A Yellowknife born, Calgary-based Inuvialuk artist has been named the winner of the Sobey Art Award four years after being shortlisted for the honour for the first time.
“You’re the whitest Black person I know.”
“But you’re not like
Black Black. You may as well be white.”
“[Insert name of white girl who loves Wu-Tang Clan] is way more Black than you.”
I got this a lot growing up. The words varied, but the message was the same there’s a right way to be Black, and I’m doing it wrong.
Tomi Ajele
The writer s interest in hockey was one way she tried to blend into white Canadian culture.
Growing up in Alberta as a Black, second-generation Canadian was isolating and confusing. With the exception of my siblings, I was surrounded by white kids. I felt pressured to distance myself from anything that felt like Blackness, and cling to everything “Canadian.” Fall in love with hockey? Check. Regulate my voice to rid it of even a hint of my parents’ Nigerian accent? Check. Acquire the approval of a white boy? That was a hard one, but check.