The revelation that writer Thomas King does not have any known Native American heritage has sparked discussions about how to treat and, such as at the Vancouver School Board, replace his works.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
The Vancouver School Board is advising staff pull the works of Canadian-American writer Thomas King from its libraries, classrooms and more after the author revealed last week that he discovered he is not part Cherokee.
The recommendation follows a Globe and Mail report that a U.S. organization dedicated to exposing false claims of Native American heritage had informed the prominent California-born writer of its genealogical finding about his ancestral history, and that he does not dispute what he learned.
Administrators with the Vancouver School Board told staff in an e-mail this week that its Indigenous Education Department issued the guidance because Mr. King’s “works are not from a place of authentic voice or lived experience.”
In recent years, publishers and educators have made deliberate efforts to highlight the histories of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and to use the work of Indigenous writers in doing so. Mr. King’s books have played a central role in this shift.
His 2012 historical book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America is often assigned in classrooms, and schools have also stocked books such as his award-winning Massey Lecture-turned-book The Truth About Stories and taught his poem I’m Not the Indian You Had in Mind, among other works.
The revelation that Mr. King does not have any known Native American heritage has left Indigenous writers feeling betrayed – and set into motion a series of complex discussions across Canada about how to treat and, in cases such as the Vancouver School Board’s, replace his works.
King's 2012 book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America is often assigned to students.Supplied
The note to school staff, obtained by The Globe, continued: “While we understand the time and effort that has been put into planning around the use of his works, it is right and just that his voice as a non-Indigenous person is not taking space away from authentic Indigenous lived experience and perspectives that can be found in other emerging and established Indigenous authors, poets, playwrights and screenwriters.”
The school board’s recommendations extended beyond classrooms and libraries, and include removing novel sets and teacher resources from online courses and book rooms. It recommended for education to instead consider using works by writers such as Drew Hayden Taylor, Amanda Peters, Billy-Ray Belcourt, katherena vermette, Eden Robinson “or one of many other excellent Indigenous authors.”
In an e-mail, Mr. King declined to comment. The Vancouver School Board acknowledged Thursday that it had sent the recommendation to its staff, adding that its Indigenous Education Council guides the district’s reconciliation efforts and educational experiences for Indigenous students.
Mr. King last week said that while he had received grants, awards and other remuneration as a writer in connection with his long-professed Indigeneity, he only planned to return a 2003 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for arts and culture – arguing that his other awards “are based on my writing.”
And while publisher HarperCollins Canada said that it would publish his next mystery-series novel, StarBright, next May, Mr. King withdrew it from publication soon after he went public about learning he was not part Cherokee.
Mr. King grew up in California with his mother’s Greek American family; he has said his father abandoned the family when he was 3. According to oral family lore, he said, his father’s biological father − that is, his grandfather − was a man the family believed was of Cherokee ancestry. But in a Nov. 13 meeting with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, he said a genealogist showed him there was no Cherokee ancestry in this lineage.
“I didn’t know I didn’t have Cherokee on my father’s side of the family until I saw the genealogical evidence,” he told The Globe last week. “As soon as I saw it, I was fairly sure it was accurate. It’s pretty clear.”