Indigenous musician's Facebook page suspended for using traditional name

An aboriginal musician is disabling her Facebook page after the social media company suspended her account for days because she was using her traditional indigenous name.

IsKwe is an award-winning electronic musician from Winnipeg who is known across the country for mixing Cree and Dene music with trip-hop and R&B.

"I have two names. I have a traditional name, and I have an English name," said isKwe, whose English name is Meghan Meisters. "[IsKwe] is the name that I've been going as for a long time. It's the name that family know me as, friends know me as and my business and my music and my art know me as."

She's run a personal and fan page for years under the name, but over the weekend, Facebook suspended her personal account, which also prevented her from accessing her fan page.

"I had no access to it until I was able to prove isKwe was my 'authentic identity,' and in order to do so, they required that I submit government-issued ID that was I was told would remain on file," she said. "It was infuriating … On a business side of things, I have a very large show coming up in Toronto next week and it blocked me from everything on Facebook, which is where I do the majority of my promotion."

IsKwe said she did have a conversation with people who worked at the company, explaining isKwe was a portion of her traditional name, but she was not allowed to use it going forward.

The account was only reactivated after she agreed to use her English name, Meghan Meisters.

"[The name isKwe is] a direct link to a very personal side of me … It comes with a lot of stories. That's a part of the reason [I use it,]" she said. "I understand this is social media, and I'm choosing to sign up for it … But if everybody is on Facebook and a part of that community, and you're being censored because of how you're choosing to identify, I feel like that's a sidebar to the conversation."

IsKwe did agree to the change so she could make a post about what happened.

"I had a lot of people coming forward and saying they had in fact had these sorts of problems themselves … either people that had cultural names or traditional names, people who have either or are in the process of transitioning. There's sort of endless examples of how people have been impacted," she said, adding some contacted her saying they used different names to remain safe from people trying to locate them. "If it's meant to create a safe environment -- that is kind of the guise Facebook is using to create this guideline -- it's actually not safe."

It's not the first time the social media behemoth has caught heat for flagging aboriginal names as "not authentic."

Earlier this year, indigenous people from across the United States reported their accounts were suspended, and error messages indicated it was because the names on their accounts "may not be your authentic name."

In 2014, Facebook did issue an apology to drag queens and members of the LGBT community who had their accounts suspended after using stage names, but indigenous names are continuing to be flagged.

Now, isKwe plans to deactivate her page and use other networks.

"I'm going to take the party on over to Twitter and Instagram and other places you can be your authentic self without needing government ID to prove it," she said.