A review of how Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., values Indigenous identity in hiring calls for the school to apologize for the pain recently caused by the issue and recommends that all self-declared Indigenous faculty undergo a new process for validating your identity.
The 32-page report by the First Peoples Group, an indigenous consultancy firm, was published on Friday and comes after an anonymous report appeared online last June alleging that six instructors, professors and fellows at Queen’s falsely claimed that are local residents.
The report made seven recommendations, including that the university establish a department of indigenous studies. It also suggests that only those who are qualified, indigenous and have lived experience should be considered for any teaching position to be filled by indigenous people.
He also dismissed a controversial community that has had strong ties to the university for years – the Ardoch First Nation – describing the “strange relationship” as the report’s “raison d’être”.
Three of the people named in the anonymous report are members of the Ardoch First Nation, a non-status community in eastern Ontario.
Queen’s initially defended these individuals, but has since changed its position nearly one hundred local scientists and leaders across North America signed a letter asks the school to take the allegations seriously.
“Ardokh is not a First Nation, although it positions itself as one,” Friday’s report said.
Unless indigenous communities are empowered by their nation to speak on its behalf and adopt its laws and ceremonies, they are merely urban local organization and “cannot confer or imply that citizenship equals indigenous identity,” it adds he.
That stance is consistent with statements by Wendy Jocko, Algonquin chief of the Pikwakanagan First Nation, who previously told the CBC that Ardoch is “not a First Nation” and includes “people who don’t meet any of the criteria for belonging the Algonquin Nation’. “
While self-proclaiming is an important part of Indigenous identity, it has proved “insufficient to create a safe, respectful and inclusive community” at Queen’s, university chancellor Murray Sinclair said. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
The university promises to establish a supervisory board
Queen’s Principal Patrick Dean said in a statement on Friday that the university accepts the report’s recommendations in principle and as a starting point.
“Our immediate response will be to establish an Indigenous Oversight Council to advise the university on issues of Indigenous representation and citizenship,” he wrote.
Dean said council members would come from the lands on which Queen’s was built and help create a “more comprehensive approach” to Indigenous identity.
According to the report, First Nations whose territory overlaps with the Queen’s include the Bay of Quinte Mohawk, the Alderville First Nation, the Pikwakanagan Algonquin and the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg.
In a statement, Queen’s Chancellor Murray Sinclair said the council would be a step towards an Indigenous-led process of affirming identity that does not rely on self-identification – which has “proven insufficient to create a safe, respectful and inclusive community” at the university.
The retired senator and former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission added that change should not stop at employment, calling on the university to develop programs that teach indigenous knowledge, traditions and cultures.
After the report was released, Sinclair told CBC Radio’s Ontario Today that the university had been “rightly” criticized for not having an adequate policy on self-identification — but added that for most of Canada’s history, claiming to be Indigenous, was seen as a “negative thing .”
“This will result in you being treated unequally [and] in a negative way. And so only recently have people started to actively and publicly declare their indigenous identity,” he said.
“The only thing we have to be careful about is that people can take advantage of this – and the willingness of institutions and organizations to rely on [those declarations] only.”
The university said it would establish an oversight board to advise on Indigenous representation and citizenship. (Michelle Allen/CBC)
The report says that many hurt, offended
The First Peoples Group says it has heard from Indigenous people who are “deeply disappointed, hurt and offended”, adding that they are “very concerned about being associated with Queen’s”.
His first recommendation – reached after discussions with the First Nations on whose territory the university is located – is that Queen’s apologize and hold healing ceremonies.
The report called for Queen’s to establish a Department of Indigenous Studies and suggested the recruitment of four instructors, as “one from the East, one from the South, one from the West and one from the North”.
He also discusses the qualifications for teaching Indigenous Studies, saying the authors heard clearly that those without citizenship and experience should not do so.
The process of implementing the recommendations will begin with the formation of the oversight board, and that will “take some time,” said Janice Hill, the university’s vice president for Indigenous initiatives and reconciliation.
“Some of them are very complex and some of them will be easier to implement than others. We will be able to identify with [the council] which ones we can most expediently act on,” Hill told Ontario Morning.
Queen’s, as a colonial institution, does not have the power or right to define who is Indigenous. – Janice Hill, Vice President of Local Initiatives and Reconciliation
The report’s authors said they heard that at a minimum Queen’s validation policy should include citizenship or membership cards, plus a professional recommendation and recommendations from a family member and an elected First Nations, Inuit or Métis leader.
Those who cannot meet the criteria can submit a written history and photos citing relatives no further than their grandparents. The stories will be in the form of an affidavit that will be investigated, the report suggests, and if anything is found to be false, the employment contract will be void.
“Queen, as a colonial institution, does not have the power or the right to define who is indigenous,” Hill said. “It has to be an indigenous-led process.”
Canada’s school system has severed the ties many Indigenous people had to their cultures, which partly explains why it’s difficult for some people to concretely establish their citizenship within a particular community, Sinclair added.
The report notes that opinions on what should happen to staff who do not meet the new queen’s requirements range from finding them alternative appointments at the university to firing them.
“We have heard strongly that people whose identity claims are unproven or may be unprovable will be removed from positions of influence in any local course or program or related field of study,” the report said.
“While it may not be clear what needs to be done, it is clear that something needs to be done.
Add Comment