With the Art Gallery of Hamilton seemingly out as a venue for a panel discussion on so-called pretendians, outspoken First Nations advocate Crystal Semaganis and others are hosting an event Thursday to discuss the hot-button issue.
Controversy surrounding the previous gallery incarnation erupted after some Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) members took offence to the program’s content and voiced their concerns to the gallery, which temporarily suspended the event.
Now, it seems like the gallery is walking away from being involved in a topic that has created strong divisions between groups like the Chiefs of Ontario and the Manitoba Métis Federation on one side and the MNO on the other.
“At this time, the event has not been rescheduled, and I’m afraid I don’t have any more details to share right now,” gallery spokesman Aaron Lam told MidlandToday. “We recommend checking our website regularly for any updates.”
This week’s virtual discussion will look at “identity fraud and theft” allegedly perpetrated by those, who the speakers consider to be 'settlers' since they may only have one First Nations' ancestor dating back to the 1700s.
“Why is this discussion important and how does race shifting and settler self-identification impact First Nations peoples, Métis people, and the Inuit?” an event notice asked.
Well, it goes on to note that “identity fraud and theft gives settlers” access to opportunities and resources that are specifically set aside for First Nations peoples, Métis people and the Inuit (FNMI).
According to the description, this type of “cultural appropriation” by “settlers” takes advantage of the system by allowing them to secure FNMI employment opportunities along with scholarships and grants for university and college admissions.
The panel, which will discuss how organizations can implement policies and strategies to combat pretendianism, includes Semaganis and University of Alberta Native studies faculty member Dr. Kim TallBear, who is also Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Society.
Also joining the panel are Chippewas of Nawash member and renowned musician Marc Meriläinen and Jeremy Bomberry, a content creator from the Haudenosaunee Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan born and raised in Six Nations of the Grand River.
The panel aims to address the following questions:
- How can settler organizations push back against First Nations, Métis and Inuit identity fraud through policy?
- How can boards of directors and organizational decision makers implement strategies to combat pretendianism?
- How can settler organizations respond to pretendians and descendians?
But MNO chief strategy officer Jennifer St. Germain said none of the panel members have expertise in Métis history or her organization’s work.
“On resource development projects, Métis communities in Ontario are identified by both levels of government as being rightsholders that must be consulted and accommodated,” she said.
“We have been successfully consulted on projects for more than 20 years now, with the first-ever Impact Benefit Agreement for any Métis community in Canada being signed in 2012 by MNO’s regional consultation committee for a gold mine outside of Cochrane. That mine is now fully operational and contributing significantly to employment and economic development in the region.”
The MNO receives more than $200 million in annual funding from the provincial and federal governments, something that upsets Semaganis, who is originally from Saskatchewan but now lives in Temagami.
“They have more funding and programs, post-secondary education dollars than a status Indian does in Ontario and probably more than any in Canada,” she says.
Semaganis says her organization, the Ghost Warrior Society, estimates that only 15 per cent of MNO members “are actually Red River (Métis). Forty per cent are non-status descendants of a First Nation, and the rest are straight-up settlers.”
She said the most significant impact of pretendianism is “settler corporations acting as CPAINs (Corporations Posing as Indigenous Nations), who are fabricating Indigenous consent and bypassing First Nations and signing onto resource extraction in Ontario, with the fraudulent Métis corporations like the MNO at the helm of those exploitations.”
But St. Germain points out that “due to colonial government policies, every Métis government in the country is a corporation” — including the Manitoba Métis Federation, Métis Nation—Saskatchewan, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, the Métis Nation of British Columbia and the MNO.
“The Chiefs of Ontario, Anishinabek Nation and Nishnawbe Aski Nation are also all corporations,” she said. “The government has required many Indigenous governments and provincial-territorial organizations to become corporations to receive funding. It is a strange criticism to make.”
Semaganis, however, isn’t backing down.
“We are noticing a significant increase in requests for research, advocacy and engagement from across the country, mainly organizations who are suffering from toxic work environments and other institutional violence in direct relation to pretendianism,” Semaganis said, adding those with distant First Nations ancestry have “no actual lived experience” as Indigenous people.
“These harms result in the theft of very limited funds set aside for First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Colonial interference by way of impositions like Powley have created massive corruptions and misallocations of our resources,” she said.
But St. Germain counters that the Powley decision by the Supreme Court of Canada followed 10 years of review by the courts, with “14 of the most decorated judges in Canadian history agreeing that the Historic Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community has Constitutional rights” as Indigenous peoples.
“In collaboration with the governments of Canada and Ontario, the six other historic Métis communities were extensively researched for years, culminating in their recognition in 2017,” St. Germain said, encouraging people to read an MNO document, which addresses a range of issues, including the formation of “Métis communities in Ontario (that) began to emerge in the late 1700s around the Upper Great Lakes and along strategic fur trade and water systems in northern Ontario.”
“Following the conclusion of our registry review process in 2023, the MNO now proudly represents exclusively rights-bearing Métis citizens who have proven their ancestral connection to a recognized historic Métis community in Ontario or the Prairies.”