Dave Strickland-the Qalipu Pretendian Mi'kmaq PLEX Refers to in his hit song "Red Flags"

   Who is PLEX aka Doug Bedard, Ojibway singer/ hip hop Artist Referring to in the Song "Red Flags?"  Dave Strickland, the famed music producer is a Qalipu Pretendian Mi'kmaq. 

  In a Windspeaker interview, Strickland declared, "…we are all chiefs, whether you’re male or female, two spirted, we are all kings and queens and we deserve to be respected…” (that's pretendian nonsense).

  The quote above by Strickland highlights one of the many problems with pretendians, because many are white settlers, they see the world via those glasses.  They see the world through a lens of whiteness.  It is clear many know very little about Indigenous cultures.  For example:  they will blend different Indigenous cultures together in some pan-Indigenous stew.  This is very dangerous to actual Indigenous communities.  These misrepresentations get picked up and reproduced again and again.  But we have to speak against such behaviours.  They only serve to prop up the fraudster.  They have no benefit to our Nations.

  People who claim to be Indigenous with no connection to culture nor community should not be given platforms to speak on behalf of Indigenous communities.  Never.  Especially Qalipu pretendians.  They are taking leadership roles in many jobs, in the arts, government, education, military, education--- every institution you can think of, Qalipus are enjoying going up the ranks while claiming an identity they are not entitled to.  They do it shamelessly.  This is fraud, but because so many of them are doing it- they feel there is strength in numbers.

Ask any Qalipu Mi'kmaq pretendian: what is your Indigenous experience?

  Many Qalipu pretendian Mi'kmaq will state the typical "I am reconnecting" nonsense.  "We had to hide."  But I must address this silliness here.  Real Indigenous people from Labrador (same province as Newfoundland) could not hide because WE LOOK NATIVE!  My kin in Nunatsiavut could NEVER hide from the white man.  What these Qalipu are saying when they say they had to hide is: We look white, we act white and we ARE white! They believe their possibly one Native ancestor from 1776 and all their other ancestors are white settlers.  It reminds me of the miscegenation laws in the USA that forbade whites from marrying Black people, whites view people of color as tainting their whiteness.  One drop of Black blood in the USA made a person Black forever.  White Newfoundlanders seem to be applying this notion that one drop of Mi'kmaq blood makes them Mi'kmaq.  It is nonsense.  When you cannot point me to a grandparent that fits the phenotype of Native, that is a red flag to me.

PLEX outlines the reasoning behind the song "Red Flags" (from his Instagram)   I'm well aware at this point, that even making a song like this makes me a target for Pretendians and Defendians. Many of them are gatekeepers within Indigenous industries. But this discussion is far too important and I hope this inspires more Indigenous people to carry on this discussion and explore this topic more deeply. I believe the future of Indigenous people depends on it."

   A very divisive topic among Indigenous people these days is Pretendians/Raceshifters. I've known it has existed for most of my adult life, but it became a bigger interest to me when I reached out to some of my peers in the music scene and asked about a few artists who self-identify. I was either told to leave them alone, or I was just completely ignored. As time went on, I noticed it wasn't just the music industry and Hollywood that were affected. Students, authors, directors, professors, artists, etc, who stood to gain from claiming Indigenous ancestry, were starting to be exposed. And many, many more have not.

Visit PLEX's youtube and buy his cd "Who am I to Judge?"

What Can be Done? Don't buy pretendian music, hire them, give them gigs.  Do not promote them.  Call them out.  Normalize shaming pretendians wherever they are!