Library and Archives Canada has launched an exhibition celebrating the Métis nation.
The exhibit, which can be seen for free in the lobby of LAC’s Wellington Street headquarters, is titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Discovering the Métis in the Collection of Library and Archives Canada.” It features artwork, photographs and documents from the archive’s collection with Métis content.
The documents highlighted in the display include a photograph of John Richards McKay, the son of the Hudson Bay Company’s chief trader (1758-1810) and Mary Favel (1775-1810) — a Métis woman — and the original copy of Métis political leader Louis Riel’s final letter to his wife and children, written hours before his execution on Nov. 16, 1885.
“Write often to your Good Father. Tell him that I think about him every single day. May he take heart,” the letter reads. “Life appears sad at times, but sometimes it is precisely when it appears saddest that it is most pleasing to God.”
Beth Greenhorn, project manager at Library and Archives Canada and curator of the exhibition, started working on a Métis commemorative project in December 2014.
“What we found when I first started working on the project was that there was very little content that was identified as being Métis,” she says. “We’ve done a lot of work on the other two Aboriginal groups in Canada — First Nations and Inuit — but very little on the Métis nation.”
The exhibition’s name was inspired by a lithograph by Peter Rindisbacher featured in the display. The image, called “A Gentleman Travelling in a Dog Cariole in Hudson’s Bay with an Indian Guide,” shows a First Nations guide leading the dogs and a man riding in a sleigh behind them. However, another man dressed in Métis clothing is featured, but unidentified in the lithograph’s caption.
“What’s really striking about this is that behind the one dog and the cariole is another gentleman who’s the most flamboyantly dressed person in the picture and he’s gone unnamed,” Greenhorn says. “I’d really like to go back and talk to the artist to find out where that title came from.”
Irene Ogouma, an Ottawa resident who attended the exhibition’s official opening on Feb. 11, says it is important for Canadians to be aware of the country’s history.
“Being here tonight is very important. It is adding to my knowledge of Canada,” she said. “Because the Canada I knew is not necessarily the Canada we have today.”
Ogouma, who immigrated to Canada from Benin in 1987 to study at the University of Ottawa, says immigrants moving to a new country need to have a deep knowledge of where they are living.
“From ’87 to now I have had the opportunity to become a citizen. I have not done it yet because I believe I have not paid enough attention to know this country I am about to take as a second nation,” she says. “Today, I have reached that and for me, it’s more enriched because I am learning more about the First Nations.”
The Métis nation was formed from the descendants of First Nations and European unions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Métis people have only been recognized as official Aboriginal peoples since the late 20th century.
Greenhorn says the Métis nation has not been as prominently featured in the same way as other Aboriginal groups.
“If I looked back to my history classes — not so much in public school but high school — I don’t even remember talking about the Métis specifically,” she says.
“Being the second-largest Aboriginal group in Canada, I think we’re at a point right now where Canadians — all Canadians — should learn about this part of our history and that the Métis nation is alive and well today and thriving.”
The exhibition is running until April 22 in the lobby of the Library and Archives Canada building at 395 Wellington St.