Save the Date! Society for Cultural Anthropology Oral Presentation Session: "Reclaiming a Denied Past 11/23/2019

Save the Date! Society for Cultural Anthropology Oral Presentation Session: "Reclaiming a Denied Past: Métis Ethnogenesis and Resurgence in Central and Eastern Canada" Date and Time: Saturday, November 23 8:00 AM - 9:45 AM Location: Vancouver CC WEST, Room 119 Identity, Legal and Political Anthropology, Indigenous Peoples

For more information visit: https://eventscribe.com/2019/AAA/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=606229

Abstract: "The panel will present an analysis of evidence for the existence of historical Métis communities in Eastern North America. This includes the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Québec and the Maritime Provinces, specifically Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This research is particularly significant as there are a number of court cases which are now working their way through the Canadian legal system exploring issues relating to the existence of these historical Métis communities to the east of Sault Ste. Marie.

There are moreover growing divisions within existing and politically recognized Métis associations regarding the existence of these historical Métis communities. The Métis Nation of Ontario, for example, was recently instructed by the Métis National Council (MNC), a political organization claiming to represent the “true” Historic Metis Nation in Canada since 1983, to revise its membership guidelines to eliminate six historical Métis communities in Ontario. Interestingly, Ontario has the largest number of self-identified Métis in Canada, 120,585 individuals, according to the most recent data published in the national 2016 census (Statistics Canada 2017).

Ultimately, this panel seeks to understand the nuances of Métis history(ies) as being more than a regional western phenomenon from which proponents associate with a nationalist Métis historiography and political ideology. The researchers suggests that Métis identities in fact emerged in various locales, including Eastern Canada, as a consequence to other forms of colonialism, prejudice, and unique regional factors. The papers from this panel are all part of a forthcoming edited scholarly book to be published in the Fall of 2019 titled Reclaiming a Denied Past: Métis Ethnogenesis and Resurgence in Central and Eastern Canada.

By sharing this research, the panelists (and authors) are part of a larger movement to contribute to paradigmatic change within the social sciences that seeks to engage meaningfully with sociopolitical transformations by supporting hitherto "invisible" groups in having their histories and identities situated within larger rhizomatic networks. This sociopolitical "climate change" challenges both imbedded conceptions of history(ies) and indigeneity and urgently asks us to consider the tangible impacts of denial on the lived realities of communities of people across diverse geographical and geopolitical communities."