The Curious Case of Gina Adams

A National Magazine Award–winning investigation, in book form for the first time.

In 2019, an Ojibwe artist named Gina Adams was hired by Emily Carr University as part of a concerted effort to bolster the school’s Indigenous faculty. Less than two years later, however, doubts about Adams’s identity began to surface. Was she Indigenous at all? How did the university know? For Michelle Cyca, an Indigenous writer then working in Emily Carr’s communications department, the controversy was more personal. Her investigation of Adams’s case—and the “Pretendian” question more generally—is nuanced, provocative, and compelling at every turn.

Our edition of Cyca’s feature is a 56-page hardcover with striking lilac paper, foil-stamped iconography, and a letterpress-printed title band. It also includes an all-new afterword from Cyca about how she reported the story.

The Curious Case of Gina Adams is part of H&O’s Permanent Record longform series. It is available in an edition of 400 copies, each of which is hand-numbered and signed by Cyca.