Métis: a Global Indigenous People

The research project we propose here relates to the to two interlinked strands in the grant call: community and civic discourse and intergenerational justice, but it also has ramifications for important themes not specifically named here--such as the challenge of historical (self-)representation, the import of mobility to understandings of Indigenous sovereignty, and the global relationality of an Indigenous nation. In this instance, our focus is on the Métis--the home nation of our Co-I, professor Chris Andersen--an historically highly mobile nation whose peoplehood was forged in the era of the buffalo economy of the northern plains--have, like Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, gradually become codified through legislation, land allocation, and popular narrative as a people tied to a specific (usually rural) locale. While relationship to place is integral to Métis political and cultural identity, such locatedness tends to overlook the ways in which expansive movement, including urban and global movement, has been central to the growth and unfolding of Métis society.

This project will focus on Métis travel to and presence in three European cities--London, Edinburgh, and Paris; locations that we identify as "nodes" or sites of multiplicity, connection and transition, in the wider Métis networks of relation. In uncovering, and illuminating, the long history of Métis presence in these locations, we will broaden the currently narrow focus on fur trade exchange to include Métis figures who have traveled for diplomatic, activist, educational, military, employment, and tourist purposes, opening up this rich history to both Métis and European, scholarly and community audiences and documenting their erasure from conventional/tourist-focused urban histories as an index of social (in)justice. doing so opens potential opportunities for the repatriation of Métis knowledge (of heritage and historical movement) in diverse geographical and temporal sites, scrutinizing its role as a factor in ongoing work for collective Métis wellbeing.

Understanding this aspect of Métis cultural history, which will trace the movement of both people and objects, will involve two methodological interventions focused on Indigenous self determination, alongside archival research. The first of these, visiting sessions in Alberta led by Prof. Andersen, will explore the ways a mixed-age group Métis focus group understand the history of Métis movement, with a particular emphasis on transatlantic travel. Drilling in to community-level understanding of this history will inform the way the research team frames the narratives the project highlights. It will also direct us as we consider the best vehicles for repatriating this historical and cultural knowledge, and knowledge of Métis history, to community members. The second, which addresses both of those aspects, will involve the leading of walking and discussion sessions by profs Andersen and Stirrup in London, Edinburgh, and Paris. Accompanied by Indigenous expatriates resident in the UK and France (coordinated by LeAndra Nephin (UmoNhoN) in the UK and Aaron Carr (Navajo) in France) these sessions will explore sites associated with Métis presence, interrogate their significance to Indigenous visitors today, and form the basis of walking tours produced through embodied encounter with and through shared apprehension of those sites and histories explored.

The outputs for this project will include those walking tours themselves--produced in both app-based and downloadable formats--designed to further encourage, engage, and orientate Métis travelers to these cities. Our findings will also provide the basis for expansive digital story maps similarly designed to open up these spaces and knowledges to those who cannot travel in person (with hard copy formats made available for those without easy access to technology).