Opinion: My First-Nations Identity Feels More Like An Absence

Very interesting. Very true. He lives in Belgium now. I like that his forefathers also fought in Western Europe in World War 1.

Thanks chip I'm working right now but I'll read it later and get back to you with full analysis.

"The Canadian government recognizes me as a status Indian under its Indian Act, which for generations stripped legal status from Indian women who married white men. (Before I could comfortably start writing this essay, I searched the house for my status card, which makes me legally Indian in Canada for five years at a time.) When I left Canada, I never renewed it, and it now sits in my wallet, of no use to me in Belgium, where I have lived and worked for the past five years."

The very fact that a First Nations person needs a five year renewable card to show they are First Nations is in itself wrong. After five years, do they not remain First Nations?