Curator Caught in Indigenous Identity Controversy

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cheyanne turions (courtesy Salt Spring National Art Prize)

A Vancouver curator who has stopped identifying as Indigenous remains mired in controversy.

SFU Galleries curator Cheyanne Turions recently announced she was changing her self-identity from mixed settler / Indigenous to settler ancestry. 

The Vancouver Sun reported on March 24 that Turions “was outed as a ‘pretendian’ after @nomoreredface published a Twitter thread that included screenshots of grants that Turions received from the Canada Council that were intended for Aboriginal curators, and worth $73,000, and another for $30,000 from the Ontario Arts Council.” 

In a blog posting in February, Turions, born in High Prairie, Alta., said she grew up understanding that she had Indigenous ancestry. 

“However, when recently reviewing historical census data, I have not been able to find corroborating documentation for my family’s claims to Indigenous ancestry,” she wrote.  

“This is a space of confusion for me as it pits family histories against government records, and I am unsure how to hold these different sources in relation to each other.” 

SFU Galleries director Kimberly Phillips released a public letter on March 31 acknowledging the impact this news has had on Indigenous peoples. 

“SFU Galleries is now moving through a process that demands deep consultation and careful listening to many different people – most importantly, to members of the Indigenous art community and Indigenous university faculty and staff,” Phillips wrote. 

“I am grateful to all those who have generously offered guidance as we work towards repair, so that we might go about that with as much care as we can."

In recent years, Joseph Boyden, a noted author, and Michelle Latimer, director of the Trickster series on CBC, have been caught in controversy over false Indigenous identity claims.

Turions, who has a Master's degree in visual studies from the University of Toronto, was previously the director of education and public programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery.