The Medicine Walk
Imagine waking up one morning to learn that someone has assumed your identity. When that happens, you will find that it will leave you bewildered and questioning what kind of person would do such a thing. Your thoughts will be in complete disarray.
The very thought that your life as you know it will no longer be the same rattles the very core of your being. You will be left in such a state of flux that your fight or flight response will go into overdrive. You can run, but where to? You can fight but with whom?
Now imagine if this theft of your person went on for years and that you had a front row seat to the most horrific saga of your life and that it was being produced in real time.
You search for someone to help you fix this situation. Someone to recognize the fraud. But, there is no one. Nobody believes your predicament. No authority exists to track, detain, your abuser. No laws are in place to protect you.
So, your abuser remains free, enjoying the life that was once yours. They benefit from being you by becoming recognized as an entity through employment, status, and wealth.
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I am one of those victims. This fraud is a real part of the lives of Indigenous people in Canada.
As you go about your day, wherever you may reside, non – Indigenous Canadians are self identifying as Indigenous to become employed. They take up spaces meant for Indigenous people.
Recently there has been a spate of well publicized high-profile cases that have resulted in non-Indigenous people being fired from positions meant for Indigenous people after it was proven that they had lied to obtain these positions. Many held these positions for years and had been in decision-making roles which afforded them the right to make changes affecting the lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
One such case is that of Mary Ellen Turpell – Lafond, a former judge and lawyer, who was not forthcoming with her claims of being First Nations (Cree) and born on a Reserve. She had for years, misrepresented herself while employed as an Indigenous professor, lawyer, judge, and an advisor to the Assembly of First Nations. During this time, those who questioned the authenticity of her lineage claims watched in horror as she made changes that would affect First Nations children for generations to come.
She managed to do this over the course of three decades before her story began falling apart. Despite having researchers expose her as a fraud she merely dug in and doubled down on her claims before resigning only months ago from her last position as the director of the University of British Columbia’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. We will one day see how her direct involvement in decision- making as a legislative advocate for Children’s Rights affects future generations of Indigenous children in Canada.
Technically, no crime was committed during her grift. But she did deny many Indigenous people a job, a role in helping to make their people’s lives better using true life experience as their base for decisions.
There are many more. I know of some locally. They are involved in the arts as artists, musicians, actors. Some are involved in politics. Some have won major awards meant for authentic Indigenous people. They are all profiting from their deceit and robbing a people of their identity.
I for one, have not been quiet about it. I have helped to expose many of these grifters right here in Simcoe County, and I will continue to do so. I only wish there were laws to help me and others who choose to protect what little we as Indigenous people have left.
Now, imagine if this were happening to non-native Canadians.