Inuit need open communication on race and racism

Marion Buller, chair of the commission overseeing the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, is flanked by fellow commissioners in Gatineau, Que. Aug. 3 following the federal government’s formal announcement of the inquiry and its five commissioners. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GOV. OF CANADA)

I am writing to respectfully discuss some of the issues around Sen. Dennis Patterson’s opinion piece on the National Observer online news site and the request by Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada and Qulliit Status of Women Council for an Inuk woman and Inuk, respectively, to sit as a commissioner on the National Inquiry for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

In his letter, Patterson claims that these two Inuit women’s organizations condemned the appointment of Qajaq Robinson, the commissioner appointed to the commission on behalf of Inuit women and girls, and asked for her removal.

That is untrue. These organizations spoke highly of Qajaq Robinson and asked for a sixth seat to be added to the commission. This is an expected and respectable request, considering the important nature of the inquiry. Adding a sixth seat is not unreasonable and could easily be accommodated.

In his piece, he states that these organizations don’t consider Qajaq Robinson to be a competent commissioner solely because she is not Inuk, that they believe her race determines her competency.

This is also an untrue statement. Neither Pauktuutiit Inuit Women’s Association nor Qulliit Status of Women Council claimed that Qajaq was incompetent or that race determines competency. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Tungasuvvingat Inuit, in their report from the pre-inquiry phase, found there was a, “strong belief among Inuit that Inuit women and girls are seen by government agents and agencies as less valuable than non-Inuit women and girls.”

Inuit are given the message on a daily basis through the media, the curriculum we’re taught in school and through lived experiences of racism, to name a few, that we are less than, we are not smart enough, and we are just not good enough.

When a non-Inuk is appointed to represent Inuit, by sitting on such an important commission regarding an issue that is personal and devastating to Inuit communities, the message is again relayed that we are less valuable than non-Inuit women and girls. The message is that our value is so little that we aren’t smart, capable or experienced enough to represent ourselves, despite our requests to do so. That message is internalized and is hammered home through the lack of representation on the MMIW commission.

Sen. Patterson applied the lens of his experience to Qajaq’s Robinson’s, but in doing so he missed, whether purposely or not, the point that Pauktuutit and Qulliit were making and what it was they were requesting.

This is not a question of whether Qajaq Robinson would do a great job as a commissioner in the inquiry, but a question of whether she is the representation asked for. As far as these groups see it, she is not. No one is questioning her ability, her value, her history, her experience or her relationship to the Inuit community. They are questioning why they aren’t getting the representation they asked for.

We all have our individual realities, some of them shared. My experience as an Inuk woman is not up for debate, my reality is not negotiable. Just as my reality is not negotiable, neither is Patterson’s. He spoke of his experience being treated poorly and considered unqualified to be an advocate for Nunavut because of the “colour of [his] skin.” He too, has experienced prejudice.

What is up for debate, is his experience with racism. All humans experience prejudice and to some extent, most humans are prejudiced. That is to say, humans, whether consciously or subconsciously, believe others to be somehow flawed, to dislike other people and groups of people, based on things like their race, religion, culture or nationality.

While all of us experience prejudice, we do not all experience racism. Racism is prejudice plus power; it is a system of supremacy, and in Canada, that system benefits white people or white-presenting people. It is a system that was founded on the celebration of the genocide of people Indigenous to this continent, and it is a system that thrives in a country where racialized people are marginalized at the expense of non-racialized people.

Because racism in Canada differs from prejudice in this way, those who hold the power and privilege, those who society has been set up to benefit most, do not experience racism, including Sen. Patterson.

This doesn’t mean if you have white privilege that you’ve led an easy life, or feel you have much if any power. But your personal experience does not change how society is structured, and, in this case, who has or hasn’t experienced racism.

I’ve heard people talk about the privilege and power that they perceive Inuit in Canada to hold, but it would be dishonest to say that, because Inuit sometimes receive hiring preference or receive unique health benefits, that they hold any sort of power or privilege. I will reference the following so we’re all on the same page.

Inuit in Canada, when it comes to racial equity, have no power or privilege until their high school graduation rate is no longer below 50 per cent and is closer to 99 per cent.

Inuit have no power until their communities are food secure. Inuit have no power until they can get a quality education taught in both their mother tongue and English or French from preschool through university.

Inuit have no power until education, health, and government systems reflect what it truly means to be successful in Inuit society. Inuit have no power until they have access to adequate and affordable housing.

Inuit have no power until suicide is no longer an epidemic. Inuit have no power until they are represented equitably at the federal and territorial-provincial level.

Inuit have no power until they are no longer disproportionately represented by social services, child and family services, and in the correctional system. Inuit have no power until Inuit women and girls are no longer murdered and cast aside at disproportionately high and disturbing rates.

I am concerned with people, especially those who advocate for an Inuit territory at the federal level, but who do not have a truthful, however basic understanding of the definition of racism and prejudice.

If we as a society are ever to dismantle racism or combat it and heal our wounds from it—think the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the MMIW Inquiry—we have to have an authentic understanding of how racism is structured.

If we are ever to dismantle racism, individuals cannot continue to use their personal power or privilege to throw shade at those who actually experience racism when they bring attention to it. We cannot drown out the voices of the oppressed.

What is very apparent throughout all this is that prejudice, racism, and racial inequity are issues that need to be discussed, not just through the media—social and news—but face-to-face, and dealt with and healed from.

With the utmost respect to the loved ones of every murdered, missing Indigenous woman and girl, my hope is that this situation—the inquiry, the further requests for Inuit representation and Sen. Patterson’s opinion piece—will bring to light the need to open up communication, so we can come together at the federal, territorial-provincial and community level to create safe spaces for meaningful dialogue around race, racism and racial equity.

Moriah Sallaffie
Iqaluit

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