For the third straight year, Yorkton’s Dr. Brass School celebrated Métis Day Wednesday. It was a day of learning, activities and cultural exchange. “Today is Métis Day, and we’re just sharing our culture with a bunch of schools in this community. We’re telling them about our stories, and we’re trying to help them understand,” Alayah, a student from Dr. Brass School, told CTV News. The Métis Day event started at Dr. Brass when Darcy Lepowick began working there as a teacher. “I realized there’s not a lot of Métis culture in the curriculum,” Lepowick said. Lepowick is a regional representative of the Métis Nation in Saskatchewan. He said there are around 40,000 registered Métis citizens in Canada, and about 8,000 in Saskatchewan. “So we started a Métis Day here, and it’s basically just a showcase of Métis culture and what it means to people,” Lepowick said. At a nearby table, Métis elder Annie Fleury was making bannock. She said she has been making the dish for the past 60 years. “I just learned from my mom. Probably my older sisters,” she added. She hopes the younger generation will continue to carry on the tradition of frying bannock, including her own adult children. “She’s learning now,” Fleury said, pointing at her daughter behind her. “She makes bannock anyways. But our grandkids, a couple of them, I taught them how to make it, but they haven’t done it in public.” Fleury is one of several elders actively working to pass on their knowledge to the 1,200 students who took part in the event. Among more than 20 booths, students learned about tanning and trapping, and in a shaded area they could even try another traditional Métis dish – bullet soup, made with ground meat and typically served on New Year’s Eve. For the first time this year, the event also hosted a group of young jigger dancers from Manitoba. Lepowick told CTV News that the event is so popular they’re considering expanding it by one more day.
