Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE Academic institutions across Mother Earth are making a concerted effort to hire Indigenous academics with focused job posting, cluster hires, and incentives such as research chairs, competitive salaries and other promises. In some cases, like north of the colonial North American boarder, this has been a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report in 2015. Prior to the TRC, most Indigenous hires focused on disciplines like Indigenous studies and professions with accreditation standards that require students to learn about Indigenous peoples, like education and social work. Now, other disciplines, such as medicine and law are requiring and/or encouraging Indigenous education. The pedagogy for this required education is moving beyond the workshops on cultural competency, bringing in an unpaid or nominally paid guest lecturer or at worst, expecting the one Indigenous student in the class to educate the instructor and other students. The latter (workshops/guest lectures/burden placed on Indigenous students) is very often seen in infusion models, where there is an expectation for Indigenous content to be dispersed throughout curriculum, without hiring an Indigenous person in a secure tenure-track position. There has been a proliferation of Indigenous scholars in the past decade, with some choosing not to join the colonial academy, some not being able to obtain a tenure-track position, some choosing to wait for positions in their own region/territory/province, and some taking positions in outside of their territory and/or province. At the institution in which I work the number of Indigenous faculty held steady for over a decade and in the last two to three years the number has increased almost four-fold, moving across five of the seven faculties (excluding the Graduate School as the programs are Interdisciplinary). Recently, there is some dialogue about “poaching” of Indigenous scholars and the need for institutions to hire Indigenous people from their own territory. Interestingly enough, I’ve heard this from Indigenous academics with secure tenure and promotion who have positions in provinces very far from the regions or territories they call home. First, I want to consider the terminology that is being used – poaching – and how this aligns somewhat with violent colonial acts. such the theft of land with the creation of reserves. The late Vern Asin Harper shared many stories with me, one of which was the intentionality of the creation of reserves to, not just take the land, but to separate us to weaken us. I want to draw your attention to the pass system, and the inability for people to leave the reserve without approval from the Indian agent. If there is one thing that we should have now is choice. Indigenous academics should have the choice to take a position where they reside or elsewhere. Granted, if someone is trying time after time to attain a tenure-track position in or near the territory they call home this raises other concerns. Others want to move away from their home territories and that is no business of anyone, except theirs. On the term, poaching. Seriously! Poaching is the illegal hunting and capturing of animals. Yes, the terminology is often used about institutions poaching someone, but again, this is problematic as it suggests unfair or dishonest tactics, but worse, assumes the person who may take a position outside of their territory has no ability to choose.