Raising Indigenous Kids in the Age of Pretendians – The Walrus

Jan. 30, 2026

Those who fake their identity try to claim the limelight. Here’s what they don’t get

I’ve been thinking about how Indigenous kids grow up in a swath of experiences—those we give them deliberately, those they seek out themselves, and what they are simply exposed to.

This summer, I took my youngest to the fairgrounds in Saskatoon. The sun was murky and orange as forest fire smoke obscured it. The acrid smell that makes the back of your throat feel raw is a summer familiarity now. In the fairgrounds, the bright lights were flashing, the teddy bears were puffy, the popcorn and the Doukhobor bread were bursting out of their confines, and the majority of the thousands of kids—screaming in exhilaration from way above our heads, their hair flying around; fingers sticky from sugary treats; or impatiently waiting their turn on the ridiculous rides—were Indigenous. Brown-skinned, dark-haired kids from all over the province. This was the first time I had been in a public setting in Saskatchewan where the majority of the crowd was not just non-white but Indigenous, living out a night of excitement in the middle of the summer.