Who You Callin' "Indian"? Part IV

Being the Fourth Entry in a series by Jennifer David, setting out a weekly, non-dogmatic, light-hearted lexicon for those of you who work in this arena and would like a primer on how to refer to...well, we're not quite there yet. Keep reading.


Diligent followers of this series must now be approaching a state of panic. You now know that you're not supposed to refer to us as "Indians" or as "Natives", and that even the fashionable "Aboriginal" has its pitfalls. This week, we'll take on two more terms - and you'll discover that we're still not out of the woods.

FIRST PEOPLE or FIRST PEOPLES.

This is another one of those painfully earnest expressions that strives heroically for politically correctness and inclusiveness, but stumbles in day-to-day speech. Have you ever tried to use this one in a conversation? “Hi there. I’m a First Person. Are you a First Person?” "No, but some of my best friends are First People." It just doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

On the plus side, it is a clear acknowledgment of our status in Canada. And the term IS inclusive. Inuit don't consider themselves to be a "First Nation" - but they DO see themselves as one of the first peoples to inhabit this country. This view gave rise to one of the most memorable quotes from the late Jose Kusugak, former president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, who famously characterized Inuit as "First Canadians, but Canadians first."

The term admittedly has more resonance than "Aboriginal". It’s too late for this past election, but there's even a First Peoples National Party of Canada that you could have voted for (if you happened to be living in the riding of their lone candidate in Sudbury, Ontario.) It also seems to be gaining in academic circles. Books about Aboriginal people and curriculum for schools use the term "Canada’s First Peoples" as a phrase to discuss the history of all the Aboriginal groups in Canada. The Canadian Museum of Civilization has a First Peoples Hall which celebrates history and stories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

But out here in the real world, it's just not an expression people use. (And for the hard-core punctuationophiles among you - just ponder the challenge of whether or not to use an apostrophe in the phrase "First Peoples Hall"!)

My verdict: save it for written material, but avoid it in day-to-day speech unless you're in conversation with a professor or senior bureaucrat you need desperately to impress.

And while we're on the "People" theme, here's a bonus:

INDIGENOUS or INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

Another useful (if somewhat scholarly) collective term, "indigenous" describes the people (or, for that matter, the plants) who are native to a land or region. When talking about people, the term usually implies that someone else has come along and sneakily introduced another culture.

In Canada, the word is most frequently used to express solidarity between First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and other Aboriginal people; and it usually occurs in an international context, like the UN Declaration or some other weighty proclamation.But again, like "Aboriginal", it's a well-intended word that unintentionally diminishes the link between, let's say, an Ojibway and their nation, by lumping very disparate groups and cultures - Saami, Maori, Inuit, Dakota - together in a single category. You probably don't think of yourself as a "North American"; why would you expect us to define ourselves by so broad a term? And the origin of the word comes from Latin, which is a language indigenous to - where, exactly?

"Indigenous Peoples", it's also impossibly clumsy in everyday language. A phrase that simply means "I'm from here" isn't very illuminating.


But take heart, readers - next week, we turn the corner and get into some of the terminology that bears our Official Seal of Approval.

Later!