Community newspaper article about head lice with photo of Indigenous girl sparks outrage

A member of Paul First Nation in Alberta said he was outraged to see a photo of an Indigenous girl displayed along with an article about head lice in a community newspaper.

The article, titled 'Tis the season for school and lice, was published in the Sept. 1 edition of the Stony Plain Reporter/Spruce Grove Examiner community newspaper in Alberta and is sparking heated discussions on Facebook.

According to Rod Burnstick, the outrage is because Parkland County, just west of Edmonton, is a predominately Caucasian community but the newspaper ran the story with a photo of an Indigenous child, which associates Indigenous people with lice.

"[When I saw it] I really felt for our children — our children that attend the County of Parkland schools — because our children already face oppression when attending county schools [outside of reserve]," said Burnstick, who posted a photo of the article on his Facebook page.

He said it's common for First Nations children from the Paul Band, which sits within Parkland County, to face racism and discrimination in the town of Stony Plain and the city of Spruce Grove.

"It goes back to the early beginnings of residential schools and the fact that the church deemed lice is an infliction and the age-old social cliché of a 'dirty Indian,' which has followed us into the modern era" Burnstick said.

"We're trying to shake [these kinds of] stereotypes because it's very harmful to our children. It imposes that discriminatory innuendo that we have been trying to shake for generations. I don't want any child to go through this."

'Get some education,' Maskwacis mom writes

A concerned mother from Ermineskin Cree Nation in Maskwacis, Alta., saw Burnstick's Facebook post and decided to write to the newspaper's editor.

"I was extremely appalled to see a photo attached to the back to school head lice article, depicting a minority," said Tara Cutarm in her letter.

"In this day and age you would think people in the media industry would be more aware," she wrote.

"Get some education on the current race relations and issues therein, and how journalists and reporters need to be well aware of the implications when portraying these stereotypes, intended or not," she wrote.

"I do not believe for one minute this was an oversight, not one bit."

Others thought it was humiliating for a child's photo to be used with the article, no matter what their race.

"They should have put up just a picture of the lice," said Wendy Rudiger. "Having said that, I didn't see colour, just a child.… However, the way society has treated our First Nation citizens is deplorable and media needs to smarten up and be more considerate in their choices."

'Now we can deal with the subtle racism'

The article and photo were originally sourced from Metro Creative Connection and printed in the community newspaper. MCC is a global company that supplies copyright-free articles for various markets.

Burnstick said he was primarily motivated to post the article and photo because he thought it was important to speak out against perpetuating stereotypes for future generations.

"In a way I'm glad that this was exposed the way it was because now we can deal with the subtle racism," he said.

"We can't always turn a blind eye towards what is wrong. At some point, we as a people have to come together to find resolve of these differences. The aspect of cultural profiling, racial profiling, social class profiling — all the things that divide us."

Burnstick said he has not personally contacted the editor of the Stony Plain Reporter/Spruce Grove Examiner to complain, but he's aware of several people who have.

CBC has reached out to the editor and the paper's owner, Sun Media, for comment but has not yet received a reply.