Piapot First Nation acting Chief Ira Lavallee says the legendary singer and songwriter should take a DNA test to provide a definitive answer about her heritage.
The evidence presented is pretty damning anyway. I question whether it even matters at this point, though, given that a sovereign first nation has claimed her.
It matters because pretending is basically a form of racism, she took home prizes and recognition that should have went to actual first Nation by birth artists, she saw the status as a mean to boost her career, that’s disgusting.
Yeah, it’s not great, but it’s up to the nations (or at least should be) to determine who’s one of their own. Imposing blood quantum is still not a great way to organise society.
And? I’ve never seen anyone anywhere argue otherwise. Even the original CBC article pointed that out pretty clearly.
(Although I’ll point out the Piapot First Nation has recently come out to say her name isn’t on their membership role, so apparently the claims there are highly tenuous).
The problem isn’t that Ms. St.-Marie claims to be native because she was adopted as an adult not a native community — it’s that she has claimed for decades that she was a 60s scoop survivor, born on a Canadian reservation and adopted by white parents — none of which is true. She’s changed her story about her heritage multiple times, at times claiming she knew and visited her indigenous birth mother regularly, and other ties (like now) claiming she doesn’t know who her indigenous birth mother is. She’s claimed to have been from multiple tribes — all before being adopted as an adult into the Piapot First Nation family.
If I had been adopted as an adult by a black family, that wouldn’t give me the right to go around claiming I was a runaway slave from the pre-Civil War southern US, who came to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Ms. St.-Marie doesn’t (and shouldn’t) get a pass for her lies.
She isn’t native by heritage — and that is what she’s been lying about for decades, and that is what people have a problem with. If she “feels” native by adult adoption she just had to say so, and not lie about her actual heritage for the last 50+ years.
Yep, and then she convinced a nation to adopt her back. It sounds like said nation might be reconsidering (based on other comments), but if they don’t she’s as native as the next person.
I mean, if they wanted, it’s within the rights of a sovereign nation to literally sell citizenship to the highest bidder; Monaco does it. This case isn’t nearly that mercenary, but either way if we say self-governance we should walk the walk as well.
That could be true if this was also racist.
The way I see it is she either idolized the First Nations and wanted to be one so much she made it up. Or she just saw an opportunity to make money and/or be more successful.
If she thought First Nations were less than others she wouldn’t identify herself as such to gain something in society.
If I’m racist I don’t want to be one of them or be closely associated to them, it could be shameful, disgusting or insulting.
That’s true cultural appropriation we’re talking about here, not just dressing up but pretending to be one of them, she might not have thought of it or herself as racist or harmful to them, it doesn’t make it any less so.
She basically stole two awards from first Nation communities at the 2018 Junos.
If blackfaces is racism then I don’t know how you can pretend this isn’t.
The evidence presented is pretty damning anyway. I question whether it even matters at this point, though, given that a sovereign first nation has claimed her.
It’s that same sovereign nation’s acting chief asking for a DNA test. It’s between them now.
Oh really? The plot thickens!
It matters because pretending is basically a form of racism, she took home prizes and recognition that should have went to actual first Nation by birth artists, she saw the status as a mean to boost her career, that’s disgusting.
Yeah, it’s not great, but it’s up to the nations (or at least should be) to determine who’s one of their own. Imposing blood quantum is still not a great way to organise society.
And? I’ve never seen anyone anywhere argue otherwise. Even the original CBC article pointed that out pretty clearly.
(Although I’ll point out the Piapot First Nation has recently come out to say her name isn’t on their membership role, so apparently the claims there are highly tenuous).
The problem isn’t that Ms. St.-Marie claims to be native because she was adopted as an adult not a native community — it’s that she has claimed for decades that she was a 60s scoop survivor, born on a Canadian reservation and adopted by white parents — none of which is true. She’s changed her story about her heritage multiple times, at times claiming she knew and visited her indigenous birth mother regularly, and other ties (like now) claiming she doesn’t know who her indigenous birth mother is. She’s claimed to have been from multiple tribes — all before being adopted as an adult into the Piapot First Nation family.
If I had been adopted as an adult by a black family, that wouldn’t give me the right to go around claiming I was a runaway slave from the pre-Civil War southern US, who came to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Ms. St.-Marie doesn’t (and shouldn’t) get a pass for her lies.
She isn’t native by heritage — and that is what she’s been lying about for decades, and that is what people have a problem with. If she “feels” native by adult adoption she just had to say so, and not lie about her actual heritage for the last 50+ years.
Agreed.
She didn’t say she had been adopted by them, she said she was born from first Nation parents and adopted into a white family!
Yep, and then she convinced a nation to adopt her back. It sounds like said nation might be reconsidering (based on other comments), but if they don’t she’s as native as the next person.
I mean, if they wanted, it’s within the rights of a sovereign nation to literally sell citizenship to the highest bidder; Monaco does it. This case isn’t nearly that mercenary, but either way if we say self-governance we should walk the walk as well.
That’s not racism at all, this is a type of fraud.
One doesn’t exclude the other.
That could be true if this was also racist. The way I see it is she either idolized the First Nations and wanted to be one so much she made it up. Or she just saw an opportunity to make money and/or be more successful. If she thought First Nations were less than others she wouldn’t identify herself as such to gain something in society.
If I’m racist I don’t want to be one of them or be closely associated to them, it could be shameful, disgusting or insulting.
That’s true cultural appropriation we’re talking about here, not just dressing up but pretending to be one of them, she might not have thought of it or herself as racist or harmful to them, it doesn’t make it any less so.
She basically stole two awards from first Nation communities at the 2018 Junos.
If blackfaces is racism then I don’t know how you can pretend this isn’t.