Who gets to teach?

Janice Arthur | Jun 30, 2021

It has been heartening in recent years to see the rise of many articulate , principled indigenous voices in Canada, whether in the arts, in politics, or in law. They have taught us and shamed our colonial past. And this Canada Day our patriotism requires some reflection.

There have been other voices teaching us here in the Frontenacs for the forty three years that I have lived here, and longer. Harold Perry, Bob Lovelace and the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation have defended the ancestral manomin in the Mississippi River, have nurtured it for a century. They defended the Mississippi watershed at Robertsville against uranium mining, and were willing to go to prison for it. They have consistently stood by their traditions and made many of us proud to be their neighbours. It is their voices that have told me about Anishnaabe culture and what miigwetch means.

Now, very one-sided accounts on CBC have publicized an anonymous complaint, alleging that Bob Lovelace, teaching at Queens University, and others have misrepresented their indigenous roots to take advantage of academic positions. Bob has never claimed Algonquin blood, only adoption into AAFN , and pride in that. The CBC went on to quote the Golden Lake chief, Wendy Jocko, who declares that Ardoch is not a First Nation, without elaborating on the history of non-status communities before and during the land claim process.

Golden Lake, now named Pikwakanagan, was given reserve land in 1873, but that was denied to more southern Algonquins, despite promises. The colonial process has created longstanding tensions between status and non-status communities. "Status" is a federally invented term, and does not necessarily reflect loyalty to traditions.

I hope, then, that whoever is in an academic position to teach indigenous history and culture will teach it as effectively as Bob Lovelace has. In any case, miigwetch to Bob and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.

Janice Arthur