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(1) So today is #NationalIndigenousPeoplesDay and I'm an #Indigenous person. This is something that's taken me quite a while to make sense of because I belong to what I've come to believe is one of the most misunderstood people in the country, the #Michif, or #Métis.
(2) The biggest misconception is that #Métis people are anyone with both European and Indigenous ancestry. This is a flimsy premise that falls apart as soon as you start to unpack it. Most #Métis people DO have some mixture of European and Indigenous ancestry...
(3)...but that's not what makes us #Métis. What makes us #Métis is belonging to a specific socio cultural group that emerged out of the fur trade in a region known then as #TheNorthWest, centered around a community called #RedRiver.
(4) To make a long story short, it's not a racial category, it's a nationality.
(5) My family assimilated years ago and we've benefitted from #whiteprivilege for generations, but the scars of #colonialism run deep. The confusion I've had my entire life over who I am is but one of the many consequences of this.
(6) Last year, a number of things clicked and I came to a place where I was finally able to reconcile all of the conflict and confusion surrounding my #Indigeneity.
(7) This info tends to generate more questions than answers so I'm more than happy to field those if you have any. Please don't walk on eggshells about it, you're not going to piss me off or offend me. I want to open up a safe space to ask whatever you're curious about.
