Jesse Wente, who worked as a producer on the screen adaptation of The Inconvenient Indian, speaks in a heartfelt and thoughtful way about the personal and professional impact of King's admission.
Listen to the podcast episode on Commotion, or a slightly edited Youtube video version, both linked in the CBC article I'm linking to below.
The fall out from Thomas King's admission last week continues.
Tanya Talaga writes:
"The searing harm of Mr. King’s story...is that it plants doubt into the many sisters and brothers out there who want to find us and come back home. It leaves other truly Indigenous authors overlooked. It crowds out our own truthful stories from education curricula, from the zeitgeist, from Canadian arts spaces. It also makes the racists and denialists smile."
Robert Jago takes a more critical view, writing in today's Toronto Star that the "revelation of King’s true ancestry was far from a surprise to Indigenous people. This has been a persistent rumour in Indian Country for years."
Jago quotes from a Facebook post by "Crystal Semaganis of the Ghost Warrior Society (a Pretendian hunting organization)" that "He was trying to get ahead of an imminent public relations disaster"
Wow. Famous Canadian author Thomas King recently discovered that he is not indigenous.
King grew up believing his father was part Cherokee. His acknowledgement of this newly learned truth in Monday's Globe is a sharp contrast to Buffy Sainte Marie's refusal to address conflicting genealogical records.
But these stories are all so damaging and painful to both Canada and its indigenous communities.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-most-inconvenient-indian/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-most-inconvenient-indian/
I'm sure many have you have heard the buzz about #thomasking...he's not #cherokee at all, not #indigenous, and never was.
According to King, he's devastated by this knowledge claiming he never knew and this has given him an identity crisis.
What do you think? Is he a #pretendian? Or was it honestly a case of mistaken heritage?
#ToxicPeople in #BritishColumbia preying on multiple Indigenous communities in Canada thread. Feel free to add your own, similar toxic shitbuckets of Canada to my list - which will be updated with other pathological liars running their shitgames all over BC.
This one is a mentally unstable, unmedicated bipolar nutjob who abandoned her only child & has lived out of motels/car for several years. Sex work is how she gets money. I have nothing against sex workers except for ones like her who try to traffick vulnerable young native girls & desperate older native women to get into sex work too - when they don't want to. I have a lot against ANYONE who tries to buy people with money & gifts as well - this is her way to get in with multiple naive ppl.
This #pretendian claims to be Cree. She is not #Indigenous whatsoever.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/buffy-sainte-marie-awards-1.7477741
Good. She's a thief, a fraud, and a liar. She stole these accolades, millions of dollars, fame and fortune from deserving authentic Indigenous talent.
I don't care what she did for #indigenous people, she did it as a #pretendian and that negates the whole thing. She crafted herself as Indigenous when she saw there was a profit to be made.
Disgusting.
Beverley Jean Santamaria, #karma always kicks your butt. I hope you're ashamed of yourself.
Earlier this week, Buffy Sainte-Marie returned her Order of Canada: “It was very lovely to host the medals for awhile, but I return them with a good heart,” she says.
She stated that she is an American Citizen, and has always "made it completely clear" to the federal government she was not Canadian.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cp-buffy-returns-order-of-canada-1.7474435
In her first statement since she was stripped of the award, the singer-songwriter says that she's an American citizen and holds a U.S. passport, but was adopted as a young adult by a Cree family in Saskatchewan.
Buffy Sainte-Marie has now also been stripped of her Polaris Music Prize, her five Juno Awards, and her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Sainte-Marie recently confirmed that she is an American citizen, not a Canadian citizen. Questions remain around her Indigenous identity. Apparently, the awards have been stripped because she doesn't meet eligibility requirements.
Buffy Sainte-Marie has been stripped of her Order of Canada appointment. First reported in the National Post [1]
If you are new to the story, for more context, I recommend watching the original 2023 CBC investigation by The Fifth Estate [2]
And counterbalancing that by reading Michelle Cyca's article "What's the Point of 'Pretendian' Investiations?" [3]
[1] https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/buffy-sainte-marie-order-of-canada
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMsqCWNCUc4
Philip Kiff
Rachel W.
Ms. Que Banh
