The Borderlines of Indigeneity
Comparing the Indigenous Experience in Canada and the United States with Professor, Dr. Kim Tallbear
Dr. Kim Tallbear isn’t saying that Indigenous life is better in Canada compared to the United States. But after nearly six years of living across the colonial divide, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor does have some opinions about the similarities and differences of the Indigenous experience in both countries.
Indigenously timed an interview with Tallbear as the Canadian government officially observes Indigenous Peoples Month. The June designation began in 2009, but Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada — June 21 — has been a national holiday with origins dating back 25 years.
This year’s commemoration fell on the heels of a raw discovery in late May: the bodies of 215 children in an unmarked mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. This week, new reports surfaced of more bodies detected at another school in the province of Saskatchewan.
The weight of the residential school legacy is emblematic of the visibility that Indigenous affairs has in Canada, a country known for its progressive politics in contrast to the U.S. Other cries for justice, such as the “Missing and Murdered” movement in Canada, have also addressed…
