Louis Riel is remembered as a champion for the rights of Metis people.

Normally, my blog is intended for my own writing.  However, I recently came across an amazing description (reposted Nov 14) and want to share the following words, author unknown.

In reading, I remembered an unspoken dream imagined over 50 years ago that I hoped to gift to a new generation.  Of course, it was unfair to place such a vision on a child not yet born, especially one whose parents did not fully appreciate their own unique heritage and lacked the wisdom and maturity to merge their individual worlds.

We are Metis, people with roots and rights that extend 9000 years into this continent. We are neither First Nations nor Inuit, nor are we European immigrants to this land. Instead we are the middle-ground between camps, the compromise between differences, and the dawn that separates night and day.  We are… children born of a marriage between two very different worlds.

Our right and our purpose is to strengthen the voice of justice and to bend the arm of greed, whose hand has take far too much from the mouths of the meek.  The very duality of our heritage appoints us, and no other, to the task of mediating between the new and ancient ways, that we might be the People to strike a chord of lasting harmony amidst the mounting chaos of nations. 

The essence of our uniquely diverse culture is Harmony, for in the moment of our conception, there was union.  The birth of the Metis Nation signifies the undeniable powers of those possessed of tolerance and the gentle spirit of compromise.  The birthright of our people is to mediate on behalf of justice and common good for both our parent strains and to bring forth a means of governance that protects and prospers all who would be unjustly treated.

To be Metis is to be blessed with the best fruits of not one, but two family trees. We are not “half” of anything but doubled. Being twice blessed, we are likewise proud, strong, and determined. 

Photo from the REDress Project, Jaime Black artist