Canada Lacks Authority to Legislate Extinction of Indians
I am in the process of editing my doctoral thesis into a book that will be published either late this year or early next. The topic is Aboriginal citizenship and how we need to think about Aboriginal identity and belonging in a different way. Canada has legislated our individual (status) and communal (membership) identities for so long that many of us have internalized the colonial views about what it means to be an Indian. I am a Mi'kmaq woman and traditionally, my identity had nothing to do with status and everything to do with culture, language, practices, beliefs, customs, common ancestries, histories and territories. Today, unfortunately, for all practical purposes Canada controls status which largely controls band membership and therefore "recognized" identity. Some of us have forgotten what it means to be Mi'kmaq, Mohawk or Cree and instead concentrate on Canada's Indian status, blood quantum, hair colour, or reserve residency as the only indicators of Abor