One day, I was asked what makes you Native? Is it in your blood? Is it because you speak your own language? Is it because you identify with a particular group? What makes you Native?

I really had to think about this. And so I did.

I realize that being Native in Canada means a lot of different things, depending on who you talk to. It could mean that you are one of the founding peoples of Canada, it could mean that you have a beautiful and rich culture and language, it could mean that you are respected under the British North American Act of 1867.

To me I think that being Native has become more political than anything. The introduction of the Indian Act in 1876 was used to assimilate Indians’ onto reserves and into the dominant form of governance. This has had a lasting effect on the First Nations’ in Canada, but the Inuit were not targeted in the Indian Act until the introduction of an amendment to the Indian Act that made it mandatory for all Native children to attend Residential School’s in 1884. So, being Native throughout the past century meant that you were largely influenced by the decisions that were made by the federal government of Canada and also the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. I could continue to write about how these decisions have influenced many Native people in Canada, but I would like to emphasize something I think is more important than politics.

Being Native for me does not mean that I am accepted into a certain category of people that is determined by bureaucrats, but rather I identify with a group of people who speak the same language, follow the same customs and understand the history of our ancestry. I would like to call these aspects of being Native the cultural aspects. The political aspects of being Native include those that are determined through administrative bureaucracy, the paper part of being Native.

So, now when I am asked what makes you Native? I just say do you mean politically or culturally? There are two different parts to take into consideration when I am asked about my identity.

What do you think makes a Native Canadian a Native Canadian?

Elizabeth Zarpa