Description

EMBRACING 9GENDERS: A Global Perspective on Gender Diversity

Michael R H Parsons & Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov

DROKACADEMY PRESS · Forthcoming June 2026

“Gender is not a fixed identity but a dynamic, fluid, and multifaceted experience. Embracing 9Genders invites us to challenge traditional binary models and embrace a more inclusive, spiritually grounded approach to understanding what it means to be human.”

— Parsons & Kondrashov

Overview

Across generations and continents, cultures have long recognized that gender is far more expansive than the male-female binary Western society treats as universal. The sacred Two-Spirit traditions of Indigenous North America, the revered Hijras of South Asia, the honoured Māhū of Hawai’i, and the celebrated Fa’afafine of Samoa all bear witness to a truth that colonial frameworks have systematically erased: gender has always been diverse, fluid, and spiritually alive.

Embracing 9Genders: A Global Perspective on Gender Diversity is the first book to present Mike Parsons’ ancestral 9Genders teaching, received through ceremony and gifted through tobacco, as a rigorous, globally contextualized framework for understanding gender. Co-authored with Dr. Oleksandr Kondrashov and published through DROKACADEMY Press, this landmark volume challenges readers to move beyond tolerance toward genuine understanding: of gender as a sacred, living reality encompassing physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions.

With nine chapters rooted in ancestral knowledge, Indigenous research methodologies, and global cross-cultural scholarship, this book does not merely describe gender diversity; it reclaims it.

What This Book Offers

Embracing 9Genders is not a standard academic text. It is a living document that weaves together:

✦ Ancestral Knowledge — The 9Genders framework as received through ceremony by Mike Parsons, a pipe carrier and Ancestral Knowledge Keeper

✦ Global Scholarship — Cross-cultural evidence from Indigenous North America, South Asia, Polynesia, Hawaii, Indonesia, Navajo Nation, and beyond

✦ Decolonizing Theory — A rigorous critique of how colonialism erased gender diversity and a roadmap for reclamation

✦ Spiritual Grounding — Gender as negotiated in the spirit world before birth and expressed through lifelong sacred identity

✦ Research as Ceremony — Indigenous methodologies that honour relational accountability, land, community, and ancestors

✦ Practical Application — Reflection questions, terminology guides, and frameworks applicable across social work, healthcare, education, and advocacy

The 9Genders Framework

At the heart of this book is a framework that recognizes nine distinct gender identities, each a unique combination of physical traits, emotional expressions, relational roles, and spiritual energies:

1. Male with Male Spirit

2. Male with Female Spirit (Two-Spirit — physical male)

3. Male with Non-Binary Spirit (Two-Spirit — physical male, non-binary)

4. Female with Female Spirit

5. Female with Male Spirit (Two-Spirit — physical female)

6. Female with Non-Binary Spirit (Two-Spirit — physical female, non-binary)

7. Non-Binary with Female Spirit

8. Non-Binary with Male Spirit

9. Non-Binary with Non-Binary Spirit

This framework moves beyond identity labels to honour the interplay between the physical body and the spiritual self — understanding gender not as a biological assignment but as a sacred and dynamic journey.

The 9-Chapter Journey

1	The Evolution of Mike’s Understanding through the Grandmother Moon Paradigm Mike Parsons’ personal journey of reclaiming Indigenous identity through the cyclical Grandmother Moon Paradigm, the spiritual foundation from which the 9Genders framework emerged.
2	Student Placement at the AHA Centre: Embracing Ceremony and 9Genders in Research How Indigenous research methodologies, ceremony, and relational accountability were woven into a student placement at the AHA Centre (CAAN), shaping a new model of community-grounded inquiry.
3	Embracing 9Genders: A Global Perspective on Gender Diversity The 9Genders framework in a global context, drawing on diverse cultural traditions to show how gender diversity has always been integral to human societies, and how colonialism suppressed it.
4	Gender Terminology through the Lens of 9Genders A redefined vocabulary for gender identity, expression, and fluidity, challenging male-female distinctions and building an inclusive language for the full spectrum of human experience.
5	Spirituality through the Lens of 9Genders Gender as sacred and fluid: pre-Christian beliefs about spiritual gender roles, the idea that gender is negotiated in the spirit world before birth, and how spirituality supports healing for marginalized identities.
6	The Masculinity Dimension of Gender Masculinity reimagined beyond patriarchal limits, exploring male with male spirit and male with non-binary spirit, critiquing toxic masculinity, and proposing a balanced, emotionally open understanding of male identity.
7	The Femininity Dimension of Gender Femininity as expansive and multidimensional, honouring both strength and nurturing across female with female spirit and non-binary with female spirit categories, transcending rigid traditional roles.
8	The Non-Binary Dimension of Gender Non-binary identities in spiritual and cultural context, the mental health implications of binary-enforcing societies and the sacred recognition of non-binary persons in pre-Christian teachings worldwide.
9	Research as Ceremony: A Sacred Process of Inquiry Research is positioned as a ceremonial act, honouring relationships between people, land, and ancestors; decolonizing traditional research methods; and centring the voices of marginalized communities.

