Decolonosing labels-And being Indian

I attended the ImagineNative Film Festival yesterday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Theatre. I had to accomplish a lot of mothering work in order to get there and as I watched the films and listening to the panel discussions, I was acutely mindful of the privilege of being in that space.

I am currently reading a report on the Canada Arts Council website. As I do so, I am able to see my own work ideas evolve and move deeper into acknowledging the naming of mothers as 'South Asian' in this land now called Canada.

I was Indian until January 16th, 2002 and was unwittingly reborn as South Asian from the day my Landing Papers were stamped at Pearson International Airport. I did not know I was reborn, renamed and recast as the other in a land that had 'welcomed' me with open arms: my fluency in the colonial language was my entry ticket.

Only now am I learning to say that I am not South Asian.

After a lot of thought and soul searching, I am learning to say that I am Indian. This process took almost 11years, this peeling of labels placed on me by someone else's understanding. They can call me what they wish based on their view of the world. I am still who I am, and that me is forever changing.

In my worldview, this is who I am. It may confuse some people, but they will learn.

So also other mothers are who they wish to be when they connect their identities with their own ancestral peoples. And they have that self-granted permission. They need no other.

 I celebrate this moment as I have found my voice and articulation as I have made room for the pain and anger of the people who feel that the voices of their peoples are yet to be heard.

In teaching my computer to recognise words like 'knowledges' and 'peoples', I am decolonising some spaces one mouse-click at a time.

Haig-Brown, C. (2012). Indigenous thought, appropriation and non-aboriginal people. Canadian Journal of Education , 33(4), 925-950.