My mom and my dad are both Métis. Growing up I didn’t know I was Métis because it was just there. We are very, very funny people. We are very happy. We love to joke, we love to laugh. We love a good fiddle tune. I can remember my grandmother and my aunt, they made the most wonderful food. They made meatballs besides all the pudding and pies. My parents raised about sixteen children. I never knew anybody that could make a meal out of nothing. Bannock and stew went a long ways. When I was old enough to be able to carry a rifle, which was a Rabbit 22, then I would shoot squirrels. This was the only spending money that we had. We were with our grandparents every day. They made their living raising cattle, raising horses, selling horses, selling hay, selling calves. We had a very happy life. We played lots of games and you know, had lots of fun together. I come from a rich culture where there was a lot of storytelling. I just remember going to big gatherings where we’d have lots to eat, lots of fun, a lot of laughter and everything. We went barefooted all summer, even in the hay field and our feet were just like leather, we didn’t even mind. In the fall, I can remember my mother making shoes out of blue jeans. I remember sitting around the kitchen table at my grandparents’ house and it was my grandma that told all of the true gritty stories. Uncle Pat was the storyteller. And oh my gosh, his stories, he could make you laugh, he would make you cry, he would make you scared and he was just telling family stories. I lived with my great-grandmother. She’d tell me stories which I still remember clearly just like it was yesterday. I always think of her. What would grandma tell me? Parks Canada has a responsibility to help preserve these stories, helping communities hold onto that knowledge. I don’t know if you can understand Canada without understanding the Métis story. This is a good thing that Parks Canada is doing, these oral interviews with the Métis people. We want to not only tell our story, but say it in our own words so that authentic voice is heard. We all have our stories and our traditions and those are really important and they’re sacred and we need to tell them because to understand who we are, where we come from, to know why I am where I am today, doing what I do is the biggest gift that anybody could ever give.
