Celebrated Métis lawyer and author Jean Teillet never expected to be arguing a case about “a moose in Sault Ste. Marie” in the highest court in the land. But when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Powley Case that the Métis had a right to hunt, Teillet realized it was an enormous victory. The case, which put the Métis into what Teillet described as the legal “big leagues,” became renowned for recognizing the rights enshrined in section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Charged with illegal hunting in 1993, the case of Steve Powley and his son Roddy laid the groundwork for subsequent rulings and negotiations that acknowledged Métis rights.

Many years later, after numerous other victories in court, Teillet took on perhaps an even greater challenge: chronicling the storied saga of the Métis in a “popular history.” Released in 2019, The Northwest is Our Mother quickly became the go-to book about the Métis and was a prime source of information for The True Canadians. Teillet explains to host David Wylynko that even though the Métis continue to face an uphill battle – typically negotiating through the Liberals and litigating through the Conservatives – she has a strong belief that a roadmap for the future of Canada is being laid, with the Métis figuring prominently in its design. Working since her retirement as an artist, Teillet tells listeners the reasons for her eternal optimism.

Notes

• A review of The Northwest is Our Mother
• The True Canadians website
• Intro and outro music by Métis musician Alex Kusturok
• Opening quote from an address by Métis leader Jim Sinclair during the 1987 Canadian constitutional talks

Preeminent Métis poet Marilyn Dumont has spent a lifetime unlearning the racist discourses that permeated her formal education. She grew up in a colonial schooling system more interested in erasing her identity – what Dumont calls a legacy of gaslighting – than providing students with an accurate portrayal of Canadian history. Even though she began writing at a very young age, Dumont tells host David Wylynko that for a while she gave up writing all together, before finding her interest rekindled during her university years.

Since then, Dumont has been writing to correct our interpretations of Canadian history and how the Métis are perceived. Much has changed in that time. Today, Dumont teaches Indigenous literature and creative writing at the University of Alberta. She focuses strongly on Indigegogy, which brings to the classroom Indigenous knowledge, literature, and scholarship and is focused on land-based education. But Dumont is still correcting Canadian history through poetry. Her latest collection, South Side of a Kinless River, is described as poetry that wrestles with concepts of Métis identity in a nation and territory that would rather erase it. Dumont explains why she is still a long way from putting down the pen.

Mentioned in this episode

• A Really Good Brown Girl (1996), Brick Books
• The Pemmican Eaters (2015) Misfit Book
• South Side of A Kinless River (2024) Brick Books
• The True Canadians website
• Intro and outro music by Métis musician Alex Kusturok
• Opening quote from an address by Métis leader Jim Sinclair during the 1987 Canadian constitutional talks

Popular culture often equates archeology with the trials and tribulations of Hollywood blockbusters like Indiana Jones. But when it comes researching Métis history, the film’s star Harrison Ford need not apply. Instead, the Métis look to researchers like Kisha Supernant, who uses digital spatial data instead of whips to find such archival treasures as beadwork instead of gold chests. Like Indiana Jones, Supernant takes her research to the field, not for adventure and mayhem but, sadly, to use ground-penetrating radar to discover unmarked graves at former residential schools.

Of Métis descent, Supernant is the Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archeology and Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. In her discussion with host David Wylynko, Supernant explains the difference between archeology and anthropology, uses beadwork and other artifacts to trace Métis lineage back to the fur trade across Canada, and delves into the need to upend a history of non-Indigenous academics dominating the tale of Indigenous history. Supernant describes the importance of Exploring Métis Identity Through Archaeology (EMITA), a collaborative research project that takes a relational approach to exploring the material past of Métis communities.

More information

• Kisha Supernant website
• Exploring Métis Identity Through Archaeology project
• College of News Scholars, Artists, and Scientists
• The True Canadians book
• Intro and outro music by Métis musician Alex Kusturok
• Opening quote from an address by Métis leader Jim Sinclair during the 1987 Canadian constitutional talks