Indigenous academics and artists are calling on the University of Winnipeg to take swift action to address an open identity fraud case and update campus hiring policies so applicants who say they are First Nations, Métis or Inuit back up their claims.
Three genealogy reports — one completed by the St. Boniface Historical Society in 2021 and two subsequent searches in 2021 and 2022 by post-secondary researchers with expertise in building family trees — challenge professor Julie Nagam’s claims that she is Métis.
Nagam, an art professor in the U of W’s history department whose online biography states she is “Métis/German/Syrian,” has not responded to requests for comment.
“Everything is called into question with this in terms of academic integrity,” Audra Simpson, a professor at New York’s Columbia University who studies Indigenous politics and presumed identities, told the Free Press.
“Do you want somebody like this, who lies at the very level of the self, in your classroom?”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES
The University of Winnipeg is being called upon to take swift action to address an open identity fraud case and update campus hiring policies.
Simpson, who is Mohawk from Kahnawake in Quebec, said she agreed to be on Nagam’s PhD dissertation committee more than a decade ago because she was under the impression she was supporting an up-and-coming Indigenous scholar.
It is “egregious” that someone who is in the very business of research has continuously claimed an identity without having done the work to verify themself, she said.
U of W has long relied on academics to self-identify and, as is the status-quo on Manitoba’s post-secondary campuses, used an honour system.
Last summer, the university launched a working group to recommend new policy, procedures and an implementation plan to mitigate Indigenous identity fraud. The committee, led by Chantal Fiola and Paul DePasquale, is expected to release a detailed report this fall.
Simpson said an overhaul is long overdue.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Three genealogy reports challenge U of W professor Julie Nagam’s claims that she is Métis.
“The fallout (of people pretending to be Indigenous) is exponential and parts of the fallout are the broken bonds of trust — the trust that we need to have in each other as we move through this world and the years of unwilling complicity in a lie,” the political anthropologist said.
Winnipeg-based artist Jaimie Isaac said trust was broken because she shared her expertise and space — as an Anishinaabe member of Sagkeeng First Nation with a master’s thesis on Indigenous curatorial practice — with Nagam.
The duo unveiled their co-curated project Insurgence/Resurgence — the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s largest exhibition of contemporary Indigenous art — in 2017.
Everyone involved is now unfairly affected by alleged identity fraud, said Isaac, who was a full-time curator at the WAG between 2015 and 2021.
“I am still really proud of that project because I believe in the artists that were involved and I believe in the stories and their experiences and their practices that they shared with us with trust,” she said.
Speaking as an alumna of U of W, Isaac said she questions how Indigenous people can be expected to trust institutions that protect individuals who are causing them harm.
The U of W issued a general statement about the case, saying administration is taking the allegations “very seriously” and “working to gain a better understanding of the situation.”
“The fallout (of people pretending to be Indigenous) is exponential and parts of the fallout are the broken bonds of trust — the trust that we need to have in each other as we move through this world and the years of unwilling complicity in a lie.”–Audra Simpson
Former master’s students with ties to Nagam told the Free Press they were frequently contacted by community members wanting answers, which they did not have, throughout their studies in 2022 and 2023.
The uncertainty negatively affected members of the graduate cohort’s well-being, school work and reputation, according to two recent graduates who agreed to separate interviews on the condition of anonymity.
One, who was a research assistant of Nagam’s, said she repeatedly reached out to higher-ups at U of W in 2022-2023 in the hopes of addressing the uncertainty and stress that her cohort was facing.
“(U of W leaders) need to acknowledge the harm that happened to the students and… the role they played in this and that they didn’t do their due diligence,” the source said, adding university staff have known about these identity-related concerns dating back to January 2023, if not longer.
Another graduate said she never would’ve moved to Winnipeg for a master of arts in cultural studies if she had known about the allegations of misrepresentation surrounding her main source of funding.
“As a Métis person, I came to the school to study under Métis people,” she said.
“It should’ve been a really fun time of my life. I should’ve been thinking about how to make my community proud, which is what I intended to do. I ended up focusing on this non-Indigenous person. There’s nothing more colonial than that.”
As far as Simpson is concerned, every post-secondary school should have an accredited genealogist on staff and a liaison officer who contacts communities to verify claims, in addition to workarounds for individuals whose families were impacted by the ’60s Scoop.
“(U of W) is committed to respecting Indigenous sovereignty regarding citizenship and ensuring that material benefits meant for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students, staff, faculty, and Elders are accessed by them,” said Fiola, associate vice-president, Indigenous engagement and co-chair of the Indigenous Identity Working Group, in a statement.
Universities need to move faster to address and dissuade fraudulent identity claims, said Cathy Mattes, an associate professor at U of W who is involved in the working group.
“It was important to give the institution time to work with us and figure it out, to the best of their ability, but timelines can cause harm to Indigenous people and, in particular, with more public awareness of what Indigenous identity fraud is and the harm it causes, it would’ve been unethical at this point to remain quiet about this,” said Mattes, who conducted a genealogy search for Nagam in 2022.
The faculty association declined to comment. Deeming the issue a human resources matter, the office of Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable also declined to comment.
Roughly 12 per cent of U of W’s student population self-identifies as First Nations, Métis or Inuit.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., Maggie was an intern at the Free Press twice while earning her degree at Ryerson’s School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before joining the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
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