embody, and practice traditional skin marking as ancestral medicine as we imagine and cultivate bold Indigenous futures.

Mel Lefebvre, Healing Through Ancestral Skin Marking, 2024, photographic prints, video and slideshow.