Indigenous faculty ‘validated’ by verification calls

Several Indigenous academics say calls for Queen’s University to apologise and create a process to verify the Indigenous identity of staff are validating and could be a promising step forward, write Michelle Allan and Nicole Williams for CBC News.

The recommendations come from an independent review of how the Kingston, Ontario, university evaluates Indigenous identity when hiring people. They follow allegations that multiple people associated with the school were falsely claiming to be Indigenous.

Celeste Pedri-Spade, associate professor and Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Studies, said she felt “validated” by the report. The 32-page report from First Peoples Group, an Indigenous advisory firm, addressed “the clear concerns that many Indigenous stakeholders had”, said Pedri-Spade, “particularly around how the institution was not necessarily implementing ways to ensure that people were who they say they were”.
Full report on the CBC News site