At the time of this writing — mid-February 2024 — we are rapidly approaching the 73rd National Basketball Association’s (NBA) All-Star Game, an event that enjoys an international broadcast. Consequently, I am reminded about Jully Black’s stunning performance of the Canadian National Anthem at the NBA’s last All-Star Game, which was held on February 19 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. She stood before the crowd and began to sing. But what she sang was utterly unexpected by those who knew the anthem’s words.
The opening phrase to the anthem is “Oh Canada, our home and native land…” Instead, Ms. Black sang, “Oh Canada, our home on native land…” even pausing ever so lightly to emphasize the word “on.” Wow! That one little change from the three-letter word “and” to the shorter two-letter word “on” made a huge, earth-moving difference! In effect, she brought the Indigenous nations of Canada—the Cree, the Dakota, the Oneida, and so many more—from under the shadows into the limelight before thousands of fans present and millions of television and media viewers across Canada, the USA, and around the world. She was, in effect, reminding the world that the land known as Canada originally belonged to someone else.
She was singing that the erasure of the existence of Indigenous Peoples implicit in the word “and” was wrong and that she, Jully Black, was putting the world on notice that it is time, time long overdue, to be aware of that fact. Implicit also in the word replacement by Ms. Black is an unspoken statement that it is time to revisit history to understand why she felt it necessary to awaken the world to the reality of the grand theft of the lands of Indigenous peoples at the hands of imperialists and colonialists arriving from Europe beginning in the 16thcentury.
Jully Ann Inderia Gordon Black, born Jully Black on September 8, 1977, is an Afro-Canadian of Jamaican descent. She was asked to sing the anthem for 2023 due to her tremendous popularity as a chart-setting vocalist in the R&B, Soul, and Reggae genres. She has been called one of the 25 greatest Canadian singers of all time by CBC Music, a radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She has been dubbed “Canada’s Queen of R&B.” She is also an accomplished songwriter and actress.[1]
As expected, Ms. Black’s rendition of the Canadian Anthem drew praise and criticism. Among the positive responses was that of Dr. Eva Jewell, a First Nations academic of the Anishiaabekwe and Deshkan Ziibiing (Chippewa of the Thames) First Nations, as well as director of the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous research center based at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Indigenous Peoples have been saying that line (Ms. Black’s lyric change) for decades. This is known within our communities,” said Dr. Jewell to a reporter from the Toronto Star, “So, to see Jully uplift that into the national anthem, it showed that she has seen us, she understands us, she gets it,” Dr Jewell added.[2] Among the negative responses sent to Ms. Black was an email “questioning her ‘audacity’ to change the national anthem while living in a ‘white majority country”.[3] Ms. Black did a bit of due diligence beforehand by asking some of her Indigenous friends their opinions about her idea to perform the anthem with the proposed lyric change. Ms. Black says that her feedback from these friends was positive, thus encouraging her to sing the lyric change at the All-Star game.[4]
Jully Black’s lyric change has earned her some critical accolades. In April 2023, two months after the NBA All-Star Game, Ms. Black was honored by the Assembly of First Nations of Canada. The honor came as a ceremony where she was given an eagle feather enveloped in a traditional white, black, and gold star blanket. The ceremony visibly moved Jully. In response to this honor, Ms. Black said, “I didn’t realize that my action would garner such a response. But on behalf of the Black community, I say we are one. We are better together.” [5]
In June of 2023, Ms. Black was invited to sing her changed rendition of the Canadian anthem at the inaugural graduation ceremony of the first cohort of law students at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). About the TMU honor, Ms. Black pointed out in an interview how important it is to be “steadfast in standing up for change, and in yourself.” In the interview, she said, “It’s amazing not to feel invisible anymore and to be welcomed into a space and asked to contribute to something so beautiful.” TMU’s law school had asked Ms. Black to perform the anthem “to reflect the core values of the law program, which are a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation following its name changed from Ryerson University to Toronto Metropolitan University.” [6]
Ryerson University was originally named in honor of Egerton Ryerson (1803-1882), a Methodist minister and the founder of the Ontario, Canada, public school system. Ryerson was also instrumental in the founding of the notorious residential school system in Canada for First Nations children. Ryerson was not interested in establishing an educational system that would produce individuals to be competitive in society at large but rather recommended “an educational system intended to turn Indigenous students into a racialized subservient class.” [7] In December of 2022, the university was officially renamed Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) because of Ryerson’s racist attitude toward Indigenous children actualized in the inferior educational program—the Canadian Indian Residential School System—he helped to establish for them:
As a result of Egerton Ryerson’s association with the establishment of the Canadian Indian residential school system, the institution, [Ryerson University], faced calls to reevaluate the university’s namesake in 2017…. Pressure to rename the university grew after the finding of 215 (later revised to 200) possible unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021.
Shortly after its discovery, the university’s Yellowhead Institute staff and students announced they would cease using the Ryerson name in favor of “X University” to advocate for a name change. In June 2021, protesters toppled the statue of Egerton Ryerson and threw its severed head into Toronto Harbour. The university stated that the statue would not be restored or replaced. In August 2021, the university announced that it would accept the 22 recommendations of an internal task force, including renaming the university. On April 26, 2022, the university was renamed Toronto Metropolitan University and formalized in December 2022 through an amendment to the institution’s governing legislation.[8]
Lincoln Alexander (1922-2012), after whom the Law School was named, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who became the first Afro-Canadian to be a member of Parliament in the House of Commons, just one of many official posts he held in his lifetime. The School of Law at TMU was established in his name and honor in 2020.[9] TMU is positioning itself to become a significant academic and intellectual center for the economic, social, and political advancement of Indigenous peoples and minority communities in Canada.
