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Smashing Identity Algorithms, Yes Please LISA BIRD-WILSON
While status registration under the Indian Act is a construct, claiming status identity is an important factor in Indigenous identity and cultural transmission
T
he Joseph Boyden Indigenous identity debacle that started late 2016 and really hit its high notes by 2017 underscores not only the importance of knowing and claiming your heritage accurately, but also of receiving acceptance from your community. Most readers will remember that Boyden, one of Canada’s most commercially successful “Indigenous” authors, was the subject of investigative journalism by Jorge Barrera (APTN) exposing Boyden’s Indigenous identity claims as unfounded. It’s not only about who you claim to be. It’s about who claims you, too. This mantra dominated discussions about Boyden’s claims of Indigenous heritage. Granted, Boyden made some epic fuck-ups, including changing his claims about which Indigenous nation he is from. Boyden’s inability to publicly identify his link and lineage to an Indigenous community, and then his failure to admit his shortcomings, led to widespread rejection of him as an Indigenous writer and legitimate Indigenous voice. Boyden’s was an unpleasant fall to watch, and many of us did so quietly from our own positions of insecure identity. I am an adopted Indigenous person, raised outside my family of origin, cheated by both harmful government policy and poor record keeping that often failed to transfer Indigenous identity rights to the child in adoption; the question who claims you is fraught with anxiety for me. The discussion about Boyden leaves many of us wondering about
standards of identity and if we measure up. Regardless of the ability to be registered as a “status Indian,” or as a member of the Métis Nation, many of us question how we fit into the more subtle identity categories.
L
ynn Gehl’s new book, Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit (University of Regina Press, 2017), is titled partially in response to the Boyden controversy and fallout. The notion of being claimed by a nation or community can be dicey for some Indigenous people who have been separated from their communities of origin through forced adoption, removal of children, alienation, sexist legislation of the Indian Act or a combination of these violent
acts of colonialism. In Gehl’s case, the violence of colonial acts committed by Canada meant her ability to become a registered member of her family’s community and receive benefits under the Indian Act was rejected based on an unknown paternal grandfather who is assumed by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada policy to be a non-Indian person. Gehl took the federal government to court over a sneaky 1985 amendment to the Indian Act that denies full status to children in cases of unknown or unacknowledged paternity, making it difficult for women in such circumstances to pass their status on to future generations. This amendment fails to recognize the realities of sexual violence and domestic abuse faced by Indigenous women. The legacy of historical colonial violence, in the form of residential schools, forced assimilation policies, criminalization of Indigenous cultural practices and so on, has left First Nations women vulnerable. Gehl is clear about her claim to Indigenous identity, stating that despite the fact that Canada denies her registration as a status Indian, and as a result her First Nation denies her band membership, “I myself claim I am Anishinaabe.” Gehl writes, “I do this even though my Indigenous nation is unable to claim me as a citizen or member. I am decolonizing my spirit and claiming myself Anishinaabe.” Current legislation includes complicated rules for registering under the Indian Act. For instance, people registered under section 6 of the Indian Bird's Eye View 59
