EYEWITNESS MEET THE MÉTIS


Experience Métis culture and crafts in the province of Alberta. Words: Emma Thomson


On the drive north from Edmonton, signs along the roadside point to farms selling Taber corn and peaches. Silver silos glint across the flat fields. Then, just before the prairie meets the vast northern boreal forests, I arrive at Métis Crossing. It’s a new 40-room lodge on the banks of the Red River and Alberta’s first indigenous cultural centre. It sits on a section of the Old Victoria Trail, part of a


trading route that ran from Fort Edmonton to Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Known as Otipemisiwak, or ‘The People Who Own Themselves’, the Métis have mixed European and First Nation ancestry — born from unions between European fur traders and First Nation women in the 17th century. Today, they number around 587,000. They have their own laws, official language (Michif), faith and music. They were always free agents who traded fur and pemmican (blocks of powdered dried meat, mixed with berries and lard), often working as interpreters and guides for European arrivals. Only in 2016 were their distinct indigenous rights recognised by the Canadian government. Everything at the centre is Métis-made. From the design


of the building by architect Tiffany Shaw-Collinge and the chef who prepares indigenous-inspired dishes featuring bison and bannock bread, to the hand-sewn quilts on the beds. To teach guests about their culture, staff run dugout canoe trips, basket-weaving, beading and other workshops. “My journey is to share who I am for the future of our


people,” says Lilyrose Meyers, a kokum (grandmother) and knowledge-keeper. We’re seated in one of Métis Crossing’s classrooms and she’s teaching me to tuft strands of moose hair and smooth porcupine quills, so that we might decorate sac à feu (a small pouch the Métis fill with tobacco to offer to nature when foraging). She can trace her Myers surname back to Hamburg,


Germany, in the 1700s, while on the other side, she says, she is the great-great granddaughter of Chief Black Powder from Manitoba. “We welcome about 50% tourists and 50% Métis here,” she explains. “Of the latter, some come to learn who they are, to rediscover their roots. Walking in the same place as their ancestors helps them to relearn their history.” She snips off the tip of a porcupine quill and starts sewing it to the pouch. “History can’t always be Googled,” she continues. “You have to stand on the land, by the river, hear the wind, to feel it.” Two moose-hair tufts, framed by two porcupine quills,


Burning sage, a plant that is important to the Métis. Clockwise from above: Matricia walking to the fireside; purple clover


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are sewn neatly onto the sac à feu. “We place a great deal of unspoken pride in the quality of our workmanship,” says Lilyrose with a smile. “I teach it, so if one in a hundred carries it on, the skill survives.” She rises from her chair and leads me into the dining


hall. On the far side is the hulk of an albino bison. “I was the one to bless him before the sacrifice,” say Lilyrose, proudly. “The meat was donated to Métis settlements.”


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