June is a month to celebrate many things. June is pride month and this year Juneteenth was declared a national holiday in the United States. June is also National Indigenous History month in Canada, which has inspired this blog post. The main point of this post is not to talk about the recent discoveries of over one thousand Indigenous children in unmarked graves at residential schools across the country. This is a massive human rights issue and lots of other people are talking about it. Indigenous children were literally ripped from their families and forced into these 'schools' under the Indian Act, ultimately resulting in loss of culture and immense intergenerational trauma. If you don't know about this issue or the basics of the Indian Act, please read or watch something to become more informed. I also encourage you to skip celebrating Canada Day this year as our Indigenous brothers and sisters are in a period of mourning. Rather, this blog post will focus on what National Indigenous History month has come to mean to me, a white settler with Mi'kmaq heritage, which I admit seems selfish given recent events, but I think it is important to discuss during National Indigenous History month.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF NEWFOUNDLAND/KTAQMKUK
Newfoundland is Canada's newest province and operated as a separate dominion until 1948 when a small majority of citizens voted to join into Confederation with Canada. However, no mention was made of Indigenous peoples in the Terms of Union signed between the federal government and the Newfoundland government. Newfoundland became the only province in which Canada decided to entirely ignore its responsibilities to First Nations people. There were many reasons for this including intermarriage with white settlers and most distinctive cultural practices were not retained. There is also a widespread myth known as the Mi'kmaq Mercenary Myth which basically asserts that Mi'kmaq peoples are not Indigenous to Newfoundland but were brought to the island from Cape Breton by the French in order to kill the Beothuk people, another Indigenous group. This myth is extremely harmful as it presumes the Mi'kmaq are responsible for genocide when it was inherently a colonial act. The government of Newfoundland consistently rejected the Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland as Indigenous, even when they joined Confederation and became a part of Canada. This is an injustice and ultimately led to tough legal battles for recognition that lasted decades.
Discussions between the Government of Canada and the Federation of Newfoundland Indians (FNI) led to the Agreement for the Recognition of the Qalipu Mi'kmaq Band in 2008, which was formally established as a band under the Indian Act in September 2011. The Qalipu was a landless band as the reserve system was deemed inappropriate to govern the mixed communities of Newfoundland. Initially, 27,000 applicants were received in the first stage of enrolment and 23, 877 applicants were found eligible and deemed Founding Members. However, the total number of applicants rose to 104,000 by the end of 2013, which is 1/5 the total population of Newfoundland! This resulted in the announcement of a Supplemental Agreement which clarified the process for enrolment and had very specific stipulations for band membership to the Qalipu including frequent visits or communication with other members of the Mi'kmaq Group of Indians and maintenance of a Mi'kmaq way of life through participation in cultural, religious, and traditional activities. Importantly, Newfoundland has a large diaspora population as many Newfoundlanders move away for work. Many felt these new stipulations in the 2013 Supplemental Agreement deliberately denied them membership in the band.
MY INDIGENEITY
In 2011, I was identified as a Founding Member in the Qalipu Mi'kmaq Band. I did not really understand what this meant at the time other than I was 'native' with a status card and would get money to go to university. In 2013, I, like over 5000 other individuals, was removed from the Founding Members list as a result of the Supplemental Agreement. I was confused by this and felt I had been betrayed by the federal government. I personally identified as a non-status Indian after losing my status. Slowly, as my knowledge about Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing expanded, I realized that indigeneity is much more than just having a status card or being able to trace your ancestry levels generations back to a known Indigenous person. It is about resilience and holding onto a traditional way of life when faced with a repressive colonial government. To be frank, I did not participate in Mi'kmaq cultural, religious, or traditional activities in any form. I did not even know what these were until I took the time to research them earlier this year. My lived experience, then, is that of a white settler, so I now identify as a white settler with Mi'kmaq heritage. I do not feel I have a right to claim identity within the Qalipu Mi'kmaq of Newfoundland or any Indigenous group because of my lived experience and what I now know about indigeneity. This journey has been confusing but most journeys of self discovery and identity politics are.
INDIGENOUS BOOKS
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
The Break by Katherena Vermette
Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
I Keep the Land Alive by Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue
As Long As Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Sacred Instructions by Sherri Mitchell
The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
INDIGENOUS FILMS
Awake, A Dream From Standing Rock
-tells the story of the Native-led defiance of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Is the Crown at war with us?
-the Esgenoopetitj Mi'gmag First Nation in Nova Scotia are punished for exercising their inherent and court-affirmed fishing rights, the events of summer 2000 were remarkably similar to what happened in summer 2020.
People of a Feather
-explores Inuit cultural survival in a changing Canadian Arctic.
There's Something in the Water
-explores the disproportionate effect of environmental damage on Black Canadian and First Nations communities in Nova Scotia.
OTHER RESOURCES
Indigenous Canada course offered by the University of Alberta
-from an Indigenous perspective, this course explores key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations.
Follow Indigenous creators on TikTok/Instagram
We must continue to show up, support, and demand justice on behalf of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, especially at a moment as crucial as this. Understand the injustices these people have undergone and whose land you now live on.
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