{"id":84809,"date":"2017-01-12T00:39:46","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T05:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=84809"},"modified":"2017-01-12T01:21:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T06:21:18","slug":"author-joseph-boyden-apologizes-for-being-too-vocal-on-indigenous-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/12\/author-joseph-boyden-apologizes-for-being-too-vocal-on-indigenous-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Joseph Boyden apologizes for being ‘too vocal’ on indigenous issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Acclaimed<\/a>
Acclaimed author Joseph Boyden( Pictured) released a statement Wednesday in which he apologized for being “too vocal” on many indigenous issues in Canada. (Photo: ActuaLitt\u00e9\/ flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013Acclaimed author Joseph Boyden released a statement Wednesday in which he apologized for being \u201ctoo vocal\u201d on many indigenous issues in Canada.<\/p>\n

It was the second public statement he has made to address a controversy surrounding his indigenous heritage, which began last month after an investigation into his background by an Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reporter.<\/p>\n

The issue made national headlines and sparked a debate on indigenous identity and who has the right to speak on behalf of those communities.<\/p>\n

The APTN article by Jorge Barrera dug into the different claims of indigenous ancestry the novelist has made throughout his life, and the evidence \u2013or lack thereof \u2013to back it up.<\/p>\n

Days later, Boyden defended himself on Twitter, saying he is of \u201cmostly Celtic heritage,\u201d but he also has Nipmuc roots on his father’s side and Ojibway roots on his mother’s.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday’s statement, Boyden took a different tone, saying that he \u201cmade mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said while his intentions were good, he apologized for letting himself be the \u201cgo-to person\u201d in the media for indigenous issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat role should go to those with deeper roots in their communities \u2013wiser and more experienced spokespeople and elders \u2013who have that right and responsibility, and who can better represent their community’s perspective,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The statement comes after an interview with the CBC in which the celebrated Ontario author apologized for \u201ctaking too much of the airtime\u201d on indigenous issues. The interview will air on CBC Radio’s \u201cQ\u201d on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In the statement, Boyden described himself as \u201ca white kid\u201d from Willowdale, Ont., with native roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I’ve always said pretty much the same thing: ‘a small part of me is Indigenous, but it’s a big part of who I am,\u201d’ he said.<\/p>\n

The author also said his \u201cmost painful mistake\u201d was to bring the topic of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls into an \u201cunrelated public debate,\u201d but he did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

Boyden \u2013who is a member of the Order of Canada and was an honorary witness at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission \u2013added that he has been spending the last weeks offline, \u201cchoosing to be with my mom and family where we spoke proudly and sometimes very painfully about our heritage and many other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his silence is not out of a sense of same, but out of the \u201cdesperate need to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family and others in these last weeks told me this: I can try and talk and defend and explain all I want, but perhaps it’s time to close my mouth and ask for guidance and truly listen,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Boyden has won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and his work was nominated for the Governor General’s award.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press attempted to reach him through his publisher Penguin Random House Canada, but he was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013Acclaimed author Joseph Boyden released a statement Wednesday in which he apologized for being \u201ctoo vocal\u201d on many indigenous …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":84825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,3,16],"tags":[11479,13477],"class_list":["post-84809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-lifestyle","category-news","tag-indigenous","tag-joseph-boyden","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}