Whether or not one agrees with Ms. Black’s bold initiative in changing the opening lyric line of the Canadian national anthem, that change did, nevertheless, shed light on the continued existence of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. The reality of the continued existence of native peoples has been made invisible. The result is that many believe native peoples no longer exist as peoples with their own nation’s identities and cultures. This tendency towards erasure is perpetrated at the national and international levels. Sylvia McAdam Saysewahum, a citizen of the Cree Nation in Canada, is a lawyer and advocate for the rights of First Nations peoples through the organization Idle No More. Ms. Saysewahum is also an assistant law professor at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She says:
When I teach my students about international law, I refer to the document the [International] Covenant on [Civil and] Political Rights. I demonstrate to them that Canada keeps reporting on Indigenous Peoples under Article 27. Yet, Indigenous Peoples who keep going to the UN report themselves under Article 1 [of the same document].[10]
The point is that Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a United Nations treaty that went into force on March 23 1976, refers to certain rights of “…ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities…”.” In contrast, Article 1 of ICCPR refers to “…peoples hav[ing] the right of self-determination…” [italics added]. Thus, “minorities” in a state no longer have a recognized national identity except that of where they are domiciled, whereas “peoples” have national, cultural, linguistic and territorial identity beyond and separate from the state in which they are domiciled. In this sense the term “peoples,” depending on the context, is another term for “Indigenous peoples,” “Indigenous nations,” or “First Nations.”
Professor Saysewahum accuses the Canadian administration of reducing the First Nations of Canada to a minority status in international meetings. At the same time, Indigenous activists and advocates refuse that status in international conferences and always identify themselves as Indigenous peoples with national identifies inside the state of Canada, thus emphasizing they still exist as nations, as whole peoples, despite the imperial and colonial incursion of European settlers that forced them off most of their original lands. It is a political attempt at erasure that Professor Saysewahum fights against constantly. And it is an attempt at erasure that Ms. Black’s lyric change in the Canadian national anthem attempted to expose to an international audience!
Jully Black’s lyric change is courageous activism. She suffered a barrage of threatening, racist messages because of her heroic act. Additionally, recording deals and other aspects of her entertainment career may have been jeopardized permanently. Ms. Black’s act was nothing short of a courageous wake-up call for all of us. Renewed awareness of the plight and struggle of Indigenous peoples should move us to support projects such as Professor Saysewahum’s Idle No More organization that advocates for the rights of First Nations peoples and other Indigenous peoples through the agency of international law.
But even at the level of international law, Professor Saysewahum’s testimony reveals a struggle between the state—in this case, Canada—and Indigenous nations for proper recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples to exist as nations and not as minorities. Even though the legal status of Indigenous peoples in Canada and worldwide has been strengthened by ratifying the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) on September 13, 2007, the struggle to actualize these rights continues. The efforts of Ms. Black, Professor Saysewahum, and others remind us that the struggle of Indigenous peoples everywhere is a multi-layered, multi-level effort in which all progressive-minded individuals can and must participate.
“JullyBlack.”(August,2023). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jully_Black. [see also Jully black bio at https://jullyblack.ca/bio].
Passafiume, Alessia. (July, 2023). “Jully Black shares barrage of racist, threatening messages after national anthem lyric change.” Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/jully-black-shares-barrage-of-racist-threatening-messages-after-national-anthem-lyric-change/article_234373de-b5c0-5ae6-9404-49e39ef62c8b.html
Ibid
Ibid
“AFN honours singer Jully Black for her change in Canada’s anthem.” (April, 2023). CBC News.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/jully-black-canada-anthem-afn-1.6800619
Bowden, Olivia. (June, 2023). “Jully Black sings ‘our home on native land’ during O Canada performance at Toronto University graduation.” CBC News.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jully-black-tmu-law-school-1.6889024
“Egerton Ryerson.”(August,2023).Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egerton_Ryerson
[see also Jones, Thea. (August, 2020). “Ryerson’s Legacy: Truth and Reconciliation.” Everone Rides.
https://www.everyonerides.org/ryerson_s_legacy_truth_and_reconcilation]
“Toronto Metropolitan University.” (February, 2024). Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Metropolitan_University
[see also Rancic, Michael. (May, 2002). “Ryerson University officially changes its name to Toronto Metropolitan University.”
UA/AU:UniversityAffairs /AffairesUniversitaires.
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/ryerson-university-officially-changes-its-name-to-toronto-metropolitan-university/#:~:text=Following%20a%20years%2Dlong%20process,and%20put%20into%20effect%20immediately.]
“Lincoln Alexander School of Law: Our Namesake.” (2024). https://www.torontomu.ca/law/about/our-namesake/
Bhatia, Amar. (March, 2023). “International Law can be Something Different: An Interview with Beverly Jacobs, Jeffery Hewitt, and Sylvia McAdam.” Twailer: Third World Approaches to International Law Review.
https://twailr.com/international-law-can-be-something-different-an-interview-with-beverly-jacobs-jeffery-hewitt-and-sylvia-mcadam/
Muhammad Al-Hashimi, (Oromo, Mvskoke-Shawnee) is an Associate Scholar at The Center for World Indigenous Studies. Dr. Al-Hashimi is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Finance at Euclid University (Pole Universitaire Euclide), (euclid.int). He is the author of Islam and Pan-Africanism (1973) and The Oppressed Muslims in Ethiopia (1986).
The library is dedicated to the memory of Secwepemc Chief George Manuel (1921-1989), to the nations of the Fourth World and to the elders and generations to come.
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