Express your opinion on the Appropriation Prize controversy and whether non-Indigenous people should be allowed to write about Indigenous issues.
Listen ... I think that all or most of the actions of those who started this mess - from the original editorial writer who half-jokingly suggested an "Appropriation Prize," to the lunkheads (Ken Whyte chief among them) who started actually putting up time and money to start one - were reprehensible and naively tone-deaf.
Thanks to them, this whole thing turned into a contest to see who could out-idiot the other and it ended up with grown men crying over live microphones in CBC studios.
But ... can non-Indigenous people write about Indigenous issues? The answer is ... must always be ... a resounding yes.
That's because all writing, like any artform, is inherently organic. As humans, we write to inform, inspire or provoke. We do this by writing about what inform, inspires and provokes us. Writing should never be bounded by race or ideology or cultural "experiences."
This hubbub is going to have a chilling effect on the writing and coverage of indigenous subjects in Canada.