Memorial University has recently come under scrutiny by some Indigenous students and groups about its proposed Indigenous verification process updates.
The NunatuKavut Community Council says it has major concerns with the process.
Consultations are currently ongoing regarding the proposed changes.
Vianne Timmons
Catharyn Andersen, the vice president Indigenous at Memorial University, says the ongoing consultations are meant to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
She says the need for an updated Indigenous verifications process, and the ongoing consultations, were established after the high-profile incident at Memorial in 2023 about then-president Vianne Timmons’ claims to indigeneity.
At the time, the Board of Regents said it would put an Indigenous round table in place.
“The board asked for my support in putting that round table together,” says Andersen.
“Over the course of a number of weeks, we realized that a round table wasn't going to work. Then we switched gears and looked at hiring an external independent Indigenous consultant to support the work of consultation.”
Information gathering
She says gathering information was a priority for the university. In November 2023, Memorial contracted First People’s Group to lead consultations instead of the initial round table.
“There was never a round table. There was a lot of public discourse around what the university should do around this and who should be at the table. A lot of students were saying that they would like to be at the round table as well,” she says.
“Ensuring that there is consistency throughout the consultations, a set of questions was developed, and all of this went through the Vice President's Advisory Committee for Indigenous Affairs and then also approved by the President's Executive Council.”
First People’s Group is in charge of leading the consultations and walking through the questions.
Current process
Andersen says the current process for Indigenous verification is fragmented.
“We haven't had a policy; it's been through self-identification. There have been a couple of hiring processes where we've implemented a step beyond self-identification, where we've asked applicants to provide a statement of self-identification along with the letter of support from their community," she says.
“For students, for designated seats in a number of programs, they have asked for documentation...in the form of a card, but also it could be a letter from their community, it didn't doesn't need to be a formal piece of document.”
Andersen says Indigenous groups and students want Memorial to do more than self-identification. She says that comes as a result of a large number of high-profile cases of people falsely claiming Indigeneity.
Equity
Andersen says a proper verification process is required to ensure that Indigenous students can use the available resources.
“The university has a number of equity initiatives in place for Indigenous people. The Truth and Reconciliation Report, amongst other things, has identified the legacy of not only residential schools but also other assimilation policies where indigenous peoples in this country have been disadvantaged," she says.
“We have things like designated seats to ensure that we have Indigenous peoples in programs like medicine or nursing or social work. We have Indigenous-specific scholarships to increase accessibility to post-secondary education."
No policing
Andersen says Memorial is not looking to police Indigenous identity, and says they don't want to decide who is or isn't Indigenous.
“This is not something that Memorial is looking to have control or authority over. We're looking to communities in terms of how they recognize who belongs to them. We're not the ones determining who is and is not Indigenous," she says.
“The process will be about confirming or verifying so that we're looking to a community who has their own process of determining who belongs to them and who doesn't.
“If (a) person already belongs to this group. And they have membership or citizenship in this group, if they can demonstrate that, then it's not our position or role or authority to say yes or no to what that community has already decided.”
She wants to assure students and members of the community that Memorial does not seek to police Indigenous identity.
“This policy is not about policing Indigenous identity, if someone says I'm Indigenous, we're going to say, ‘OK, you need to go through this policy.’ It's about people who are applying for these scholarships or seats or research funds. We just want to make sure that these things are going to Indigenous people,” she says.
NCC speaks up
NunatuKavut Community Council’s (NCC) president, Todd Russell, has a different view on the matter. NCC is a self-proclaimed Inuit group representing approximately 6,000 southern Labrador Inuit.
“It was at that time that I was informed that Memorial University was going through a verification, this policing process around identity. That we're going to form a working group, or a task group, made up of the Indigenous organizations in the province,” says Russell.
He says that has soured the relationship between NCC and Memorial, saying that relations in the past were thriving and growing.
Harmful
Russell says the impacts could be long-lasting and harmful.
“We have faculty –– Indigenous faculty –– at MUN. We have Indigenous staff at MUN. We can only come to the conclusion that it was politically motivated and politically driven. The university did not go through that process of having the Indigenous groups represented,” he says.
“Isn't this so similar to residential schools? They are de-indigenizing, taking the Native out of the Native, and whitening them if you will. It is absolutely atrocious. It is hurtful. It is harmful and it has no basis in Indigenous law.”
Russell says NCC has made recommendations to Memorial about the issues that may arise, and says First People’s Group has been made aware of them as well.
Respectful discussions
He says the discussions with First People’s Group were respectful, but says Memorial needs to stay out of policing Indigenous identity.
“We have said that they have to go back and have a conversation and have a process where they actually deal with the issue of false claims. Stay out of the business of the Indigenous self-determination and self-governance. It is only us that could determine this,” says Russell.
Meanwhile, Andersen says NCC was allowed to voice concerns and comments, similar to every other Indigenous group in the province.
She says NCC was the only one to find issue with the process.
“They had the consultation and they acknowledged that it was mutually respectful, but they identified that they don't agree with this process. They speak to some of it in their press release, but I can't speak on behalf of NCC,” she says.
Sanuda Ranawake is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering Indigenous and rural issues.
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