{"id":6062,"date":"2010-03-17T03:37:27","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T03:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=6062"},"modified":"2010-03-17T03:40:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T03:40:24","slug":"metis-identity-creation-and-tactical-responses-to-oppression-and-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=6062","title":{"rendered":"Metis Identity Creation and Tactical Responses to Oppression and Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metis Identity Creation and Tactical Responses to Oppression and Racism<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Variegations Journal<\/a>
\nUniversity of Victoria, Canada
\nVolume 2<\/a> (2005)
\nISSN: 1708-9840<\/p>\n

Cathy Richardson<\/a><\/strong>
\nIndigenous Governance
\nUniversity of Victoria, Victoria, Canada<\/em><\/p>\n

As one of Canada\u2019s founding Aboriginal people<\/a> (Department of Justice Canada, 1982), the Metis<\/a> exist at the periphery of the Canadian historical, cultural and social landscape. Today, the Metis are starting to write themselves into larger historical and social sciences narratives, reclaiming their right to inclusion and belonging after generations of living \u201cunderground\u201d without public cultural expression. The Canadian Metis are an Aboriginal group who celebrate their mixed ancestry and identify with a unique Metis culture.\u00a0 This culture evolved and crystallized after the Metis lived together for generations, mixing and mingling with other Metis of both English and French-speaking origins. Due to the forces of colonization, the Metis exist as marginalized Aboriginal people living between a number of cultural worlds within the larger Euro-Canadian society. In \u201cBecoming Metis: The Relationship Between The Sense of Metis Self and Cultural Stories\u201d (Richardson, 2004), I elucidate various tactics used by Metis people to create a personal and cultural identity. In this paper, I draw on this work to present some of the socio-political conditions that set the context for a Metis tactical identity development.<\/p>\n

I present and discuss some of the responses enacted by key Metis interview participants in the process of creating a \u201csense of Metis self.\u201d These tactical responses were, and are, performed by Metis people who are trying to balance their need for safety and inclusion with a need to live as cultural beings in a European Canada. I term the responses \u201ctactical,\u201d as opposed to \u201cstrategic,\u201d in response to an important distinction between oppressor and oppressed in colonial societies. Political strategies and strategic responses tend to be developed for long-term use by those in political positions of relative power, on secure ground whereas tactical responses tend to be developed \u201con the move,\u201d as short-term acts to attack political oppression. For example, General [Frederick Dobson]\u00a0Middleton<\/a> implemented strategic military plans to defeat the Metis, while Louis Riel<\/a> and Gabriel Dumont<\/a> employed tactical acts in response to Middleton\u2019s attacks. Finally, after discussing various tactical responses, I close with some explanations about how Metis people have developed a third space to create a Metis cultural identity…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Metis Identity Creation and Tactical Responses to Oppression and Racism Variegations Journal University of Victoria, Canada Volume 2 (2005) ISSN: 1708-9840 Cathy Richardson Indigenous Governance University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada As one of Canada\u2019s founding Aboriginal people (Department of Justice Canada, 1982), the Metis exist at the periphery of the Canadian historical, cultural and social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,12,19,459,125,8,26,394],"tags":[2510,2509],"class_list":["post-6062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-articles","category-canada","category-history","category-identitydevelopment","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-socialscience","tag-cathy-richardson","tag-variegations-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}