Who Are the Métis?

 

Who Are the Métis?

We are not Métis, we are the Sang-Mêlés Acadien of Western Nova Scotia, a distinct indigenous people as defined by Article 33 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. Here in Ke’pek (Chabake) we have two so-called indigenous Métis organizations, the Eastern Woodland Métis Nation of Nova Scotia and the Association Acadien Métis-Souriquois, both organizations are in error to use the word Métis in their names, but so is the Métis Nation of Ontario who persists in using that word to self identify non-status indigenous people in their territory.

This is a historic mistake. Up until 2019 when the Manitoba Métis Federation banned non-Métis people from using the word Métis, the word Métis was commonly used by non-status peoples east of Manitoba to self identify. However the Sang-Mêlés Acadien of Western Nova Scotia have been singled out for special abuse by the Ontario Métis Nation through its proxy the Métis National Council, an NGO funded by the federal government and a certain college professor from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, named Darryl Leroux, who advances the preposterous idea there are no non-status indigenous peoples east of Ontario. In the aftermath of the Manitoba Métis Federation’s declaration to deprive Ontario and British Columbia of the right to use the word Métis the perspectives of the Ontario Métis Nation, the Métis National Council and the settler Mr. Leroux have become irrelevant.

Our struggle as an indigenous people is to reject the idea we are Métis and move forward from the a-historical, racist and colonial “Land of Evangeline” myth as outlined in my “We are Where Infinity Begins" essay and restore our own indigenous history and culture in a respectful way.

 

Blessings from the Chebake