Indigenous researchers seek answers from academic

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This article was published 16/10/2024 (367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Indigenous researchers want answers from an academic at the centre of an open identity fraud case at the University of Winnipeg following two months of silence and the downsizing of her digital footprint.

Julie Nagam, a professor, artist and curator who has long identified as Métis, is accused of misrepresenting herself and repeatedly failing to provide evidence to back up her ancestry.

Nagam has yet to publicly address the findings of three genealogy reports that challenge her claims or the Manitoba Métis Federation’s vocal rejection of her citizenship application.

The allegations levelled against Nagam, a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous arts, collaboration and digital media, sparked investigations by both the national agency that granted her that prestigious position and U of W at the start of the school year.

The researcher’s name was recently removed from the list of board members who oversee the Juno Awards. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences confirmed Tuesday that Nagam stepped down from that role at the end of September.

“It implicates so many people, and not just that one person — that’s the hard reality of all this. It harms so many other people in many different ways,” said Ryan Rice, executive director and curator of Indigenous art at OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery.

The fallout of the allegations includes concern about whether researchers who’d worked with Nagam had known about the situation and call into question all work linked to hers, he said.

Rice, who is Mohawk from Kahnawake, said he recently refused an academic opportunity because Nagam’s name was linked to it. “She can disappear but people are now uncomfortable with each other,” he said.

Relationship-building is central to Indigenous research, said Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk scholar who worked closely with Nagam until 2022, when she put their working relationship on hold due to murmurs about alleged identity fraud.

“If you offend someone, if you hurt someone, then you are damaging the very foundation upon which research happens in the Indigenous community. It’s all so inherently relational and built on trust and reciprocity and mutual respect,” said Igloliorte, Canada Excellence Research Chair in decolonial and transformational Indigenous art practices at the University of Victoria.

Igloliorte said she has issued numerous apologies in recent years to people she introduced to Nagam.

After the Free Press first reached out to Nagam for comment in August, she made her personal website password-protected.

The biography section indicated she is “Métis/German/Syrian.”

The website for Aabijijiwan New Media Lab — an interdisciplinary workspace for artists that Nagam has overseen since it was founded on the U of W campus in 2021 — was made private around the same time.

“She is going against the spirit of open access,” said Audra Simpson, a professor at New York’s Columbia University who studies Indigenous politics and presumed identities. “Publicly funded research should be accessible to the public.”

Simpson noted Nagam is paid by a publicly funded institution and has received millions of dollars in grant money throughout her career.

A spokesperson for the Canada Research Chairs Program indicated researchers must make their results public and acknowledge where their funding comes from during conference presentations and related activities.

“However, they are not required to host a website and make it public,” said Sophie Boudreau, a senior communications adviser for federal research funding programs.

The U of W’s Caleb Zimmerman said the Aabijijiwan lab’s physical space is in use but its website is “undergoing updates.”

Both the CRCP and U of W have declined to share details about their separate probes into Nagam’s identity.

Igloliorte said she is skeptical Nagam will come forward to provide an explanation or that the university will address the situation in a timely matter.

The status quo funding model encourages schools to drag things out and protect individuals accused of fraud if they bring in money, she said, adding the federal granting agencies need to “take a hard look” at how they hold institutions accountable.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca