Metis Messenger
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Louis Riel’s Sash
A ceremonial sash owned by Louis Riel has returned to Manitoba from B.C., just in time for the first annual holiday bearing the Metis leader’s name. Marion Hackworth, who lives in Dawson Creek, B.C., said the ceinture fleche had been in her family for generations, and finally came to attention of Metis officials during a cultural celebration in B.C. late last year. Hackworth’s late husband’s great-grandmother was given the sash by Louis Riel himself a few months before he was arrested during the North West Rebellion in 1885 in what is now Saskatchewan, Hackworth told CBC News Thursday.
“She had hidden him her cellar during the uprising, and for hiding him, he gave her his sash,” she said. “They just had it in a drawer or in a cupboard or whatever, a cedar chest, through the generations.”
The sash will be on display at the St. Boniface Museum staring Monday. Museum director Phillippe Mailhot has seen the sash and said it is authentic. “It’s a wide sash. It’s wider than the ones you usually see people wearing around Festival du Voyager, and the age is right,” he said, referring to Winnipeg’s annual winter festival. “It seems to be in excellent condition, which is quite surprising, so it was obviously well taken care of, “Which again supports the tradition, because if you had Louis Riel’s sash, you would probably take care of it.” Mailhot described the sash as “impressive”. “Here you have this sort of ultimate symbol of Louis’s Metis background, Metis culture, and so to have that come to light after all these years, I think it’s pretty significant,” he said. The sash is now in the possession of the Louis Riel Institute, but it will be handed over to the Manitoba Metis Federation at a special ceremony on Monday, Manitoba’s first Louis Riel Day.” Hackworth, who is not herself Metis, will travel to Winnipeg to attend the ceremony. “I think it’s going to be wonderful,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it.” (CBC News)
(retrieved December 10, 2008)
Chelsea Lavalle
Special Youth Award Métis, Southwest Region Métis Manitoba Region.
A grade 12 student from St. Ambroise Manitoba, avid volunteer and master of the Red River Jig, Chelsea Lavallée is a young and accomplished promoter of all things Métis. Member of the St. Ambroise Youth Steppers Square Dance Team, she uses dance as a means of cultural promotion across the province of Manitoba, helping her to win Métis Miss Teen Manitoba in 2005. Asked to share her life story in 2006 at the 38th Annual MMF General Assembly, Lavallée's Métis upbringing has helped her earn a 2006 National Métis Youth Role Model Award, 2006/2007 National Aboriginal Role Model Award and a 2007 Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award.
Watch the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards on APTN March 6th, 2009
Metis David Bouchard is named to the ORDER OF CANADA
Author, teacher, principal:
“I’m thrilled,” he said. “I’m as thrilled for my mom and dad as I am for me, but it’s a nice honour.” “Bouchard, a teacher and principal for many years, said he was surprised when he received a call from the Governor General’s office before Christmas telling him of the honour. But the award-winning advocate of literacy says friends and family are the ones who deserve the credit.” “Bouchard’s books have won many literary wards, including the Governor General’s Award for The Song Within My Heart in 2004, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for Voices from the Wild in 1997, the Red Cedar Award for The Great Race in 1999 and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon award for illustration for The Dragon New Year in 1999.”
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Check out David’s website at: http://www.davidbouchard.com
From the Fall 2005 Metis Messenger:
On National Aboriginal Day, June 21st, Metis Community Services became a signatory to the Greater Victoria School District's Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement. The GVSD (SD 61) initiated the process with the intention of improving the quality of education achieved by Metis and other Aboriginal students.
The intent of the Agreement is to "support students, families and community members who are part of the First Nations, Metis Nation and Inuit people; to develop shared ownership and mutual respect through ongoing dialogue and strong relationships that recognize the cultural differences and diverse needs of Aboriginal students," and to "enhance a learning environment where Aboriginal students feel safe, respected and have a positive sense of place and belonging."
It was agreed by all parties that "Metis Nation people" includes all Aboriginal students and their families who identify as Metis, which is the same definition used in MCS service delivery.
Signatories to the signing ceremony, which was held at the Big House on Maplebank Road, included the Hon. Shirley Bond, Minister of Education, the Chairman and Superintendent of the School District, and representatives of Aboriginal parents and students, as well as representatives of several local Aboriginal organizations.
Metis Community Services has opened a satellite office in the new West Shore Child, Youth and Family Centre at 345 Wale Rd. in Colwood. The new centre was built with funding raised by the Queen Alexandra Foundation, and is being operated by the West Shore Child, Youth and Family Services Society, of which MCS is a member.
The new facility also houses the Vancouver Islanhbourhood centre and a youth centre, asd Health Authority, the Ministry of Child and Family Development, and the Capital Families Association, among others. The Centre offers day care, and has a neig well as infant development programs.
From the Spring 2005 Metis Messenger:
Ryan Bresser, 26, was in Winnipeg in March to perform at an awards banquet where he received the Pierre Falcon Award for artistic merit from the Metis National Youth Council. The award acknowledges Ryan as both an exceptional musician and as a positive role model for Metis youth.
Pictured is Ryan, with his mother, Debra Bresser, holding the glass buffalo which was presented to him in recognition of his accomplishments.
From the Fall 2004 Metis Messenger:
Harry W. Daniels 1941 - 2004
Harry W. Daniels: IN MEMORIAM
We mourn our departed brother.
He will be remembered for many things: his great contributions to Canada, to the cause of Aboriginal peoples, and to his people, the Metis.
Those who knew Harry will remember his unsurpassed 'joie de vivre', his sartorial elegance, his great depth of knowledge, his fondness for a good turn of phrase. An unsurpassed raconteur, he was an actor, a teacher, and a linguist.
To his friends, he was humble, kind, generous, and also gregarious, lively, and at times hilariously funny.
Harry Daniels will share with Louis Riel the honour of having introduced the rights of the Metis people in the Constitution of Canada: Riel in s.31 of the Manitoba Act, 1870, and Harry in s.35 of the Constitution Act 1982.
I salute you, my brother, li grand chef di Michif, li Rouay Rouge. You will be missed.
PAUL L.A.H. CHARTRAND
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
College of Law
University of Saskatchewan
From the Summer 2004 Metis Messenger:
Two of the whales "sky-hopping" around downtown Victoria this summer were painted by local Metis artists, Frank Lewis and Sherry Williams. Sponsored by the Hudson's Bay Company, the two whales reflect the Metis ancestry of their creators.
When HBC's Suzan Lagrove phoned Metis Community Services looking for a Metis artist, we were happy to refer her to Frank Lewis, whose painting, Reluctant Heroes: Riel & Dumont, is on display in our offices. Frank created a Metis orca complete with beadwork, a sash and capote, and even snowshoes! "I gave him a goatee," said Frank, "because I read that some First Nations artists used facial hair to distinguish Metis figures from pictures of their own people."
Metis Community Services' Dana Lynn Seaborn and Robert Donahue attended the unveiling, on May 22nd, and were surprised and delighted to discover a second Metis-themed whale, and to meet Metis artist Sherry Leigh Williams. "I heard that the Bay was sponsoring these whales, and, because of my Metis ancestry, I felt that I had to participate!"
(Orcas in the City is a fundraiser for the Lions Society of BC. At the end of the summer, both whales were purchased by local buyers. One whale lives in Sidney, and the other on Salt Spring Island.)