Métis Matriarchs

Metis Matriarchs: Agents of Transition
Edited by Cheryl Troupe and Doris Jeanne MacKinnon
Published by University of Regina Press
Review by Michelle Shaw
$34.95 ISBN 9781779400116

As I read Métis Matriarchs, I couldn’t help thinking of the old adage that history is written by the victors. Or, as the editors Troupe and MacKinnon put it: ”Until recently, historical scholarship of the Canadian Prairies has privileged the masculine…” This book offers another, long overdue, perspective.

Métis Matriarchs is a meticulously researched, family-centred biographical collection of essays exploring the lives of several prominent Métis women during a period of immense change, from the late nineteenth to the mid- twentieth century in what is now Western Canada. It shows how they held families and communities together, providing cultural continuity and stability while in many cases also providing economically for their families. Respected for their wisdom and experience, they acted as healers and midwives, raised families and passed on cultural values, stories, practises and traditions.

This is such an important book and hopefully part of a growing body of work chronicling the lives and importance of Métis women in Canadian history. As the editors note: “Scholarship on this period has not until recently begun to examine the significance of women’s labour. Instead, it has depicted the Metis in terms of their poverty and health and social problems and as being at odds with the settler society.”

The book includes the stories of Marie Rose Delorme Smith (1861 – 1960), Victoria Belcourt Callihoo (1861 – 1966), Josette Legacé Work (approx. 1809 – 1896), Caroline McNabb (1862 – 1954), Julia Lamotte (d 1973), Auxile Caroline Lepine (1908 – 1985) and Nora Cummings (1938 – present).

It also explores the artistic contributions of certain key Métis matriarchs of Cumberland House in northeastern Saskatchewan, and the significance of their work in the social and historical context.

I found the journey these researchers took to discover the stories of these women utterly fascinating. The authors – many of whom are related to the women they write about – investigated and pieced together these women’s lives from oral history, autobiographies, official writings and reports and historical records. At times it read like a detective story. As the editors say, “each case study demonstrates a commitment to reading and rereading these sources and the existing archival record in new ways looking for the voices of Metis matriarchs and their families.”

The last chapter, exploring the social and political work of contemporary Métis matriarch Nora Cummings, was particularly impactful to me personally because it allowed me to visualise many of the events that were being described. The road allowance community, for instance, which was formed in Saskatoon in the early twentieth century, was located on the southern edge of the city in what are now the Nutana Park and Adelaide/Churchill neighbourhoods. There is a Saskatoon City Transit bus shelter in front of Aden Bowman Collegiate on Clarence Avenue that is dedicated to the Métis families that lived on the road allowance in the area. I had no idea. I arrived in Canada as an adult, so I feel I’m playing catch-up with a lot of history. The stories of the women throughout the book suddenly came alive to me in a different way and sent me down many rabbit holes.

The stories of these women are so richly detailed and compelling, and I am deeply grateful for the extensive research of all these authors.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM