Why non-Indigenous support for Joseph Boyden should set off alarm bells – CBC
Jan 26, 2017
‘This is not about blood quantum — this is about who is allowed to speak for Native peoples’
I must admit, until the Joseph Boyden controversy started, I never thought I’d see white men in national newspapers arguing against Canada’s colonial definition of “Indian.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, there is a uniquely Canadian history of rewarding “good Indians” and punishing “bad Indians.”
In case you missed the controversy the first time around, here’s a primer. Joseph Boyden is a literary heavyweight whose books and claims to Indigeneity have made him, in his own words, the “go-to person” on Indigenous issues. The problem is Boyden has recently come under fire for not being Indigenous at all. In an incredible show of investigative journalism, Jorge Barrera has gone over all of Boyden’s various claims to Indigeneity and found nothing conclusive. At last count, Boyden has claimed to be Métis, Nipmuc, Mi’kmaq, Anishinaabe, Moose Cree First Nation and perhaps most ludicrously of all, two-spirited. He has yet to provide proof to back up any of these claims.
