Métis Arts Collective/ Collectif D'Artistes Métis:
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History of the Métis Artists’ Collective
On May 10, 2003, a core group of 20 Métis artists gathered at the Galaxie Studios in Toronto to discuss the creation of a multidisciplinary collective of Métis artists collaborating to promote Métis arts and culture. Although the idea had often been discussed over the past decade, that evening the spark finally ignited and the Métis Artists’ Collective (“MAC”) took its first step into the ranks of the Toronto arts community. It was agreed that the inspiration for the Collective’s vision would be drawn from Louis Riel’s stirring prophecy: “My people will sleep for one hundred years. When they awaken, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.”
Objectives of the Métis Artists’ Collective
The objective of the Métis Artists’ Collective is to act as curator, preserver, protector and promoter of Ontario’s Métis cultural heritage as well as encouraging and facilitating the creative expression of Ontario’s Métis population in all aspects of traditional and contemporary arts. This includes Music, Dance, Visual Arts, Digital Media, Multi-Media, Film & Television, and Performance Arts & Art Administration.
Who Are the Métis?
Métis ancestry flows from the intermarriages between Francophone and Anglophone Europeans and native women from First Nations communities with whom they traded in the early 1500’s onward. A unique culture, with its own languages and dialects, quickly evolved as succeeding generations of “mixed-bloods” traded across the length and breadth of North America, especially in the fur trade. It was common for Métis individuals to speak several languages including, French, English, several First Nations’ languages such as Cree, Assiniboine, Lakota, Huron, Dene, Mandan, Ojibwa, Ojibwa and Mohawk. Today, in addition to French and English, Michif French and Michif Cree are the main languages spoken amongst Métis peoples across North America. In the province of Ontario French, English, Michif Ojibwa and Michif French the Metis also use.
Métis Artists’ Collective Projects
In addition to the Métis Arts Festival, MAC’s plans the following activities and projects: Multi Media Events, Visual Arts Exhibits, a Youth Orchestra, Kitchen Party concerts, and Practical workshops for professional artists and Incubator projects for fledgling artists.
Our partnership with Black Creek Pioneer Village, a replica of a typical 1860’s Ontario community has proven very fruitful. During the summer of 2003, Black Creek Pioneer Village organized a series of five culturally specific musical weekends designed to draw new visitors to the living museum. The July 12th weekend was dedicated to Aboriginal music, dance and storytelling. It turned out to be the most successful of the five events.
Members of MAC saw a window of opportunity to simultaneously realize several of the collective’s goals. On July 17, 2003 the membership unanimously passed the motion that MAC approach Black Creek Pioneer Village with the proposal of establishing an annual Métis Arts Festival (“MAF”). Black Creek’s response to the idea was equally positive.
The first festival, initiated by the Métis Artists’ Collective was successfully launched at Black Creek Pioneer Village July 18 & 19, 2004, and hosted over 3200 visitors. Over the past three years, it is steadily growing.
Artistic Vision
The Métis Arts Festival is the first undertaking of its kind in Ontario. It is an important step for a people whose culture was forced underground in 1870. After the North West rebellion in the west, Ontario laws were subsequently passed prohibiting Métis from meeting in public. Many families kept their heritage hidden to escape discrimination and the infamous “Indian Lists,” which restricted their access to goods, capital, services, employment and promotion. The festival has already reintroduced many Ontarians to their cultural roots.
The Métis Arts Festival was created to showcase the talents of Métis artists and preserve our culture. Our long-term goal is to raise the profile of both artists and Métis culture locally, nationally and internationally in a bilingual family environment close to nature and yet accessible to tourists and the large multiethnic & immigrant public of the Greater Toronto Area.
MAC’s Selection Jury considers submissions from Métis, First Nations and Inuit artists. Although the selected artists are predominantly from Ontario, our goal of cultural exchange ensures the participation of Aboriginal artists from across Canada at a festival that is located in the most culturally diverse city of Toronto.
Future Plans
The Collective plans to accomplish its objectives through the creation of annual events like the Métis Arts Festival, a Métis Youth Orchestra Concert, the creation of member profiles and their services to facilitate public access to traditional and contemporary Métis artists and thereby creating programs that will support the development of careers for Métis Artists.
The Métis Artists’ Collective continues to educate the general public by creating resources that schools and other public institutions can access to enhance their awareness of Métis history and culture in both official languages. Additionally, MAC envisions a web-based means of supporting artists in their own artistic pursuits; in helping their marketing and education of their Metis art among and to the urban-rural community.
Métis Artists’ Collective: Board of Directors for 2006-2007
Julz McCusker - President
Bernie Leroux - Vice-President
Wendy Baillie - Treasurer
Virginia Barter - Secretary
Francis Cadeau - Chair
Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk -Youth Representative
Tannis C. Nielsen Monkman - Director
Pierce Robitaille – Director
Susan Lyndon – Education Officer
The Métis Artists' Collective (MAC) was incorporated under the Ontario Corporations Act, in November 2003, as a non-profit organization in support of Metis artists in Ontario.
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