Purpose and Significance

This book is significant on four interconnected levels:

Cultural Reclamation | Reclaims non-Christian and non-Western understandings of gender erased by colonialism, reopening space for identities that have always existed.

Spiritual Insight | Introduces spirituality as an essential, not optional, dimension of gender and sexuality, offering a framework where SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, and sex characteristics) are understood as lived sacred experiences

Inclusive Framework | Centres Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Indigeneity (DEII), providing affirmation for non-binary, genderfluid, bi-gender, transgender, and Two-Spirit communities long excluded from mainstream discourse.

Global Reach | Draws on cultural traditions from Indigenous North America, South Asia, Polynesia, Hawai’i, Indonesia, the Navajo Nation, Māori communities, and beyond — demonstrating that gender diversity is a universal human reality.

Who This Book Is For

Scholars, Academics & Students — Gender studies, Indigenous studies, cultural anthropology, social work, and allied fields

Social Workers & Therapists — Practitioners working with gender-diverse individuals seeking a non-medicalized, culturally grounded framework

Healthcare Professionals — Clinicians and medical charting teams rethinking how health systems represent all gender identities

Educators & Curriculum Developers — Those building gender-inclusive teaching at every level

Activists & Advocates — People advancing gender justice, Two-Spirit rights, and decolonized understandings of identity

Community Elders & Knowledge Keepers — Traditional knowledge holders and ceremony leaders working with gender-diverse youth

General Readers — Anyone ready to expand their understanding of gender beyond what colonialism taught them

What Makes This Book Unique

Received Through Ceremony

The 9Genders framework was not constructed in a university, it was received through ancestral teaching and gifted through tobacco. Mike Parsons brings it forward not as an invention but as a reintroduction of knowledge that has always belonged to the community

Which was gifted to him by his ancestors.

Research Embedded in Ceremony

Chapter 9 goes further than decolonizing research methods, it presents research itself as ceremony, conducted within sacred protocols that honour community, land, and ancestor. This is not adaptation of Western methods but a return to the old ways of gathering knowledge.

Genuine Co-Creation

Co-authorship between Mike Parsons (Ancestral Knowledge Keeper, handler of a 7 year pipe, and person living with HIV/AIDS) and Dr. Oleksandr Kondrashov (Ukrainian-born Canadian academic and DROKACADEMY founder) reflects a genuine bridge between ancestral knowledge systems and academic scholarship, neither subordinated to the other.

Global-Local Integration

The book holds local Ancestral/Indigenous teachings alongside cross-cultural evidence from Māhū, Fa’afafine, Hijra, Nádleehi, Calabai, Calalai, Takatāpui, and other gender traditions worldwide, demonstrating that the 9Genders vision resonates across human civilization.

Reflection-First Pedagogy

Every chapter is anchored by reflection questions that invite readers to examine their own assumptions, identities, and practices, making this book as useful in a workshop circle as in a graduate seminar.

Key Reflection Questions

The book invites readers to sit with these guiding questions:

• How has the binary model of gender shaped your understanding of identity, and what would it mean to let that go?

• What spiritual dimensions of gender have you encountered in your own life or the lives of those around you?

• How has colonialism shaped what we believe to be “natural” about gender?

• In what ways can the 9Genders framework help you create more inclusive spaces, in your work, your practice, your community?

About the Authors

Michael R. H. Parsons

Michael Parsons is a TraditionalAncestralist first and a researcher second, a distinction that ensures ceremony always leads and research gets woven in. A pipe carrier, Ancestral Knowledge Keeper, and person first diagnosed with HIV in 1986, Mike returned to social work education after his niece died by suicide, channelling grief into advocacy and scholarship. He is the originating vision holder of the 9Genders framework, which he received through ancestral teaching and has carried forward through CIHR-funded research, conference presentations across Canada and internationally, community workshops, and — now — this book. Mike presents regularly at research-based conferences and participates on multiple CIHR funded projects. He is a founding voice of research being done within ceremony.

Dr. Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov

Sasha Kondrashov is a Ukrainian-born Canadian and award-winning professor at Thompson Rivers University, with over 20 years of teaching experience and more than 7,000 students taught across multiple Canadian universities. His research spans social work education, social policy, trauma-informed practice, and Ukrainian diaspora studies. Dr. Kondrashov is the founder of DROKACADEMY — a creative and educational platform that publishes accessible resources for learners locally and globally. As a co-investigator on CIHR-funded 9Genders grants and co-presenter at international conferences including CAHR 2024 and the UArctic Congress 2024 in Norway, he brings rigorous academic partnership to Mike Parsons’ ancestral vision. Learn more at https://krasun.ca/9-genders/