A discussion with Mi'kmaq lawyer Pamela Palmater

While I was searching the Internet for information on Native membership codes, I stumbled upon Non-Status Indians, a website that has codes from across Canada as well as information on governance, identity and legal issues affecting Natives.

 

The site is run by Pamela Palmater, a Mi’kmaq lawyer who is also a professor and Chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University in Toronto. While in Toronto two weeks ago for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts festival, I jumped at the chance to sit down with Palmater and talk with her about her work on Native identity.  

She discussed Mohawks or Canada’s Disappearing Indians?, a blog post that she wrote back in February after the eviction issue hit the media, and also touched upon her personal interests and motivation in pursuing identity and citizenship issues in her career.

 

One of Palmater’s comments resonated with me: “identity is not only who you are but it’s also how other people recognize you…identity is a two-way street. It’s a relationship. It’s never individual and it’s never communal. You have to have both.” What are your thoughts on this statement?

 

The complete interview is in the audio section of the site.