THE CULTURAL INITIATIVE

Modern Metis leadership has been plagued by an artificial division between political activism and cultural or artistic expression. The problem was put succinctly at the fifth annual convention of the Native Council of Canada. The spokesman for the British Columbia delegation, disturbed by the inclusion of cultural activities at a convention whose theme was unity and aboriginal rights, stated: "Our homes are going to be torn up by pipelines, hydro developments and various other things, and we're fiddle-farting around with jigging contests. I just don't understand." Another delegate from Alberta responded immediately: "As for jigging and contestsÛI'm for that. I'm a jigger, I'm a fiddler, and I don't want any sucker to tell me that I can't do that any time, any place. That's part of my culture and I'll fight anybody that says it's not part of my culture."

The two extremes that were expressed by these two delegates is the dilemma facing much of the present Metis leadership in Canada. There are those who believe that active political posturing can only make things difficult.

"If you take on the establishment head-on, you are just indicating to them ways of making better chains for you. To meet them head-on is just suicide. What you have to do is approach the whole thing obliquely. You have to change people's ideas, and the only way you can do that is through the media. You have to attack on a cultural, rather than a political level."

The modern Metis, especially in the eastern provinces, need to realize a solid cultural base before significant political gains may be achieved. The Metis activists who reject the need for cultural renaissance, such as Howard Adams, fear a "cultural colonialism" imposed somehow by contact with white society. The fear is as unfounded and paranoid as the establishment fear of "red nationalism". The executive of the Native Council of Canada have, from time to time, used both techniques for penetrating the consciousness of the larger society. The Indians, for example, who ride in full regalia in a parade are as harmless to the image of the "real Indian" as the rhinestone cowboys in the same parade are to the "real cowboy".

Howard Adams states that "the Metis has internalized the myths of inferiority", then claims it is wrong for the Metis to try and change these myths. "It is useless for us to become involved in a struggle to improve our image, because native people did not create these images."

The modern Metis are rapidly adopting, in a modern context, as many symbols of the traditional Metis lifestyle as possible. The Native Council of Canada, in 1976, reintroduced the flag of Louis Riel and made it the official flag of the Metis people. At a provincial board meeting of the Ontario Metis Non-Status Indian Association in January of 1978, the Metis sash was adopted as an of ficial badge of of fice of the association. There is, of course, the danger of imitating traditional ways as a kind of cultural eccentricity, but that is the "kindergarten" of the modern Metis cultural renaissance. As the Metis become more aware of themselves as a unique cultural entity, they will evolve broader social, artistic, and eventually political expressions that accurately reflect the role of Metis consciousness in Canadian life. The key is not imitation, or even revival of traditional ways, but rather evolution of self-actualization by the Metis individual. Through increased awareness of his heritage, an understanding of his role in modern Canada will emerge.

The problem facing the Metis community today is how to begin the process of cultural education. Certain conditions have to exist in the environment of those who are to learn. Maslow stated that an individual requires food, shelter, a sense of love, of belonging, of self-esteem, and the opportunity to selfactualize before he will develop the desire, or need, for education. The task of the Metis community is extremely difficult, and the Metis have to develop their own solutions and establish these conditions for themselves and their children. The need for creative thinking by all sectors of the Metis community is essential to the process.

Cultural development as a political strategy is a viable vehicle for change, simply because it is a non-threatening activity to most sectors of the establishment. In fact, multi-cultural policies of the 60's and 70's make funding available for culture-related activities that can have a powerful effect on those who take part. The pitfalls of cultural colonialism and ethnic eccentricity can be avoided by careful development in terms of local organization and participation. But this development must be backed by an increased emphasis on cultural priorities by local, provincial, and national Metis organizations.

MEDIA AND THE ROLE MODEL

Although Howard Adams has decried image improvement and belittles attempts by active leadership to penetrate the C.R.T.C. and the C.B.C., he contradictorily admits the effects of media images on his own life. "Native people cannot avoid seeing the cultural images and symbols of white supremacy because they are everywhere in society, especially in movies, television, comic books, and textbooks. As these native children grow up, these white supremacist images become more alive, but natives are powerless to do anything about them. Consequently, the children internalize inferior images as part of their true selves, often with strong feelings of shame. As a result, I attempted to disassociate myself from everything and everyone that appeared halfbreed. I wanted to be a successful white man in mainstream society."

It would be hard to find a better description of the need to develop strong positive Metis models for the Metis people to identify with, and for the proliferation of those models through media of mainstream society. Although many people in the white society take "image" for granted, or regard it as superficial, that luxury is only available to those who have established their image in the mainstream society. Certainly the emphasis that the Black movement in the United States placed on their "Black is Beautiful" campaign can hardly be called insignificant or superficial in terms of its penetration into white culture. Metis models do exist, but they are rarely identified specifically as Metis, or emerge only in the traditional or historic sense.

