Métis culture takes centre stage in Winnipeg on Louis Riel Day

Louis Riel’s legacy was celebrated throughout Manitoba on Monday. Joseph Bernacki reports.

Métis culture and community took centre stage across Winnipeg on Louis Riel Day, as hundreds gathered at The Forks and in St. Boniface to celebrate traditions and reconnect with family ties.

Inside the Forks marketplace, artisans set up little pieces of Métis traditions. Hundreds of people passed by the displays Monday afternoon looking at artwork created through centuries of Métis teachings.

“We’re proud Métis people. For a long time, our culture has been silenced,” said freehand beadwork artist Lucy Lindell.

“But we’re getting louder and louder, we’re coming together, we’re sharing beauty in countless ways. This is my culture and I’m very proud of that.”

Lindell honours her Métis heritage by assembling dozens of items with different beadwork patterns with her ‘dotter of the earth’ products.

Lindell said for her and other makers, crafting is a way to reclaim the past.

“It’s been so great meeting Métis people from all over Manitoba today, even from Saskatchewan,” she said.

“Finding some family ties that we share on community spaces that we share, so it’s really nice. I hope we do this again. It’s almost like repatriation, in a sense, of where Manitoba began and also where it’s going.”

Organizers at The Forks said the Métis artisan market sprung up from a collaboration between their team and the Manitoba Métis Federation.

Staff said it was the first time a Métis market was set up for Louis Riel Day.

“The Forks has been a meeting place for thousands of years, so it makes sense for us to continue that tradition here by celebrating and learning more about our past and coming together for our future,” said Tineke Buiskool-Leeuwma, communications advisor with The Forks.

Gatherings also took place in St. Boniface, where visitors at Festival du Voyageur got a chance to step back in time to early 19th-century life on the Prairies.

Visitors had the opportunity to watch demonstrations from interpreters inside Fort Gibraltar, learning about Métis culture.

“Festival du Voyageur, our founder Georges Forest was a proud Métis man, so it’s really rooted in everything we do here at the festival,” said Breanne Lavallée-Heckert, executive director of Festival du Voyageur.

“Learning about 1815 and Fort Gibraltar is a really great way to understand that history and understanding the role of the fur trade in the birth of our province.”