In late August, two news articles were released alleging Dr. Julie Nagam (University of Winnipeg) had no connection to the Métis identity she had claimed for a decade. Despite this, Dr. Nagam and her research partners, such as the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Inuit Futures (Concordia and University of Victoria) and IIF/Abtec (Concordia), had cashed in on millions of dollars of reconciliation arts and academic grant funding. This is also in the wake of several other high profile “Métis” artists and academics who have been accused over the last 2-3 years of also lacking clear connections to the “Indigenous” identities they claim.
Canadian academic, arts, and cultural institutions are uncovering a difficult truth: the industries we consider to be “Indigenous” are composed primarily of folks with tenuous claims to Indigenous identity, and lesser so by actual Native peoples. Through my research, I’m learning the “pretendian” phenomena is by design. We are slowly recognizing that a field that disconnects itself from “race” as a central facet of Indigenous identity in Canada, especially in the Canadian prairies, is purposeful, so as to include folks with shifting identity claims under the guise of “sovereignty” (Beyond Blood, Pamela Palmeter, 2011). We are learning from the testimony of students and communities that the “Indigenous” peoples at the highest positions in Art and academia are often the ones tasked with gatekeeping actual Natives, to maintain their power and reputations.
Yet, these “pretendians” in “Indigenous” industry do not reflect the will of Native communities. We’ve heard endless talking heads on the news speaking in metaphors around their own relationships to these issues. But what do communities actually feel (not think)? In an effort to centre community, as opposed to academic will and individualistic careerism, I want to compose some of the things I have heard from the communities of Native peoples actually grieving ~the pretendians~.
- We have all been impacted by pretendians. If you know a Native person who has worked in Art, academia, or another Canadian professional field in the last several decades, you know someone who has been impacted in some way by pretendians. When members of Native communities tell the media that this has been going on for generations, they are not exaggerating. Nothing any non-Indigenous person within the institutions wherein we work could say — or apparently do, otherwise it would have already been done — will change the impact of this reality on our communities, or take away the harm done. No non-Indigenous person has anything to add to this conversation that would be more ethically sound than the voices of Native communities, who have proven they are exceptional at speaking their truths, and do not need institutions or institutional actors to speak for them. Even when it comes to “what to do” about pretendians, I’m not hearing that communities want “punishment,” at least in the way institutions want it. When you don’t believe in a criminal injustice system that has resulted in the shooting deaths of six racialized Indigenous men and boys over the last month, why would you believe that same system would bring healing to your peoples? No one wants calls outs, and conflicts that bring more harm to Native lives. I truly believe any Native person approaching this issue would probably be humble enough to admit they, alone, do not have the answers; especially regarding communities that aren’t their own. Yet, many institutional actors move through this conflict as if they are afraid of getting cancelled within the institutions where they work. Personally, I think that exhibits a psycho-paranoid white-coded way of thinking. Because I think all communities are saying is, tell me who you are, or we have to detach. The consequence is literally just not being colleagues or friends anymore. Why won’t these institutions do that without taking a pound of our flesh first, through unjust processes that represent the interests of the accused. While this might be difficult for non-Native saviors to respect, in the end, what Native communities do about pretendians is not their choice.
- It is not Native communities’ “responsibility” to do anything more than grieve. The impact of pretendians cannot be automatically associated with complicity on the part of Native peoples. Pretendians have equally infiltrated themselves into community space (colloquially called getting “ceremony’d in”) and institutional space. The hurt is large, and communities will be determining pathways towards healing for years to come. During this period, Native peoples are not entertainment for white art worlds. What Art sees as “gossip” or “drama” is actually deeply felt by Native peoples, and represents spiritual abuse. These are our f*cking lives, even when we leave work for the day or close Instagram. We deserve the privacy to heal, without the watchful eyes of pretendian Insta accounts like @ / artworldraceshifters, run by white women trolls who just want to touch us.
- Institutions, on the other hand, should be experiencing the full weight of their harmful hiring and funding practices, and their impacts on Native sovereignty. Institutions need to make space for healing and consultation with Native nations, not “Indigenous” advocacy organizations like the Indigenous Curatorial Collective, to make this right (until those advocacy organizations have clear mandates that are approved independently, not by consultation companies but by wide consultive processes with Native nations). Funding institutions like the Indigenous Screen Office, SSHRC, and Canada Council for the Arts need to be publicly accountable and transparent with communities through meaningful engagement and healing, if they seek to continue to represent Native nations in their funding programs in a way that is ethical not exploitative.
- When does hurt become complicity? I also don’t want to infantilize Native peoples like Canadian institutions have, or posit that Native people don’t have to be accountable for the company they keep (because that’s literally my teachings); especially considering that proximity to Native people is often what affords pretendians their power within Canadian institutions. Over the past four years, I’ve had to grieve a personal and professional relationship with someone who turned out to allegedly be a pretendian. I think talking about this publicly was a huge step towards healing for myself and my communities. I’m freeing myself from them, and everything they extracted from me for years. Let me tell you a similar story. Joseph Boyden had a father who truly believed he was Native. He taught Boyden his whole life that he, too, was Native. It wasn’t until Boyden was an adult that he was confronted with actual Native folks, who began to question who he is, and where he is from, as is common kinship practice. Boyden couldn’t back up his claim to Indigenous identity, outside the fantastical blood myth that had been taught to him by his father. Yet, in the absence of any family history to show he indeed belonged, Boyden refused negations of his identity claims, and pushed forward for decades publishing what many consider to be the foundation of the modern “Indigenous” literary canon. Despite outcry from Indigenous communities, the institutions of Canadian publishing and Art supported Boyden for decades, so much so that he became a kind of monstrous figure. Even if your family has believed it is Native for the last two generations, I think when someone is approached for kinship, it’s an opportunity to keep relating. If you don’t have a “family tree” or recognition from a Native nation to support your claims, and even your closest communities are asking you for kinship and clarity, and yet still push forward leading Indigenous knowledge in Canada, likely to save your career, that’s hurt. No matter how many Natives support you, that’s abuse of proximity to Native communities. While figures like Darryl Leroux took up too much undo space in the 2000s with masculinist scholarship about Indigenous identity claims, he is proof that one can reflect on criticism about an “Indigenous” identity claim, and still heal with Native communities once realizing the claim is not founded. When word spread that Boyden is allegedly a pretendian, Wab Kinew came to his defense, defending him against racialized Native peoples, and arguing Boyden was his “adopted brother.” Similarly, if a Native person ignores community pleas for kinship, and defends pretendians from kinship and healing, likely to suffer their own ego, that’s hurt. That’s rupture. Now that we are widely discussing pretendians as Native peoples in policy, we all need to be community-facing in our responses, otherwise we are just another shield of the institution.
- No one needs to get fired. Pretendians and their liberal “Indigenous” supporters are often afraid that meeting healing with accountability is a failure. This is another psycho-paranoid colonial lens that comes from their academic teaching. They’re afraid they’ll get fired or lose prestige. Cree teachings tell us that we always make mistakes in this world. We can always renew our relationships through humility and healing. Why are academic Natives so above their own laws? No one said anyone needs to get fired. These people could also just stop applying for Indigenous funding, and misrepresenting themselves. They could apologize and admit they made a mistake. And we could be publicly transparent about how we will move forward in a way that upholds sacred laws in our work, so as not to reify imperialism in “Indigenous” art and research.
Jas M. Morgan 