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Topic

Coming Home to a Métis Identity – “All My Relations”: (Re)Searching for Identity Stories from Urban Métis Elders and Youth

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Date & location

• Monday, March 30, 2026

• 1:00 P.M.

• Clearihue Building

• Room B017 and Virtual

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Kathy Sanford, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, ̽��ϵ�� (Supervisor)

• Dr. Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, UVic (Member)

• Dr. Lauren Jerke, Department of Indigenous Education, UVic (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Jennifer Markides, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Amanda LaVallee, School of Social Work, UVic

   

Abstract

Indigenous Peoples living in what is now known as Canada have faced injustices due to policies and practices. These were partly due to laws passed by colonial governments that were attempted to eradicate their cultures, languages, and people. Métis People were affected by unjust colonial policies toward Indigenous Peoples in Canada, such as residential schools, stripping lands away, and removing children from their families in acts such as the 60s Scoop. All of these attempts to destroy Indigenous Peoples were done in the name of ‘civilization’ and were intended to divide and conquer the Indigenous Peoples living on these lands. These racist policies led to a diaspora of Métis People, forced away from kin and communities. The purpose of this (re)search was to offer spaces where urban Métis Elders and youth living on Southern Vancouver Island, away from the Métis homelands,2 could explore what it meant to be Métis, to share their lived experiences, and pose questions about identity. Some key questions included:

• What does it mean to be Métis in this time of trying to right colonial wrongs that led to many Métis people being disconnected from their heritages and culture for Métis Elders, Knowledge Carriers, and youth living on southern Vancouver Island?

And the subquestions:

• In what ways might one reconcile what seemingly are conflicting worldviews, especially when they are expressed within one’s own cultural heritage and within oneself? What stories are shared about how they were able to navigate this process?
• To what extent do they believe that connections to Métis family and/or community who share culture and language help to have a clear sense of one’s Métis identity? What stories are shared that convey the way these connections have impeded or enhanced a sense of connection with their Métis culture?
• To what extent do those participating feel that sharing our Métis experiences and having family and community connections contribute to having a better understanding of a path toward reconciling past injustices toward Métis People, to move forward into a future where diverse ways of knowing and being are respected and included in political, social, educational, and spiritual discourses?

This (re)search was done with co-participants and youth co-(re)searchers with the intention of sharing what was learned with local Métis communities in a reciprocal manner. This (re)search was intended to push the boundaries of qualitative research and provide an approach that honoured my Métis worldview and ways of knowledge-sharing. All the threads of the (re)search were held on an Indigenous paradigm that was focused on relationship embedded in “respect, reverence, responsibility, and reciprocity” with all my relations, for “in indigenous frameworks, relationships matter” (Archibald, 2008b, p. 1; Smith, 2012, p. 210). An Indigenous weaving methodology was created to enable it to honour the perspectives and knowledge in a way that aligned with the community it was embedded in. The methods used to gather knowledge on this (re)search journey were ones that were part of ceremonies and practices of the Métis People, and valued self-reflection about what was being learned by me as the (re)searcher: Sharing Circles, Métis Kitchen Table Talks, and autoethnography were all part of this learning journey. Autoethnography was done in the form of stories, poems, visual art, and photographs that documented my learning throughout the (re)search. Meaning-making of what was gathered during the (re)search was based on a sash-weaving metaphor of gathering and aligning the threads in the process of weaving them together to understand what the Elders and youth co-participants and co-(re)searchers shared about what it meant to be Métis in the urban context of Southern Vancouver Island.