MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is response to various stories relating to Métis identity that have run in MidlandToday recently.
Dear Editor,
I have resisted writing anything in regards to the recent statements and denials of my Métis ancestry.
I am Métis with verified family lines. I descend from the Trudeau-Papanaatyhianencoe and Laramie-Cloutier lines.
I come from a family that was taught to hide their ancestry, and never tell who they were...all I knew growing up is we were Métis and French. I grew up in a French Catholic setting. I am fully bilingual and proud of that.
I am also very proud of the French that came here to form what is now known as Perkinsfield.
I have worked my whole life to find pride in Métis. I have worked hard to reclaim my culture, find its beauty, instill that in my family, bring us out from under the rug.
I have dedicated myself to my nation by serving as councillor with the Georgian Bay Metis council, and now I sit as Region 7 representative for the Metis Nation of Ontario 2SLGBTQ+ interim council.
The denial of my ancestors is a very sore spot in my heart. These are peoples who were always on the run, living in poverty, being denied their identity, shunned by a community that saw them as Indigenous.
A community that is inclusive does not have its Indigenous living on an island that makes living there a huge hardship. A community that is inclusive does not push members to a part of town no one wants, till they discover the wealth of shoreline properties and then simple take their land for resale.
The denial of our verified family lines is just one more blow to the Métis.
We have fought every battle, stood proud, walked to Toronto in the 1800s, fought with Powley, did the hard thing and cleaned up our registry, at the expense of hurting family and friends.
We have done everything asked of us to prove our existence, to only come to a point where we have to prove more.
Do you have to prove you're white? Do you have to fight at every turn to prove your ancestors were exactly who they said they were?
Do you have to explain this at the dinner table to wee ears that hear the hatred being thrown at us right now ? These children we are raising, we are raising to be proud little Métis, so we can have a strong nation. It's hard to do that when the world keeps throwing stones at us.
Kindness. We live in a world that has always been hard on the indigenous peoples of the lands. Why?
Greed. Money. Treaties.
We were left out of everything. They have always wanted to dwindle down the numbers of indigenous...it's why you have blood quantum....erasing us is just less Indigenous this government needs to care for.
We exist. Our communities exist. We have a unique culture. We are a unique nation. We are the Métis Nation of Ontario. We have always been here....my ancestry goes right back to the Huron/Wendat. My peoples are of this land...This land is our land.
Take a moment to talk to us, ask us the hard questions that we can answer, let's stop the hate, the hurt, the ugliness...we are one beautiful Indigenous peoples..our day is coming ..let's stand in unity for what this country needs to apologize to, and make restitution to, and needs to let us build a circle of love and friendship in.
We need to stand in unity, anything else is exactly what the colonizers planned for.
Don't let hate win. Embrace your local Métis, help us reclaim the pride we have been trying so long to get back.
Marsee.
Micki Belcourt
Midland
