Centre celebrates Metis culture

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For Sara Laslo and her five-year-old daughter Mickaella, celebrating Metis Week in Maple Ridge provided an opportunity to learn something about themselves.

"There's so much I don't know," she said.

Laslo, along with the other participants in the Spring Break program that ran from March 18 to 22, learned a great deal about her history and the Metis culture.

Three years ago Rene Inkster was asked by Linda Langford, an Aboriginal outreach worker, if she would run a program teaching local Metis about their culture. Inkster, who is an educator and author of the book the History of B.C. Metis, jumped at the opportunity.

"Because of adoption and residential school, 80 per cent of the West Coast Metis don't know of their rich cultural heritage," she said.

The program, which receives its funding through Health Canada's Community Action Plan for Children, took place at the Maple Ridge Family Education Centre for the third consecutive year.

"I am so thankful that the centre is doing this and I can't say enough about the staff. They're so open and helpful," said Inkster. "It's a great place to be."

Although Inkster brings to the program a comprehensive understanding of the Metis culture, participants don't learn only from her. They learn by doing.

After Inkster talked about tuppies, which are dog blankets, beautifully embroidered by Metis women, the group made miniature tuppies. They made paper capote coats after learning about the history of the wrap-around, belted coat. Rhythm sticks, mini-Metis flags, ribbon and hide bookmarks, beading and flat-braiding were all part of the hands-on program.

Participants engaged in traditional Metis physical activities like tug-of-war, leg wrestling and arm wrestling. And after learning about the buffalo hunt, the group staged one of its own, with some people acting as buffalo and others playing hunters.

"It's a lot of fun to learn about Metis," said Mickaella. It's no wonder there was a waiting list to get into the program.

"It's quite exciting and fast-paced and I keep everything as authentic as I can," said Inkster, adding, "I don't keep it static. We don't have a static culture and there's always something new I'm interested in."

For Roxanne Laslo (Mickaella's grandmother), it was an opportunity to embrace her heritage.

"My twin sister and I were adopted as babies by a white family. We just learned five years ago of our Metis culture," she said.

She was not alone. Many people were in the dark about their Metis heritage until recently, including Dale Haggarty, head curator of the Michif Metis Museum.

Haggarty, along with student curator Vaughan Alexander, was on hand with artifacts from the museum, including an authentic Red River cart.

"It's important to share our culture and to give people an understanding of who we are," said Haggarty. "We're also teaching our youth about it instead of them learning when they're 30 or 40."

One of the lessons learned was the importance of respect for Elders in the Metis community. And it was obvious the young ones learned it well, for when it was time to eat, they hurried to prepare plates of food for the Elders.

Elder Bob Kelly joined the group on the last day of Metis Week to award a sash to Linda Langford, recognizing her work in the Aboriginal community.

"It's really something to be awarded the sash," said Kelly. Inkster received the sash on behalf of Langford, who was unable to attend the celebration due to illness.

Frankie Rogers complemented the final day's celebration with his fiddle playing. Participants sat in awe while he made the realistic sounds of trains, dogs, birds, ambulances and frogs with a fiddle and bow.

When Rogers started playing his sweet music, a dance circle formed. As the circle grew, Bob Kelly said, "We can't sit down until everyone joins in."

Not surprisingly, everyone did. And everyone gained a greater knowledge of the Metis culture, and a desire to learn even more.