Today we celebrate indigenous people... but who is that?

We just had a national holiday in Canada - the 2nd annual "Orange Shirt Day", where we honour people who are indigenous. We wear orange, and repeat the slogan "Every child matters", referring to historical abuse of innocent indigenous children by colonizing Europeans. Canada doesn't have many black people, so this is our BLM. Won't somebody pleeeease think of the (indigenous) children? But first, who is - and is NOT - indigenous?

Dictionaries tell us indigenous means "original or first to a place". The earliest known human inhabitants of a region, and their descendants, are indigenous there.

The general scientific consensus (which doesn't necessarily mean it's 100% correct of course) is that humans first came out of the trees and began walking more upright on the continent of Africa, some 2 million years back. Since then, we evolved as we spread out, moving into what is now the middle East, Asia, and Europe. Conventional wisdom is that humans first colonized North and South America before the time of Christ, and then again when settled by Europeans about 500 years ago.

Interesting. During recent genealogy research, I discovered that one of my great-grandfather's great-grandfathers came from Isle of Mann, an island between Ireland and England. When I dug further back, I found he was not a recent immigrant there, but that his ancestors had been there for many generations. In fact, Manx people have been living and evolving on Isle of Mann for tens of thousands - or even hundreds of thousands - of years. They were the first humans in that place, something we now call "indigenous". I descend from those people, so I too am indigenous to Isle of Mann.

That got me thinking. Is there anybody that is not indigenous?

The answer is no. For one thing, every human is descended from indigenous people on the plains of Africa. And we all have ancestors who also were the first humans to various parts of the planet. So we're all indigenous to at least a couple places, some of us more.

Here in Canada, a common question on government forms is "are you indigenous?" (if you say yes, you are entitled to extra privileges and resources). When I was first asked this, I laughed out loud, and almost said "Do I look indigenous to you?", but over time got used to it, and now just say "no". But wait, is that the correct answer, considering everyone is indigenous?

Besides, are those we consider indigenous in North and South America really the first humans to set foot there? I have a lot of respect for the ways of the tribal people who called "Turtle Island" home before my relatives lived here, but I don't see how orange clothing does much to honour them, or improve our understanding of them.

In Canada, we have the First Nations, Eskimo/Inuit, and Metis. Legends are passed down of a great slaughter that occurred when the Mi'kmaq people first came to the land, thousands of years ago. They claim Prince Edward Island was at that point inhabited by a great number of little people, called Tweedlers. It took months, with heavy losses on both sides, but the invaders (now known as Canada's indigenous people) killed every last one of the people who lived there, according to their own stories. Who were the people who first inhabited those parts of Canada, before the current "indigenous" people went there?

So, people we call indigenous to a place sometimes really aren't. And every person is indigenous somewhere. Confused yet? Just put on an orange shirt and keep quiet.

Perhaps, next time I'm asked by a government employee "do you consider yourself indigenous?" I will just answer yes. Indigenous people (and very recent immigrants from non-Western countries) are taken care of by the system here. I could really cash in, and it wouldn't even technically be untrue.

But would that make me a Pretendian, also known as an "Indigenot"?

In 2022, there's privilege in being indigenous. But what does it really mean?

DRutter

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