By Mitch T
J’écris ce blog pour décrire mes premières impressions du Saskatoon et mon introduction au travail de Métis Nation – Saskatchewan (MN-S). Au cours de ma première deux semaines, mon temps est consacré à la lecture- je me sens comme une éponge. My intention at this time was to take in as much as I could. I wanted to get a good grasp of the history of the MN-S and recent developments in their institution.
There is an ongoing election for the Provincial Métis Council (PMC). Executive members and regional representatives will be elected at the end of May by Métis citizens. Our department, the Department of Policy and Research, is finishing transition materials to prepare incoming members for their role on the PMC. Il y a également un projet intéressant sur une système judiciaire qui sera entièrement métis, qui est hyper intéressant comme étudiant en droit.
I am consciously reminding myself that I am here to deeply engage with my new surroundings. Unlike an international internship, there are no meaningful changes to my everyday life. From a sensory perspective, it feels, looks, and sounds basically like any other Canadian city. Cependant, un point délicat est que le Métis Nation, c’est entirement nouveau pour moi. Je suis dans un état d’apprentissage, et cela me fait penser qu’il y a quelque chose ici au MN-S qui est et conflict avec ce que je sais de la culture et de la gouvernance. The significance of this is that I must remember to take more time to deeply listen and observe what the people I work and interact with are saying.
I have learned much about what it means to be Métis. The information I learned in school was incomplete and misleading. In Ontario, we learned that the ‘Aboriginal’ people of Canada are divided into three groups: the Inuit, the First Nations, and the Métis. We were told that anyone who has a mixed French and Indigenous ancestery was considered Métis. This impression has persisted until my preperation for this internship. The Métis identity is much more nuanced than this. Les Métis sont plus que des personnes d’ascendance mixte: ce n’est pas seulement une question de sang. Les Métis sont un peuple distinct avec leur propre culture et identité qui sont devenues distinctes au milieur du 18e siècle dans la région du bassin versant de la rivière Nelson. Ils ont une identité collective. Je lis actuellement le livre ‘The North West is Our Mother’ par Jean Teillet qui raconte les histoires de l’émergence de Métis. There is a facinating history of cultural collision, conflict, and coming together. I am already starting to interact with different parts of the Métis culture and there are many planned cultural events over the summer that I am anticipating.
I will conclude by sharing a few Métis Mischif words that I have learned. These words stood out to me, as it was possible to infer what they meant by connecting the way they sound to similar words in French. I will allow you, my faithful reader, to make the inference yourself. I have no doubt that you will.
- Aan pleu vyeu
- Aan nwayzoo*
- Di loo or dilo
- Pleu taar
*’oo’ in Mischif is pronounced as ‘oh’