What are ‘pretendians’ and how are they causing ‘severe harm’ to Indigenous communities? | 24CA News
If you’ve been on-line over the previous few months you will have observed a phrase increasingly more individuals are utilizing: “pretendian.”
Not solely in Canadian conversations, however south of the border too — with the loss of life of Sacheen Littlefeather final fall — the dialogue of who can and might’t declare Indigenous id is turning into mainstream. But what does it imply when somebody is accused of being a pretendian?
“It’s a tale as old as time,” mentioned Veldon Coburn, an assistant professor on the University of Ottawa and an Algonquin from Pikwakanagan First Nation.
“There’s always going to be someone opportunistic and unscrupulous that will try to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone.”
The time period “pretendian” is used to explain somebody who claims to be Indigenous, however isn’t.
A pretendian may declare their great-great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee princess. They may broadly say they’re Indigenous — which is an umbrella time period for First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals — however are unable to be extra particular as to how. They may even have a tenuous and really distant hyperlink to an Indigenous relative, or don’t have any ancestry in any respect.
The time period has turn into fashionable in recent times in Canadian popular culture. In 2016, creator Joseph Boyden’s heritage got here into query after he claimed to be Métis, Mi’kmaq, Ojibway and Nipmuc and confronted a storm of criticism from Indigenous individuals who mentioned he isn’t a part of any of these communities.
In 2017, Boyden penned a bit in Maclean’s defending himself, saying he had “spit into plastic tubes” for a DNA take a look at that confirmed he’s a “mutt” with some Indigenous blood.
Last October, former Saskatchewan choose and B.C. youngsters’s advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s claims of being a member of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation have been discovered to not match the historic file, following an investigation by the CBC.
Turpel-Lafond maintains her id, although she is now not a regulation professor on the University of British Columbia and has returned a few of her honorary levels.
Some organizations have rescinded their levels or awards, with the newest on Thursday being the BC Civil Liberties Association.
“Turpel-Lafond’s misrepresentation regarding her purported Indigenous ancestry must also be contextualized within the greater, widespread pattern of Indigenous identity fraud, and the severe harms that it causes,” the affiliation mentioned in an announcement.
UBC declined to touch upon its dealing with of Indigenous self-identification for workers or whether or not its course of would change.
Other current topics of investigation embody Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer, whose claims of being Algonquin with ties to the Kitigan Zibi First Nation have been additionally disputed by the CBC in 2020.
Latimer later wrote on her weblog that she’d employed an instructional who discovered her to be a “direct descendant” of a vanished group of French Canadians dwelling along with Algonquins.
Carrie Bourassa left the University of Saskatchewan after a 2021 CBC investigation claimed she had no Indigenous ancestry regardless of her claims to be Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit.
She maintains her Métis ancestry, and has denied taking positions or funding from Indigenous individuals, saying her profession has been constructed on benefit.
Read extra:
Peaceful demonstration at USask after Dr. Carrie Bourassa positioned on administrative depart
Mary Jane McCallum, a Cree Senator from Manitoba, has referred to as for a federal committee to review Indigenous id fraud.
“People don’t really look at identity theft,” she mentioned in a Feb. 16 interview with The Canadian Press.
“It’s almost like an invisible crime.”
Not sufficient Canadians understand the hurt attributable to individuals who declare Indigenous id with out proof, McCallum mentioned, nor how some individuals with respectable ancestry are nonetheless preventing for recognition below the Indian Act.
“There will always be those people that look into the gaps and … start to use indigeneity as a source of power,” she mentioned.
Why are there so many pretendians?
Comedian and playwright from Curve Lake First Nation Drew Hayden Taylor is intimately conversant in the idea of pretendians. He’s been writing about them for years and his documentary The Pretendians explores every little thing from pretend Indigenous artwork to pretendians’ tendency to be discovered within the arts and academia.
While many issues weren’t stunning throughout his analysis and filming, Taylor mentioned one factor stood out.
“The vast majority of people who have been outed, and I’m using air quotes, are usually smart, intelligent, talented people that could have made a very successful career for themselves without claiming to be Indigenous,” he mentioned in an interview with Global News.
“So I’m attempting to determine, why? Why did they latch onto (a declare of Indigeneity) once they didn’t want it?“
He’s provide you with three causes: belonging, monetary advantages and household lore.
“First, everybody likes to belong, right? … They like to belong to a group of people that have similar concerns. And let’s face it, being Indigenous in this day and age has a certain amount of exoticism and appeal to them,” he mentioned.
“The second is obviously certain financial benefits, from getting cheap gas or cheap cigarettes up to the higher levels of writing books, making films, getting important positions in academia, society, organizations, companies, etc.
“And the third, in many ways, is the most common: family lore. You have a grandfather who says, ‘Oh yes, I believe my great grandfather had some native blood,’ and they tend to believe that and it becomes part of the family identity without anyone bothering to check it out.”
While universities, corporations, grant workplaces and organizations take care of the rising consciousness of Indigenous id fraud and the necessity to take allegations round pretendians significantly, there isn’t a cut-and-dried reply on how finest to maneuver ahead.
“You’re serving two masters where yes, status cards, etc., have been instituted by the government as a method of colonization, but there is a certain amount of backing to those to those cards in terms of heritage and stuff like that,” mentioned Taylor.
“And yet I can totally understand people saying, ‘I don’t need a status card to be Indigenous.’”
Coburn has some concepts on how one can root out a pretendian, understanding the lengths individuals will go to.
“Ask them to specifically identify their community. And you can probably look up their governance and perhaps make a brief inquiry. But then there’s also the fact pretendians are creating fake communities, too,” he mentioned.
Read extra:
UBC regrets dealing with of Turpel-Lafond, as she loses honour at completely different college
Last fall, Métis lawyer Jean Teillet printed a report for the University of Saskatchewan exploring Indigenous id fraud that many individuals in Indigenous communities have considered because the gold customary for hunting down fakes.
Teillet’s report outlines the crimson flags to be careful for, and mentioned it’s time for employers to maneuver past self-identification and take steps to confirm an Indigenous’ individual ancestry.
“There may be a more relevant word than identity,” Teillet wrote.
“Citizenship, relationship, and kinship speak to who claims a person, not who the person claims. Look for the markers of identity – a name or clan, responsibilities, the ability to give gifts, and accountability.”
Most Indigenous individuals agree establishments have to transcend believing a surface-level declare and never be afraid to ask for proof.
Added Taylor: “The concept of how important family is to First Nations communities, that’s usually the first thing that does in a pretendian — the lack of real, substantial family connections.”
