We submitted our paper to a journal. Their reviewer asks (only the Indigenous author, no one else) to reveal my gender (?) & authenticate my Indigeneity (listing of examples of what they deem to be authentic full of harmful stereotypes like “common experience of poverty”). 1/

From this list, it was very obvious that this person was a settler. They didn’t ask which Nation I’m from, what community I live in, or who my people are. They asked me if I fit the stereotypes they know of natives. They have a different worldview & notion of belonging. 2/

& it doesn’t allow them to see the ways in which they are being harmful, both in their thinking & directly in singling me out. I don’t know if this is typical of the review process, as this is the first paper I’ve been on. But it might be my last (at least for the time being) 3/

Actually seeing the ways in which settler colonialism is enacted and re-enforced at every step of academia is infuriating. This paper allowed me to use Indigenous methodologies to unpack a serious health concern for Indigenous women. Yet if I want it to be published 4/

I have to go along with this settler & prove to them just how native I am? And yet none of the 5 other authors are asked to do this, nor are they fed stereotypes of their people & asked to reveal/authenticate their identities. Western academia is so wild to me. /end.