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Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity
• What impact does status have on band membership codes?
• What limits, if any, should be placed on the right to
determine citizenship?
• Legal, political, and cultural factors affecting Indigenous
identity and belonging
• Interim proposed solutions to discrimination against
Non-Status Indians
“For hundreds of years, we have struggled to survive amid a patrilineal system of government. We will not continue to allow government policy to manage our affairs, decide who is Aboriginal or not based on blood quantum ...”
– Chief Candice Paul, St. Mary’s First Nation
Author Pamela Palmater argues that the Indian Act's registration provisions (status) will lead to the extinguishment of First Nations as legal and constitutional entities. The current status criteria contain descent-based rules akin to blood quantum that are particularly discriminatory against women and their descendants.
Beginning with an historic overview of legislative enactments defining Indian status and their impact on First Nations, the author examines contemporary court rulings dealing with Aboriginal rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in relation to Indigenous identity. She also examines various band membership codes to determine how they affect Indigenous identity, and how their reliance on status criteria perpetuates discrimination. She offers suggestions for a better way of determining Indigenous identity and citizenship and argues that First Nations themselves must determine their citizenship based on ties to the community, not blood or status.
Dr. Palmater teaches politics at Ryerson University and holds a PhD in law from Dalhousie University. She was denied Indian status as a Mi’kmaq because her grandmother married a non-Indian.
“It is time that the Indian Act was revised, section by section, in full consultation with First Nations so that we can keep the sections which benefit our communities and finally eliminate those sections which threaten our very existence. Dr. Palmater’s book raises these very important issues ..." – Chief Lawrence Paul, Millbrook First Nation
“This work is an important discourse that looks at a judicial anomaly which continues to perplex the integrity of the Canadian legal system, and illustrates the glaring contradictions of an ever-weakening Honour of the Crown.” – Chief Isadore Day, Serpent River First Nation
• What limits, if any, should be placed on the right to
determine citizenship?
• Legal, political, and cultural factors affecting Indigenous
identity and belonging
• Interim proposed solutions to discrimination against
Non-Status Indians
“For hundreds of years, we have struggled to survive amid a patrilineal system of government. We will not continue to allow government policy to manage our affairs, decide who is Aboriginal or not based on blood quantum ...”
– Chief Candice Paul, St. Mary’s First Nation
Author Pamela Palmater argues that the Indian Act's registration provisions (status) will lead to the extinguishment of First Nations as legal and constitutional entities. The current status criteria contain descent-based rules akin to blood quantum that are particularly discriminatory against women and their descendants.
Beginning with an historic overview of legislative enactments defining Indian status and their impact on First Nations, the author examines contemporary court rulings dealing with Aboriginal rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in relation to Indigenous identity. She also examines various band membership codes to determine how they affect Indigenous identity, and how their reliance on status criteria perpetuates discrimination. She offers suggestions for a better way of determining Indigenous identity and citizenship and argues that First Nations themselves must determine their citizenship based on ties to the community, not blood or status.
Dr. Palmater teaches politics at Ryerson University and holds a PhD in law from Dalhousie University. She was denied Indian status as a Mi’kmaq because her grandmother married a non-Indian.
“It is time that the Indian Act was revised, section by section, in full consultation with First Nations so that we can keep the sections which benefit our communities and finally eliminate those sections which threaten our very existence. Dr. Palmater’s book raises these very important issues ..." – Chief Lawrence Paul, Millbrook First Nation
“This work is an important discourse that looks at a judicial anomaly which continues to perplex the integrity of the Canadian legal system, and illustrates the glaring contradictions of an ever-weakening Honour of the Crown.” – Chief Isadore Day, Serpent River First Nation
280 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 2011
7 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2021
Dr. Palmater’s voice from lectures/interviews/etc carries with ease. This information is for folks with intermediate knowledge and is warranted.
August 7, 2018
It took me a while but it such an important research topic regarding Indian status, membership and citizenship. I wanted to make sure I got through it. This book is a must read for every indigenous person in Canada!!
August 3, 2014
This is an important book, particularly given the author's own learning experience in the process of writing it. The book is the result of Palmater's doctoral studies, in the course of which she had to come to terms with the fact that having a blood relative who was Indigenous is not the best way of determining who is a member of any particular indigenous community.
