A new report focused on Indigenous identity related to hiring and other internal policies at Queen’s University has called for an apology from administration.
The newly released report comes just over a year after public concerns were raised over how Queen’s approached questions of Indigeneity and identity.
The First Peoples Group consultants call on Queen’s University administration to “apologize and hold healing ceremonies” to address its mishandling of Indigenous identity and the impact it had on staff and students.
The apology is just one of seven recommendations from the external consultants.
First Peoples Group says during seven months of consultations, it heard from many who told them they were “embarrassed to be associated with Queen’s.”
In a statement, Queen’s principal Patrick Deane said that the “issues raised in this dialogue process have been significant and it has not been an easy process for the institution and those involved.”
The report was commissioned last fall, months after an anonymous report online accused a number of Queen’s faculty of falsely claiming to be Indigenous.
The report calls for a new validation process for Indigenous hires.
“Self-declaration is an important part of Indigenous identity – but it has proved insufficient in creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive community for Indigenous faculty, staff, and students at Queen’s,” Queen’s chancellor Murray Sinclair said in the statement.
“At the same time, it is not the role of a colonial institution like Queen’s to determine who is or is not indigenous.”
Other key recommendations are for Queen’s to establish a separate department of Indigenous studies and to work with the nations on whose territory it sits to determine what roles they can and want to play in establishing the university’s new efforts and processes.