UNBC professor to replace federal health director who falsely claimed Indigenous ancestry

Canada’s federal agency for funding health research has declared who will replace the previous scientific director ousted very last yr after a CBC News investigation cast doubt on her claims to Indigenous ancestry.

The Canadian Institutes of Well being Exploration (CIHR) mentioned Thursday that Dr. Margo Greenwood has been named interim scientific director of the Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Wellness (IIPH). The institute, 1 of 13, provides substantially of the funding in Canada for well being study targeted on Indigenous people today.

The organization will be hosted at the College of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, in which Greenwood is a professor.

“Holy cow,” Greenwood explained throughout a news convention asserting her appointment, drawing a chortle from the group.

“I am deeply honoured to have been selected by CIHR’s governing council … I look forward to satisfying the motivation set out in CIHR’s strategic program and the operational system of the institute. Self-determination. Engagement. Collaboration with Initially Nations, Inuit and Métis people today, organizations and communities is my first priority in taking on this get the job done,” she added.

“There is so much to be carried out and I am so enthusiastic to be taking on this problem.”

In her position, Greenwood will perform with Indigenous communities to engage in an active job in wellness research that reflects their requires.

She is at present an academic chief for the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Wellbeing and a professor in the training system at UNBC. In 2021, she was appointed an Officer of the Get of Canada for her do the job on early childhood education and learning and Indigenous wellbeing coverage.

Her appointment was praised by Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, RoseAnne Archibald, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations and Cassidy Caron, president of the Métis National Council.

Greenwood, who reported her mom was English and her father was Cree, explained she grew up on Treaty 6 lands in central Alberta.

“My Indigenous roots operate pretty deep in those people Treaty 6 lands,” she instructed the group.

Greenwood’s predecessor, Prof. Carrie Bourassa, was lower from the CIHR in November.

That slide, CBC News posted an investigation exhibiting there was no evidence for Bourassa’s public statements to be of Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit ancestry. In her response to the report, Bourassa improved her story and claimed she was Métis since she was adopted by a Métis good friend of her grandfather. 

The investigation stunned quite a few lecturers throughout the place. The results were especially felt among the these operating in Indigenous circles, the place Bourassa had large electric power and impact. 

In an interview with CBC Information immediately after the information meeting, Greenwood reported her “lived expertise” as an Indigenous woman will be an asset in her new job.

“I grew up in a time when it was not often well-liked to be Indigenous. Gratefully, individuals occasions have altered a large amount. Does there need to be much more transform? Of system there does. But I’ve experienced the edge of living by way of all those,” she claimed. 

“It really is the inquiries that we’re asking close to identification, reconciliation … all of those large inquiries that all of us in this place are grappling with. I have a perspective and an working experience to carry.”

Greenwood said that legally, she is non-status, not-treaty Cree, but added, “these are not my phrases, these are colonial terms. I am a Cree girl.”

She defined that her grandfather was enfranchised when his grandparents accepted $12 in scrip on his behalf — a approach used in the 19th and 20th generations to make Very first Nations and Métis men and women give up their land and position legal rights.

The federal governing administration is thinking about reversing enfranchisement adhering to a Constitution problem released previous 12 months in the Supreme Courtroom of British Columbia. 

Greenwood said her relatives tale “epitomizes colonization and the try to eradicate Indigenous persons in this nation.”

“What’s crucial is I know who I am,” she claimed.

Greenwood reported she experienced no comment on Bourassa.

“What I am focused on is the work that we have to do,” she said.