Meet your favorite Fauxdenosaunee musician
Just who is Liam McDonald aka OPLIAM?
What’s that? You’ve never heard of OPLIAM, the self-identified “Mohawk” musician who was recently shamed off the stage during his own album release party?
If that name doesn’t ring a bell, well how about Liam McDonald, the self-identified “Native American” musician who once claimed that his family is from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory? Still nothing?
OK, surely you know about the author of Indigenous America, the forthcoming children’s book that supposedly tells the “true story” of America’s Indigenous beginnings? 🦗🦗🦗
Well don’t get too worried if you’ve never heard of Liam McDonald aka OPLIAM. Because you’ll get to learn all about him on Native America Calling this Friday, May 27, 2022!
But prepare to be confused. Whether it’s tales about his “grandmother,” a supposed “medicine woman who was forced to practice her spirituality in secret due to persecution” or his more recent assertions of being from the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, OPLIAM’s Native affiliation claims — as well as his rampant appropriation of Haudenosaunee imagery — are already the source of legend in Pretendian circles.
OPLIAM’s shifting stories, in fact, have long been the delight of social media, so much so that he’s blocked countless of Native users on his @opliammusic account on Instagram. There was even an informal survey about it last month, conducted through Instagram stories!
Mr. McDonald, it seems, doesn’t want Native people listening to his music, or knowing anything about him, or finding out what he’s up to. Probably because they might actually show up to one of his gigs or something. They might even ask him to explain why he claims to be Mohawk when doesn’t belong to any of the Mohawk communities in the U.S. or Canada.
Well that’s exactly what happened earlier this month. Members of the Native community in Chicago, Illinois, showed up to the album release party for “All Roads Are Good” on May 4, 2022. Yup — you guessed it — OPLIAM had something of a meltdown on stage at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
Want to see all the receipts on this Pretendian figure? Paid subscribers to Pretendian Country Today ONLY! 🦅