Challenging Indigenous identity fraud in academia must name and focus explicitly on structures of whiteness, white entitlement and settler colonialism so we don’t recreate the harms of past policies.
Queen’s University recently released its highly anticipated report after a year-long exploration into the institution’s approaches to indigeneity.
This critique based on cards and status is confusing, as the report is clear that individuals who have been disconnected from their communities due to colonialism have other avenues to demonstrate their genuine, integral connections. The report highlights the fact that we need a better understanding of race, Indian status and indigeneity in Canada.
But the word is actually a modern portmanteau that has gained traction with an established body of critical academic literature. Characterizing all individuals who have been called “pretendians” as simply people who don’t qualify for Indian status is misleading and has contributed to a rise in “anti-status” rhetoric that is, quite frankly, racist.There are hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people across this country who are visibly racialized and not only hold Indian status, but also carry the trauma of generations of Indigenous family members who have endured the Indian Act and many other forms of colonial violence.
Misclaiming ‘non-status’ Ongoing efforts to challenge Indian status exclusion show us that there’s a massive difference between 1) someone who is a non-status First Nations person and 2) a white settler who has perhaps one or two Indigenous ancestors from before the concept of Indian status was introduced.
Institutions that aim to advance equity, anti-racism and decolonization must centre the principles of integrity, truth and structural transformation. They must ask pressing questions like: Do your Indigenous employees include racialized, gender-diverse and socioeconomically diverse Indigenous people?
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