Indigenous Identity Fraud with Kim Tallbear

Department of Anthropology faculty and graduate students may join in-person facilitated event in the Boardroom AP246; or join online at: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81686225164 

Learning Series on Indigenous Identity in North American Academic Contexts

Background: There is a serious and timely need to better understand the issue of Indigenous identity within academic contexts on this continent. This need reflects the broader challenge of how North American scholarly institutions engage with current conceptions and practices around Indigenous identities.

This learning series addresses the particular issues attendant on persons who self-identify as Indigenous, but with no demonstrable connection to an Indigenous Nation, in order to obtain status as students, faculty and/or researchers within North American scholarly institutions. We recognize that the term “Indigenous identity” encompasses a complex set of understandings about authority, place and belonging that are informed by multiple worldviews and sociopolitical tensions. We also recognize that in North America, “Indigenous identity” is bound up with the political and legal rights of Indigenous Nations, which are enshrined in statutes, treaties, and judicial and administrative rulings dating back to pre-confederation and pre-constitutional times.

Here we focus more narrowly on the particular challenges faced by university scholars and administrators in navigating the field of Indigenous identity as it relates to faculty and student recruitment and experience. In our departmental community there are gaps in our understanding about Indigenous nationhood and belonging that make us, to a degree, complicit in the perpetuation of opportunities for such misrepresentation. Lack of understanding enables Indigenous identity fraud, erases Indigenous North Americans and Nations, and thus furthers the objectives of settler colonialism. This learning series is designed to address those gaps and assist us to approach the topic of Indigenous identities in ways that best support our current and future Indigenous colleagues and students.

Learning series resources REVISED 19 Sept 2025.pdf
 

Learning Series Events (no registration needed)

Thurs Oct 9, 2025
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Facilitated discussion via Zoom with guest Shannon Simpson, Senior Director of Indigenous Initiatives, University of Toronto
(In-person facilitated event available for Dept of Anthropology graduate students, refreshments provided, location AP246)
Meeting Link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/89241133787

Fri Nov 14, 2025
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Presentation and Q&A with guest Prof. Kim Tallbear, Professor, Department of American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
(In-person facilitated event available for Dept of Anthropology graduate students, refreshments provided, location AP246)
Meeting Link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81686225164