The Erasure Behind Representation: When Indigenous Identity Gets Replaced

    Across the Americas, Indigenous peoples continue to face a subtler form of erasure: misrepresentation.

Large Western institutions — governments, media networks, arts organizations, academic platforms — often choose to promote individuals who look or sound more familiar to Western audiences, even if those individuals do not represent Indigenous communities accurately.

This is not diversity.
It is a continuation of selecting who is allowed to speak, and who is made invisible.

The Problem: “Indigenous” Without Indigenous People

In many government-run or media-funded Indigenous networks in the U.S. and Canada, the faces shown do not reflect the communities they claim to represent.

Native American and First Nations peoples are overwhelmingly brown, yet some platforms consistently highlight individuals who do not resemble the demographics of the nations they claim to portray.

The result is a subtle form of cultural displacement:
Indigenous spaces without Indigenous presence.

This is not merely cosmetic — identity, history, and lived experience are tied to representation. When a platform highlights non-Indigenous people as Indigenous, it reshapes public perception and weakens authentic voices.

A Double Standard in Cultural Framing

In discussions about Europe, there is no confusion. People do not say:

• “Indigenous Europeans”

• “Original Europeans with non-European ancestry”

Historical continuity is understood and respected.

But when it comes to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, some institutions blur the lines, treating Indigeneity as something that can be claimed loosely, visually recast, or culturally substituted.

This inconsistency causes real harm:

• It muddles public understanding

• It undermines authentic nations

• It allows institutions to avoid accountability by elevating safer, more “marketable” faces

• It shifts resources, visibility, and influence away from Indigenous communities

Cultural Theft Is Not Only Artifacts — It Can Be Identity

Identity can be stolen, not just objects.
When non-Indigenous people take on Indigenous labels, roles, or visibility — intentionally or not — they occupy spaces meant for Indigenous voices.

This impacts:

• Policy discussions

• Funding

• Cultural programming

• Language revitalization

• Public perception

• Community sovereignty

It is crucial to name the issue clearly:
Misrepresentation is a form of cultural harm.

Why Calling It Out Matters

Indigenous nations have the right to define:

• Their own membership

• Their own representation

• Their own public image

• Their own cultural continuity

No external institution — not governments, not media, not corporations — has the authority to override Indigenous self-definition.

Calling out misrepresentation is not exclusion.
It is protection of sovereignty.

Moving Forward

This conversation must shift from “who looks Indigenous enough” to:

• Who is accountable to Indigenous communities?

• Who belongs to an Indigenous nation by that nation’s standards?

• Who serves Indigenous interests, not institutional agendas?

Authentic representation means:

• Indigenous faces

• Indigenous voices

• Indigenous leadership

• Indigenous community authority

Anything less becomes a rewriting of identity.