The indigenous scholar who isn’t indigenous

A fascinating story by the CBC about the leading indigenous legal scholar in Canada. Basically it turns out that she has no Cree ancestry at all – her grandfather once worked in a Cree reservation, and somehow she has interpreted that as being Cree.

The story is very well researched with lots of interviews and documents scanned.

This is not a unique story in Canada:

Recently in this country, claims to Indigenous ancestry by a number of high-profile people in academia, the arts and other sectors have been questioned.

For example, a 2016 APTN story about author Joseph Boyden raised doubts about his claims to Indigenous ancestry. A 2020 CBC investigation raised similar concerns about filmmaker Michelle Latimer. In October 2021, CBC revealed that Carrie Bourassa, Canada’s leading Indigenous health scientist, appeared to be of entirely European ancestry.

Fortunately we don’t seem to have this issue in New Zealand.