This column is an opinion by Jenene Wooldridge, a Mi’kmaw author and executive director of L’nuey, based in Epekwitk (P.E.I.). For more information about CBC’s Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
People falsely claiming Indigenous identity for opportunistic reasons is nothing new but the rise in this behaviour, or perhaps the rise in people being discovered, is disturbing.
We remember Grey Owl, the British writer, trapper and conservationist who pretended to be Indigenous after landing in Canada — a fabrication that wasn’t exposed until after his death in 1938.
For more recent examples, we have only to look at headlines in Newfoundland or B.C.
But the truth is