There has been an increasingly wider use of the media by Metis during the past ten years. More and more books, magazines, newspapers, and newsletters are being published by the Metis themselves. In the beginning this material reached only a small number of people and mostly in native communities. Now, however, this is changing. The media generated by natives is penetrating into the majority culture, even into the academic world of the universities. The Metis are becoming aware of the need to develop their understanding of the function of media to produce in whatever medium they choose, rather than be limited by the majority society's perogatives. Gains are rapidly being made in this regard by various provincial communications groups, such as Alberta Native Communications Society, who have access to North American satellite broadcasting. The most important steps to be taken now are: to achieve access to production in broadcasting; to maintain a fact, rated Metis higher than the Metis rated themselves, but not as low as they were rated by whites -- seventeenth. The revival of native awareness would probably change that scale if the test were done today.

RAISING METIS CONSCIOUSNESS

However, much still remains to be done. A native, John Cuthand, echoes the thoughts of most leaders today. "The real issues Riel and Dumont fought for are the issues Metis people are fighting for today." It is on that basis that the new awareness must develop.

The social status of today's Metis is summed up in a single wordÛ"marginal". Whether in the bush of Northern Ontario or on road allowances in the prairies, on marginal farmland in B.C., or on the fringes of industrialized areas, the one feature common to all Metis is their "marginality". There is a certain irony in the fact that their very marginality or "forgotten people" status gives them more in common than most other Canadians have with each other.

The Native Council of Canada put it even more bluntly in a paper in 1973. "We are not speaking of low-income people we are talking about no-income people." Metis are likely to be found at the bottom of every social ladder one might name. In terms of schooling, housing, and employment, the Metis are at the bottom. The only lists Metis head are those for infant mortality, school dropouts, occupants of jails, and suicide. Of course there are success stories and exceptions to all of these conditions. But as a peopleÛethnic or racialÛthe Metis do not have a proportionate share of the fruits of the so-called just society. Nevertheless the Metis are, in terms of political and self-actualization, in the best condition since the days of Louis Riel. The role of native organizations have proven its value on several levels, creating a sense of racial or ethnic cohesion.

Although the political status of today's Metis has improved considerably, the ethnic status of today's Metis is largely mythical in both the best and worst sense of the word. At it's worst, it becomes a catch-all for people with no identity to hang on to and is "created primarily by common threat from without" and it becomes a kind of"non-culture" for the Metis themselves. In the best sense it becomes "non-nation" or "psychological nation" in David Bell's context and is identifiable in terms of its own communication network, parallel to, but independent of, those of the Inuit, Indian, or White. Since the function of mythmaking is to bolster the confidence to act and creates a belief that things can be done, myth-making in the Metis context becomes necessary for independent actions.

BASE FOR TOMORROW

The Canadian public is beginning to realize that there is an important distinction between assimilation and integration, and the supposition that native people are, or ever will be, assimilated into Canadian life is totally unrealistic. The government is beginning to discard assimilation features of their native policies in the light of a new awareness of the native reality in Canada. Today there are more persons of native ancestry than ever before. The native population is the fastest growing racial group, per capita, in Canada in spite of the high infant mortality rate. The fact is that all of the races and ethnic groups in Canada are being integrated into the psychological and geo-physical reality that is North America and that THE METIS ARE THE ONLY ETHNIC GROUP INDIGENOUS TO THE CONTINENT. All other races, including Indian and Inuit, came from elsewhere at some other time. Integration is a two-way street and the white majority society is reflecting the native reality more and more specifically as the years go by.

The reality of North America is the architect of the consciousness of its people and, to extend the Jungian concept of mind and earth, let me quote my own thinking in Red and White. The pre-Columbian European created a physical and social super-structure for himself that might be described as a labyrinth. When a European child was born, he was introduced to this maze and spent his lifetime searching through the many passages. Within that structure, with rare exceptions, persons were born, lived, and died without ever knowing a sense of freedom, peace or enlightenment. When the European came to North America, he brought with him his closed super-structure in the name of civilization. Fortunately, it did not fit the gestalt of the North American continent. Here, closed systems do not work, and the European was forced to create both an entrance and an exit to his super-structure.

The North American continent, in its own way, shapes the type of super-structure that it will accept. It has the quality of a self-correctional process almost cybernetic in its function. This is the natural process that is North America, and a process that is natural to its indigenous people, the Metis.

In order for the Metis to assume their proper role in modern Canadian society, a number of factors must be developed simultaneously. First, the aboriginal rights of the Metis must become a reality so that the minimal conditions for learning may be met. Secondly, the Metis must be allowed to be educated and developed in terms of their own inherent cultural characteristics, and finally, once that process becomes a reality, the context must be communicated to the majority society. This means, by and large, access to modern print and electronic media and other means of communication. Then and only then will the full impact of the consciousness of the Metis people be evident in the mosaic of Canadian society. In political terms, the role of the Metis as a founding partner in the Canadian confederacy must be recognized and guaranteed in a new British North America Act, along with the French and English.

Again, to quote briefly from Red on White: "What I have to say is that the modern world of technology, the electronic, tribal total-systems cybernetic society, is the real manifestation of the potential Metis personality. We no longer have to live on the road allowances and margins of North American society. What we have to do is go out into the world and become the manifestation of what the real North American is going to becomeÛthe ideal, whole man. We, as Metis, can represent the best possible example of what everyone in North America can eventually become."