Indigenous icon Buffy Sainte-Marie’s identity was brought into question by a CBC investigation, her Piapot family says the accusations are “ignorant, colonial – and racist.”
- IninewCrow ( @ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ) English36•11 months ago
As a 100% full blooded Ojibwe-Cree … this whole thing is messed up.
It doesn’t matter what the Piapot family says about the matter … Wab Kinew did the same thing for Boyden during that controversy
As an indigenous person, the whole message I get out of all this is that …
- As Indians, we have to fight to be anything - and most of the time we’ll lose
- As whites, they can be whatever they want as long as they make money
I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by Native people who could only dream of being white and like the majority of Canada and live without stigma, or shame for who they are … as a young person, I didn’t like the fact I was a brown Indian who was looked down upon and thought that I would never live up to anything
It’s completely sickening to watch a privileged white person who had everything going for them to make a decent career and take on the identity of a people that didn’t want to be who they were and use that as a shortcut to make millions for herself and everyone that supported her.
She built her career on our misery … she built her wealth on the image of our poverty … the Piapot family don’t mind the controversy and moral ambiguity because they probably stand to gain a bit of fame and fortune from it all, I’m sure Santamaria has some financial rewards to share with them … as for the rest of us Indians, we’re left with the bitter taste of knowing that white people can still say and do whatever they want to us and get away with it.
It’s a pretty sick and disgusting situation. I was feeling good in my life as an Indigenous person until today … now I feel like I did years ago as a teenager wondering why the hell I should keep identifying as an Indian when it hangs a like a curse for me and a blessing for a white person.
- whoisearth ( @whoisearth@lemmy.ca ) 5•11 months ago
As a white person, specifically a white man, all I can tell you is I’m here to listen. I hope as much from everyone else but sadly I doubt this is the case.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) 10•11 months ago
Lol, you don’t need a qualifier to listen
- whoisearth ( @whoisearth@lemmy.ca ) 3•11 months ago
I respectfully disagree.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) 8•11 months ago
It just comes off as you hitting on them
I’m not like other guys, see how understanding I am!
- whoisearth ( @whoisearth@lemmy.ca ) 3•11 months ago
Ok?
- nyan ( @nyan@lemmy.cafe ) English23•11 months ago
Ultimately, this is about who gets to police Indigenous identity, and regardless of whether the answer to that is “each tribe can decide its own membership” or “some significant number of Indigenous people have to agree”, it’s obvious that the correct answer is not “the government established established by European colonists decides” or “the news media decides”. The people involved need to argue it out. The opinions of those of us who aren’t Indigenous or claiming to be really aren’t important.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) 1•11 months ago
The answer is obviously the government because they are the ones with the resources to do so
- nyan ( @nyan@lemmy.cafe ) English6•11 months ago
I think your average First Nation can scrape together enough bureacracy to keep track of a few thousand members. Most of them aren’t huge groups.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) 1•11 months ago
But the average First Nation isn’t going to have the resources to enforce that Canada wide
- nyan ( @nyan@lemmy.cafe ) English5•11 months ago
Why does there need to be a single Canada-wide definition? We’re not talking about “who gets a government-issued status card” here—people can be unambiguously Indigenous and still not have one of those. We’re talking about who can stand up in a public venue and say “I’m Indigenous” without causing a scandal, and who gets to decide that.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) 1•11 months ago
We’re talking about who can stand up in a public venue and say “I’m Indigenous” without causing a scandal, and who gets to decide that.
What’s to stop someone from doing that
- nyan ( @nyan@lemmy.cafe ) English2•11 months ago
The fact that no single individual can control the “scandal” part.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) 1•11 months ago
I mean, what’s to stop anyone from claiming ancestry
How can people in Iqaluit monitor those claiming their status in Ontario?
It’s unfair and unreasonable to leave it up to the tribes
- bbbhltz ( @bbbhltz@beehaw.org ) 11•11 months ago
The “Notable Examples” section here is much longer than I expected:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretendian
This must be so hurtful to some people, I can’t even imagine. The CBC investigation looks thorough. A response like this is just weak.
- whoisearth ( @whoisearth@lemmy.ca ) 4•11 months ago
On “Day 6” this morning on CBC Radio One they had a Metis Lawyer on who estimates the amount of “Predentians” to be about 25%. That number is huge.
The problem is, as she states in the interview, that there are no winners in this only losers.
- corsicanguppy ( @corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ) 5•11 months ago
Making up rules on the spot is a pretty weird way to handle things like genetic testing. But I’ve lived on the coast.