Decolonization, Indigenization and Reconciliation: Companion Resource Guide

Part 1 is a recording of the keynote delivered by podcast regular Kim TallBear at the Wabano Symposium: “Who We Are: Exploring Indigenous Identity." Part 2 is a discussion of the ideas covered in the talk.

"Today, we make space for grief: to mourn what Buffy meant in the Indigenous community, to learn why stories like this do so much harm and find out where the Indigenous-led solutions lie to find our way forward." Featuring Indigenous expert commentators Lori Campbell, Shaneen Robinson-Desjarlais and Michelle Cyca.

As our stories, history, music, art and culture grow in popularity – so do the people who want to belong. How do we determine who belongs and how do we weed out those who want to take advantage of the almighty funding dollar? Dr. Winona Wheeler and Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie join the Aunties to wade through the weeds on pretendians and identity.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of high-profile figures accused of falsely claiming Indigenous identity, of being “Pretendians.” These cases have become big news stories, but they have big real-life consequences, too. Misidentifying as Indigenous can have financial and social consequences, with the misdirection of funds, jobs or grants meant for Indigenous peoples. Vinita delves into it all with two researchers who look at identity and belonging in Indigenous communities.

With issues of identity reaching a fever pitch of late, we thought we’d take its temperature. From Michelle Latimer’s contested claims to Indigeneity, to an ever-growing, quasi-underground list of Alleged Pretendians, not to mention a Twitter tempest over light-skin privilege, we’ll break down what’s at play and what’s at stake.

Punishment for Pretendians: the back half of our extended look at colonial cosplay. And if part one was all about the problem, this part’s all about solutions. Just what is to be done about all these faux First Nations actors, authors and academics? What mechanisms might we use, and by whose authority? Does it make sense to target all the players, or would it be better to re-write the rules of the game?

Michelle Latimer was the buzziest Canadian director and showrunner of 2020. But it all came crashing down in December when a CBC investigation called into question her Indigenous identity claims.

Queen's University quickly rejected the findings of an anonymous report accusing six people associated with the school of misrepresenting their Indigenous identities. That prompt dismissal has raised questions about the non-status Ardoch Algonquin group, and the controversial academic from the U.S. who co-founded it.

Can a DNA test make me Native American? As direct-to-consumer ancestry DNA tests gain popularity and narratives of “discovering” or “proving” Native American ancestry through DNA swirl through the media—what does that mean for Indigenous nations? ...

We talk to Dr. Kim TallBear - a citizen of the Sissteon-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota - about Native identity and the importance of relationships in determining belonging.

In this episode, we sit down with Yellowhead Associate Fellow Damien Lee to learn more about what's driving federal moves to restrict the principle to Status Indian kids only—in other words, to only those kids Canada deems 'legitimately' Indian, regardless of who First Nations themselves claim as citizens.

Explores the topic of cultural appropriation—it’s become such a buzzword, but what is it, really? Conversation ranges from the infamous white savior photographer Edward S. Curtis to Halloween.

New controversies represent an increasingly popular pastime: grasping at the furthest branches of a family tree in search of an Indigenous ancestor. And in the ambiguous zone between Indigenous citizenship and Indigenous ancestry... a crisis of disinformation is taking root.

Indiginews First Person article. Proximity does not equal kinship, and one simply cannot claim to be Indigenous based on family lore.

Opinion piece by the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national representational organization for Inuit in Canada. Misrepresentation gives pretenders an advantage over both non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples

IndigiNews First Person. Discussing identity can be confusing and even shameful — and that’s exactly how Canada wants it.

CBC Opinion piece from November 2021 by the Dean of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, also a Métis from the Parkland region of Saskatchewan. What is it about university structures that allows these dynamics to continue?

The issue that gets lost in ethnic fraud cases is how they require the participation of the mostly White cultural and academic institutions who hire them. Opinion piece in Hyperallergic. Fung is "a writer and organizer working across intersections of histories and identities."

APTN Nation to Nation interview with Kim TallBear.

A round table with Metis scholars and students to discuss the impacts and complexities that fraudulent claims to Metis identity have had at the University of Saskatchewan and in the Community.

As a small child, Nakuset was taken from her home in Thompson, Manitoba and adopted into a Jewish family in Montreal. The story of how she reclaimed her Indigenous identity, with help from her Bubby.

Explores the complex issue of self-identification for Indigenousl people. (2015)