Being an ally is not something you announce; it is something other people can see you doing, consistently, when it is inconvenient. In an English course that practice shows up in very ordinary places — which authors you read, how you phrase a sentence about a nation you are not part of, what you do when a classmate repeats a stereotype, and whether your presentation quotes Indigenous writers or only writers about them. None of it requires perfection. It requires listening, checking, and being willing to be corrected.
Allyship is a practice, not a title
- Listen before you speak. Read and hear First Nations, Métis and Inuit people describing their own experiences before forming a view about them.
- Do your own learning. Do not expect an Indigenous classmate to explain history, answer for their nation, or educate the room. That is work you can do with the reports, books and organizations available to everyone.
- Amplify, and credit. Share, quote and cite the people who said something first. Passing on an Indigenous writer's argument under your own name — even in paraphrase — takes the credit away from them.
- Accept correction without defensiveness. If someone tells you a term or a claim is wrong, the useful response is to thank them, fix it, and not make the conversation about your feelings.
- Be consistent. Allyship that appears only on September 30, or only when someone is watching, is a performance. It is measured by what you do the rest of the year.
ASpeaking up
- Challenging a stereotype when a friend or classmate repeats it
- Pointing people to what Indigenous authors and organizations have said
- Using your turn in a discussion to raise a perspective that is missing, and naming whose it is
- Asking whether the people affected were consulted before a plan goes ahead
- Stepping back so someone with lived experience can take the space
BSpeaking over
- Retelling an Indigenous person's experience as though it were your insight
- Explaining a nation's culture to its own members
- Centring your guilt or feelings until the discussion becomes about you
- Claiming to speak 'for' a community you are not part of
- Interrupting or correcting someone about their own history
Tokenism and performative gestures
| Gesture | When it becomes performative | What makes it meaningful |
|---|---|---|
| Land acknowledgement | Read quickly from a script, with the nations' names mispronounced and nothing following it | Learning the specific nations and treaties of the place, saying why you are acknowledging them, and connecting it to an action |
| Wearing orange on September 30 | The shirt is the whole of the effort, and the photo is the goal | Learning a Survivor's published account, reading Call 80, and supporting Survivor-led organizations |
| One Indigenous text on a reading list | It is there so the list can be counted as diverse, and it is read as representing all Indigenous peoples | Several texts across nations, forms and time periods, each read on its own terms |
| A social media post | It replaces action and is quickly forgotten | It shares an Indigenous creator's own work, with credit, alongside something you actually did |
| Inviting an Indigenous speaker | They are asked to speak for everyone, are not paid for their time, or are there to make an event look inclusive | Their expertise is respected, protocols are followed, their time is compensated, and they choose what they share |
Avoid pan-Indigenous generalizations
First Nations, Inuit and Métis are three distinct groups of peoples, and within them are many nations with their own languages, governance, histories and stories. A sentence that begins 'Indigenous people believe...' is almost always too broad to be true. Name the nation, community or author you are actually drawing on — 'in this Haudenosaunee story', 'the Métis author argues', 'Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami states' — and your claim becomes both more accurate and easier to support with evidence.
Writing about communities you do not belong to
- Use the names people use for themselves. Nations have names in their own languages, and many publish their preferred spelling. Check the nation's or organization's own website.
- Drop the possessive. 'Our Indigenous peoples' or 'Canada's Indigenous peoples' frames sovereign nations as belonging to the country. Write 'Indigenous peoples in Canada' or name the nation.
- Capitalize as a mark of respect — Indigenous, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Elder, Knowledge Keeper, Survivor — as recommended in Elements of Indigenous Style by Gregory Younging.
- Watch the past tense. Writing that Indigenous peoples 'used to' hunt, speak their languages or hold ceremonies erases living communities. Cultures change and continue; write about them in the present where that is accurate.
- Balance harm with agency. A text that describes only suffering tells half the story. Include resistance, resurgence, leadership and joy where your sources show them.
- Do not retell stories that are not yours to tell. Some stories and teachings belong to particular families, clans or nations, and some are shared only in certain settings or seasons. Refer to published versions and credit the teller rather than rewriting them.
- Say where you stand. In reflective or personal writing, it can be honest and useful to note your own relationship to the topic — for example, that you are a non-Indigenous reader learning from these texts.
| Instead of | Write | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 'Eskimo' | Inuit (plural), Inuk (one person) | Inuit is the name Inuit use for themselves; the older term was imposed from outside |
| 'Canada's Indigenous peoples' | Indigenous peoples in Canada, or the specific nation | Removes the implication that nations are owned by the state |
| 'Native legends' or 'myths' | The nation's name plus stories, teachings or oral histories | 'Legend' and 'myth' imply the content is untrue or quaint |
| 'Indian' outside a legal or historical context | First Nations, or the specific nation | 'Indian' remains a legal term under the Indian Act, but is outdated as a general description |
| 'The Indigenous perspective' | Name whose perspective: the author, the nation, the organization | There is no single Indigenous perspective to speak of |
The same three moves help you respond to texts that present colonialist or inaccurate images of Indigenous peoples. Explore the representation: who made it, when, for what audience, and where it has travelled. Deconstruct it: what assumptions does it carry — that Indigenous peoples are vanishing, all alike, or stuck in the past? Whose voice is absent? What harm has that image done, for example in how people are treated or which policies seemed reasonable? Reconstruct your understanding by turning to First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors, artists and organizations who represent themselves, and let your writing be built from their work.