Yesterday I wrote about the “Aboriginal” guy who got mad that his adopted Basketball-American wasn’t allowed to in fact play basketball with the actual Aboriginals in their all-Abo basketball tournament. Well apparently the CBC ran another story, ostensibly written by his real daughter, Arienne.
The Wilson children (Ariane, top left, Josiah, bottom left)
Yes, you may notice that there are two White People in this image, and two blacks. You may also notice how there are no Abos. The purpose of this article is to argue that they are all Abos.
CBC:
I come from what I call a “rainbow family,” a term that reflects our inherent diversity: I have a Heiltsuk father and white mother; my older siblings are Black, adopted from Haiti as infants. All of us children are members of the Heiltsuk Nation, but none of us “appear” Indigenous (whatever that means, anyway).
Words cannot express how weird this entire schtick makes me feel. It’s just amazing how you hear these anti-Whites prattle on about “erasure,” and make sure that everything in the world is secretly genocide. And then we get the site of four clear non-abos prancing about as if they’re Abos. This is apparently neither erasure, nor genocide, but rather something to be celebrated as stunning and brave.
I didn’t start this site to get offended on behalf of Abos, but this is too much, even for me. WTF is going on here?
Our family’s story is featured in One of Ours, a documentary that follows my brother Josiah’s experience. He was adopted from Haiti, but raised and embraced by the Heiltsuk community where he played on a basketball team.
Of course he did.
But in 2016, he found out he wasn’t allowed to participate in an Indigenous basketball tournament because he did not have the required blood quantum. The film explores his and our family’s journey toward understanding our identity and kinship.
They constantly use this term “blood quantum,” without bothering to explain what it means at all. If it means “ancestry,” then yeah, the guy literally has zero Abo ancestry of any kind, he’s a Haitian. These people are insufferable.
Our entire lives, my siblings and I have navigated people’s shock, incredulity and judgment. From a young age, I knew my family was different. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard “But they’re not, like, your ‘real’ siblings, right?” People often direct their questions at me since I’m not adopted: “So are the other two related to each other? And what happened to their real parents?”
Wow, just wow. Those bigots had the audacity to be confused why the people who obviously have no visible relation to you were LARPing like family members. Those filthy peasants. Thank god we have the morally superior multibillion state propaganda agency on the good guys side.
People also ask my younger brother and me, as mixed-race members, to prove we belong to our nation. When the topic of our Indigenous identity is brought up, they ask, “But how Native are you?” or “What percentage are you?” — as if our identity can be understood simply as a percentage of our biological makeup. Non-Indigenous people often struggle to grasp that Indigenous identity is much more than race, blood or phenotype.
Unfortunately, because of misinformation about Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty, people cannot comprehend that we can be citizens or members of our nation regardless of our appearance or biology.
We also face historical, social and political factors, including the ongoing colonization of Indigenous people.
The norm of the Eurocentric nuclear family is what allows people to question the validity of my family.
It also renders my family as “other” because we don’t fit the mould. It creates pressure for us to prove that we belong, that we are a “real” family, and that we deserve to be recognized.
Anyway, the drama queen continues on for a little bit, but it’s all in the same vein. I tell ya, if I wanted to destroy a group of people I wouldn’t be doing a single thing that these people aren’t doing.
