Canada: a Métis Nation

There's a trial taking place in Medicine Hat which deals with Métis hunting rights. The court needed to hear from a witness and had to travel to that witness's home to do it.

In Monday’s hearing, Métis elder Henry Aaker, 79 – testifying from his home due to a medical condition – told the court how his home was once part of a thriving community called Saratoga Park.

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Madden asked if Aaker spoke an aboriginal language.

“Yea, English,” he responded before saying he could speak the Métis language Michif – a mixture of Cree and French (via Medicine Hat News).

The remarkable thing here is that there are those who do not think Aaker's response here is a joke; that Canada really is a Métis nation

heavily influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas: egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all aboriginal values that Canada absorbed (via A Fair Country).

This description of Canada strikes me as correct and had made me begin to wonder just how far this description can help re-frame our view of ourselves as a nation; how much help it could be in correcting the missteps of the last two decades.