Letter to X University from MSW Graduates re: Associate Director Cyndy Baskin
October 25, 2021
Dear President Lachemi, Dean Gharabaghi, Director Borum, and the School of Social Work Faculty of X University,
We, students from the 2018–2019 graduating class of the Master of Social Work program at X University, write to you today in both outrage and disgust at what we have come to learn regarding Associate Director Cyndy Baskin.
During the summer of 2021, we began to witness social media posts stating that Associate Director Baskin was in fact not Indigenous to Turtle Island. On May 15, 2021, an account by the name of @DawnlandTruth on Twitter made a tweet stating Associate Director Baskin’s only connection to being Indigenous to Turtle Island was through a Mi’kmaq woman born in the 1700’s. Then on October 3, 2021, a series of tweets were then made under this first tweet which illustrated the past 5 generations of Associate Director Baskin’s genealogy.
Instead of confirming Associate Director Baskin’s repeated claim that she is from the Ugpi’ganjig (Eel River Bar) First Nation in what is called New Brunswick, Associate Director Baskin’s family origins to the area were white colonial settlers from what is called the United States. Associate Director Baskin’s family was given land for free near Waterford, New Brunswick, and this family includes slave owners from the United States.
If Associate Director Baskin can identify one Indigenous woman from nine generations back, it is perplexing that she would be unaware of this ongoing family history. During the many times Associate Director Baskin claimed to be from Ugpi’ganjig First Nation, why did she not mention her family played an obvious role in the forced displacement of Mi’kmaq and Maliseet peoples? Why did she not inform us that she is a direct descendent of those who owned Black people as property to work the land her family stole from Indigenous nations in the illegitimate United States?
Repeatedly, Associate Director Baskin stated in various forums (example: WikedIdeas; X University TRC Event) she is a Mi’kmaw and Celtic woman from Ugpi’ganjig First Nation. Why did Associate Director Baskin repeatedly claim she was from Ugpi’ganjig First Nation when this is not true?
We acquired an email correspondence dated September 13, 2021, with Associate Director Baskin’s X University email address clearly visible (see attached). In this email, Associate Director Baskin clearly states she is “…not a band member of Eel River,” and that she is from another nation somewhere in the area from her family who apparently told her this. Yet, based on her family tree it is hard to imagine which family that would be since it appears that her family’s entry point to the area was her white settler colonial lineage. Why the ambiguity in the face of her decades old claim to Ugpi’ganjig First Nation? We also have verbal confirmation from Natoaganeg (Eel Ground) First Nation who stated there was no record of Associate Director Baskin. Who is this other nation in the area she claims to be from?
We don’t think it appropriate for our cohort to decide whether Associate Director Baskin is Indigenous to Turtle Island. However, we do think it is more than fair for us to ask questions about her claim to being Indigenous to Turtle Island after her role in the violence and turmoil our cohort experienced. While we don’t think it is appropriate to determine if Associate Director Baskin is Indigenous to Turtle Island, we do think it important to provide you all with a reminder.
As a faculty, you educators repeatedly assign Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang’s article Decolonization is Not a Metaphor to social work students both at the Bachelor and Master of Social Work levels. In brutal irony, the last day we ever saw Associate Director Baskin — only four weeks into our Fall semester course with her — was the same day Associate Director Baskin assigned that very article.
On pages 11–13 of Tuck and Yang’s article they state:
In this move to innocence, settlers locate or invent a long-lost ancestor who is rumored to have had “Indian blood,” and they use this claim to mark themselves as blameless in the attempted eradications of Indigenous peoples… Settler nativism, or what Vine Deloria Jr. calls the Indian-grandmother complex, is a settler move to innocence because it is an attempt to deflect a settler identity, while continuing to enjoy settler privilege and occupying stolen land… In the racialization of whiteness, blood quantum rules are reversed so that white people can stay white, yet claim descendance from an Indian grandmother… Ancestry is different from tribal membership; Indigenous identity and tribal membership are questions that Indigenous communities alone have the right to struggle over and define, not DNA tests, heritage websites, and certainly not the settler state.
We are not deciding whether Associate Director Baskin is Indigenous to Turtle Island or not. However, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place; between the information provided to us about Associate Director Baskin’s lineage (and her own words) and the very readings that her and you assign. As our cohort attempts to navigate what we’re learning about Associate Director Baskin, we can’t help but think about the impacts of this possible truth.
What is the impact on the Indigenous students Associate Director Baskin supervised and co-authors she worked with and whose names are now attached to hers? What is the impact on the many hiring committees Associate Director Baskin participated in through her claim of indigeneity? How much money and resources did Associate Director Baskin possibly steal from Indigenous Peoples to Turtle Island? How many times did Associate Director Baskin call people anti-Indigenous when they challenged her behaviour, as she did our cohort, and what was the impact of this?
What will the university do to begin to repair this harm?
Should this be true, some of you in the School of Social Work should be deeply embarrassed and ashamed. Some of you sat there in meetings with us, attempting to placate us with “we’re dealing with this” when we complained about her conduct and your ineptitudes, and cut your eyes at us when we told you your placations weren’t good enough. Some of you jumped to Associate Director Baskin’s defence, acting as a shield for her antagonistic behaviour. Clearly you didn’t deal with anything, because somehow Associate Director Baskin is now in an administrative position at the School. More brutal irony since the Associate Director role includes taking student complaints, a role we’re confused as to how she is qualified for when she walked out crying when we voiced our complaints. Some of you may consider taking our advice when we told you in March 2019 to retire and give up your seats to those with ethics and intellectual rigour.
Associate Director Baskin inflicted widespread and long-lasting harm when she subjected our cohort to her antiBlack and white supremacist pedagogical practices. The truth about this matter is taken up in the very readings her and you assign. We send this letter to voice our belief that you should deal with Associate Director Baskin accordingly. We also send this letter in the interests of the public, to create a public archive for others to know the climate and conditions of the School of Social Work and X University more broadly.
You and Associate Director Cyndy Baskin have much and many to answer to.
Signed,
Josh Lamers (he/him), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
Martha Segovia (she/her), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
Arielle Cohen (they/them), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
Karia Jones (she/her), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
Erica Chigozirim Elechi (she/her), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
Monica Lam (she/her), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
Leah Roberts (she/her), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate
A.H. (she/her), 2018–19 X University MSW Graduate