This is so important, as indigenous communities of the past did not require people to be related to members of the community in order to become a part of it. The narrow interpretations of indigeneity imposed by the Indian Act have caused problems for generations of people and have unfairly excluded people (particularly women) from their communities - a history thoroughly explored in this book. Palmater sets out an alternative approach to identity, based on kinship but also on community involvement and support.
What Palmater doesn't address in this book is the issue of Federal funding and its relationship to indigenous identity. In a way that is fine, because identity shouldn't be limited by financial considerations. But it seems that a more inclusive approach is seen as problematic by many indigenous communities as a result of the funding issue and this is something that would need to be resolved if Palmater's recommendations were to be adopted.
In places the book got a bit bogged down in legal arguments about the applicability of things like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - there was a bit too much constitutional law for a general reader, I thought. But that's just a minor gripe - I learnt a lot from this book.
This is so important, as indigenous communities of the past did not require people to be related to members of the community in order to become a part of it. The narrow interpretations of indigeneity imposed by the Indian Act have caused problems for generations of people and have unfairly excluded people (particularly women) from their communities - a history thoroughly explored in this book. Palmater sets out an alternative approach to identity, based on kinship but also on community involvement and support.
The social realities that Indigenous people face today are that they live among other Canadians, frequently intermarry, and have other relationships that often result in children. This has been the case for centuries. Consequently, there are no Indigenous groups in Canada that are completely made up of "pure" Aboriginal peoples - even if there were a test to determine such a status. This fact, however, does not in any way detract from their distinct status as Indigenous peoples.
If we as individuals, families, communities, and nations looked beyond superficial measurements of blood and looked deeper at what makes those connections between individuals, their communities and nations so strong, we would see that blood is not only unnecessary as an indicator of our identities; it is completely irrelevant.
What Palmater doesn't address in this book is the issue of Federal funding and its relationship to indigenous identity. In a way that is fine, because identity shouldn't be limited by financial considerations. But it seems that a more inclusive approach is seen as problematic by many indigenous communities as a result of the funding issue and this is something that would need to be resolved if Palmater's recommendations were to be adopted.
In places the book got a bit bogged down in legal arguments about the applicability of things like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - there was a bit too much constitutional law for a general reader, I thought. But that's just a minor gripe - I learnt a lot from this book.
July 20, 2015
This book is absolutely fascinating regarding current Indigenous issues around identity, status and non-status. I'm a non-indigenous person with no cultural ties, so I came to this book with a very basic knowledge of contemporary issues, and found myself embarrassed by the amount of information I didn't know or had completely wrong. The book is academic in parts so not everyone will enjoy it, which is a shame because the struggle around Indigenous identity will only intensify in the coming years.
The situation of status and non-status Indians is something I never thought about, but demographic projections show that most bands will completely disappear in the next 100-120 years if the racist guidelines of the Indian Act are followed to determine status. I had no idea the guidelines were so ridiculous, and the much-heralded reforms to the Indian Act in 1985, supposedly to end the discrimination agains female descendants, actually only benefitted one generation with their descendants reverting to non-status.
Palmater uses her own history as a non-status Mi'kmaq and many other bands who have either adapted membership rules that rely on the "blood quantum" rules of the Indian Act or adopted similarly exclusionary rules to illustrate her point. One band she discusses is the Parry Island Band (Wasauking First Nation) who have adopted a blood quantum code that is more sever than many First Nations, and will only speed up their disappearance unless they change their rules.
Palmater's argument is essentially that status/non-status is an artificial, racist label imposed on Indigenous people, and the use of blood quantum rules to determine citizenship are a grave threat to the continued survival of First Nations.
The situation of status and non-status Indians is something I never thought about, but demographic projections show that most bands will completely disappear in the next 100-120 years if the racist guidelines of the Indian Act are followed to determine status. I had no idea the guidelines were so ridiculous, and the much-heralded reforms to the Indian Act in 1985, supposedly to end the discrimination agains female descendants, actually only benefitted one generation with their descendants reverting to non-status.
Palmater uses her own history as a non-status Mi'kmaq and many other bands who have either adapted membership rules that rely on the "blood quantum" rules of the Indian Act or adopted similarly exclusionary rules to illustrate her point. One band she discusses is the Parry Island Band (Wasauking First Nation) who have adopted a blood quantum code that is more sever than many First Nations, and will only speed up their disappearance unless they change their rules.
Palmater's argument is essentially that status/non-status is an artificial, racist label imposed on Indigenous people, and the use of blood quantum rules to determine citizenship are a grave threat to the continued survival of First Nations.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews