Western University to ask for proof of Indigenous citizenship for some jobs, awards

Scholars, staff and students applying for Indigenous-specific roles or awards at Western University may soon have to prove their connection to First Nation, Inuit or Métis communities or nations.

The move to require proof of Indigenous membership or citizenship has become more common in universities and other institutions as Canadian academic, artistic and literary circles continue to reel from a series of high-profile identity frauds. Western University's senate passed the new policy earlier this month and it is due to be approved later this summer.

"In some places in this country we continue to face racism, bias and forms of aggression, so it's ironic that those who falsely claim this identity for whatever reason benefit from it," said Ray Deleary, who is from Chippewa of the Thames First Nation on his dad's side and Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg on his mom's side.

The notion of non-Indigenous people claiming Indigenous heritage and benefiting from that status has long been a topic of conversation, Deleary said, and it's come into public consciousness with famous people such as author Joseph Boyden and singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie having their heritage questioned.

In 2022, Carrie Bourassa, one of Canada's most esteemed health experts and a self-described Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit woman, resigned from her position at the University of Saskatchewan after a CBC investigation revealed she had no Indigenous roots.

More recently, universities, colleges, and public organizations have set up rules that ask those who apply for roles for which Indigenous heritage is needed to prove their connection to communities in order to avoid ethnic fraud.

Western's policy would require a faculty or staff member applying for Indigenous-specific roles to provide two documents proving their membership to an Indigenous nation or two reference letters from members of their community.

Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims of Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members and a Fifth Estate investigation that included genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts.

Students, including those applying for funding reserved for Indigenous students, will be subject to similar rules.

The policy is a way of "safeguarding against Indigenous ethnic fraud" and is meant to be informed and led by local Indigenous communities as well as Indigenous faculty members, instructors, staff, librarians and archivists. It includes people applying for admission, scholarships or bursaries or other awards, and any other opportunity explicitly designated for Indigenous people or where Indigenous citizens or members are given preference.

"The local Indigenous community has been highly engaged with the development of this policy, as have student and employee groups on campus. With a goal to remain relevant and effective, it is framed as a living document to be formally reviewed at least every three years," Western's Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Initiatives) Christy Bressette said in an email Tuesday.

The policy applies to prospective and current faculty members, instructors, teaching assistants, elders and knowledge keepers.

"Ultimately, it is the Indigenous community who must claim the individual, versus an individual's claim to an Indigenous community," the policy states.

The University of Waterloo adapted similar guidelines several years ago and began using them last year, said John Lewis, the director of Indigenous faculty relations at the University of Waterloo, and an associate professor in the faculty of environment. He's a member of the Timiskaming First Nation.

"The intention is to ensure that when we are providing opportunities for Indigenous peoples, those opportunities are going to people that are citizens or members of rights-bearing Indigenous communities," Lewis said. It's important for the guidelines to include input from local communities and be flexible, he added.

"It's unfortunate that there are people who are not Indigenous that feel the need to co-opt those spaces and colonize them for themselves," Lewis said. "It's important that it's not not the institution that is policing identity.

"We're verifying with the community that the person says they belong to, that they actually legitimately belong to them. The onus rests on the communities themselves to determine and verify who belongs to them."

That does put additional onus and responsibility on those applying, and the communities they come from, to provide proof, Lewis and Deleary said. But it's up to the institutions to make sure they're getting all the information from reliable sources, which makes working closely with communities so important, Deleary added.

"There are organizations out there in this country who have federal or provincial government acknowledgement, but are not acknowledged by the community they come from," he said. "Western University needs to scrutinize the organizations that people are claiming Indigenous membership to. If they're not legitimate nations, then that should raise concern and require them to provide further verification."

In cases where people are disconnected from their communities because of colonialism, people can write a statement that describes how they see themselves within a particular community, the Western policy states.

But it's also important to understand and ask how communities are working with and accepting members, Deleary said. "It's required now more than ever because the issue of individuals claiming Indigenous identity has become more and more rampant," he said.

"It's important that Canadians generally understand that having an Indigenous ancestor generations ago doesn't necessarily make you an Indigenous person...People need to seek out nationhood, language, and what territory they come from. The requirement of claiming an Indigenous nation is much deeper than just having some DNA," Deleary said.

Western has "predominantly relied on unverified Indigenous self-identification processes when hiring and\or selecting Indigenous people for designated Indigenous roles, appointments, and initiatives or providing preference to Indigenous applicants/candidates for positions, admission, scholarships or other material advantages. However, due to growing instances of Indigenous ethnic fraud in the sector, additional measures are now required to safeguard university decision-making," the policy states.

The new policy will be presented to Western's Board of Governors for approval on June 26.