“Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival
Metisfest was a large, annual festival that—from its conception in 2006 until its cancellation in 2013—brought the Metis Nation together through fiddling, jigging, and other cultural activities. While the event was constructed as apolitical, Metis elder Duke Redbird suggested in We Are Métis that cu...
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ftuninewbrunojs:oai:ojs.journals.lib.unb.ca:article/25260 2023-05-15T17:12:17+02:00 “Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival Giroux, Monique 2016-10-18 application/pdf https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/25260 eng eng The Canadian Society for Traditional Music / La Société canadienne pour les traditions musicales https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/25260/29248 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/25260 Copyright (c) 2016 MUSICultures MUSICultures; Volume 43, Number 1 (2016) 1920-4221 1920-4213 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2016 ftuninewbrunojs 2022-07-11T11:55:56Z Metisfest was a large, annual festival that—from its conception in 2006 until its cancellation in 2013—brought the Metis Nation together through fiddling, jigging, and other cultural activities. While the event was constructed as apolitical, Metis elder Duke Redbird suggested in We Are Métis that cultural activities can, in fact, bring about political change because they are non-threatening to the dominant culture (1980: 48). This essay addresses this seeming contradiction, arguing that while the event adopted the language of multiculturalism (i.e., language that is non-threatening to the Canadian mainstream), in practice, Metisfest used an Indigenous-centred approach to cultural celebration—an approach that prioritized Metis resurgence. In this way, Metisfest accomplished important political goals. Le Metisfest (festival métis) était un grand festival annuel qui, de sa conception en 2006 à son annulation en 2013, réunissait les membres de la Nation Métis autour du violon, de la gigue et d’autres activités culturelles. Bien que cet événement ait été conçu pour être apolitique, l’aîné métis Duke Redbird suggérait, dans son livre We Are Métis, que les activités culturelles ont en fait la capacité d’amener des changements politiques parce que la culture dominante ne se sent pas menacée par elles (1980 : 48). Cet article se penche sur cette apparente contradiction, en soutenant que bien que cet événement ait adopté le langage du multiculturalisme (c’est-à-dire un langage n’étant pas menaçant pour le courant majoritaire canadien), en pratique, le Metisfest avait un caractère de célébration culturelle de l’autochtonie—approche qui donnait la priorité à la résurgence des Métis. De cette façon, le Metisfest a concrétisé d’importants objectifs politiques. Article in Journal/Newspaper Metis University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
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University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
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Metisfest was a large, annual festival that—from its conception in 2006 until its cancellation in 2013—brought the Metis Nation together through fiddling, jigging, and other cultural activities. While the event was constructed as apolitical, Metis elder Duke Redbird suggested in We Are Métis that cultural activities can, in fact, bring about political change because they are non-threatening to the dominant culture (1980: 48). This essay addresses this seeming contradiction, arguing that while the event adopted the language of multiculturalism (i.e., language that is non-threatening to the Canadian mainstream), in practice, Metisfest used an Indigenous-centred approach to cultural celebration—an approach that prioritized Metis resurgence. In this way, Metisfest accomplished important political goals. Le Metisfest (festival métis) était un grand festival annuel qui, de sa conception en 2006 à son annulation en 2013, réunissait les membres de la Nation Métis autour du violon, de la gigue et d’autres activités culturelles. Bien que cet événement ait été conçu pour être apolitique, l’aîné métis Duke Redbird suggérait, dans son livre We Are Métis, que les activités culturelles ont en fait la capacité d’amener des changements politiques parce que la culture dominante ne se sent pas menacée par elles (1980 : 48). Cet article se penche sur cette apparente contradiction, en soutenant que bien que cet événement ait adopté le langage du multiculturalisme (c’est-à-dire un langage n’étant pas menaçant pour le courant majoritaire canadien), en pratique, le Metisfest avait un caractère de célébration culturelle de l’autochtonie—approche qui donnait la priorité à la résurgence des Métis. De cette façon, le Metisfest a concrétisé d’importants objectifs politiques. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Giroux, Monique |
spellingShingle |
Giroux, Monique “Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival |
author_facet |
Giroux, Monique |
author_sort |
Giroux, Monique |
title |
“Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival |
title_short |
“Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival |
title_full |
“Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival |
title_fullStr |
“Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Giving Them Back Their Spirit”: Multiculturalism and Resurgence at a Metis Cultural Festival |
title_sort |
“giving them back their spirit”: multiculturalism and resurgence at a metis cultural festival |
publisher |
The Canadian Society for Traditional Music / La Société canadienne pour les traditions musicales |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/25260 |
genre |
Metis |
genre_facet |
Metis |
op_source |
MUSICultures; Volume 43, Number 1 (2016) 1920-4221 1920-4213 |
op_relation |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/25260/29248 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/25260 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2016 MUSICultures |
_version_ |
1766069080298618880 |