When is a history book not a history book? While that may appear to be a riddle, it becomes a valid question when a substantial part of history is left untold within its pages.
A book recently co-authored by Patricia Russell and David Wylynko is addressing such a knowledge gap in the history of the Métis Nation and its significance both in Canada and in Rupert’s Land.
“When I went through grade and high school, the social studies courses taught me a great deal about the Reformation and the French Revolution and things that happened abroad, but very little about our own history and even less about the Métis Nation,” Russell, who lives in Yellowknife, said of the need to provide a more complete story of the role the Métis had in the past, present and into the future.
The idea for the book, The True Canadians: Forgotten Nevermore, came about when Russell was working for the Métis Nation of Alberta, and a conversation she had with its president, Audrey Poitras.
“Madam president had it in mind that she wanted to create something that citizens could hold in their hands and flip through and point out pictures,” she said. “So, I said ‘why not do a commemorative edition of the magazine (the Métis Nation once published), but printed on better paper and bound in a different way so it would be a keepsake?’.”
While brainstorming for a theme for the book, Russell said she realized that in 2022, it was the 40th anniversary of Métis rights being included in Section 35 of the Constitution.
“That became the focus of the book. It’s overarching theme is what’s transpired for the Métis Nation over these past 40 years, both in terms of challenges and successes.” “And in order to tell that story, it is necessary to tell the history of the Métis Nation,” Russell said
Historical disconnect
Wylynko, who grew up across the Red River from the Louis Riel House in Winnipeg, said he and Russell collaborated for months and worked through the processes of researching material, creating the outline, organizing the photographs and developing each chapter. A common thread he said he found while doing the historical research for the book was the disconnect between the history produced by the Métis and that of the traditional colonial accounts of history found in history books.
“These are books by highly reputed, prominent, highly respected beloved historians and writers like Pierre Burton, J.L. Granatstein, Desmond Morton — people that have populated the syllabuses of university courses and high schools for decades,” Wylynko said. “And either the Métis were downplayed in the significance of their contribution to Canada, ignored entirely, or misrepresented.”
“Métis have made a huge economic contribution, and they were effectively instrumental in the founding of the fur trade and the fur trade has been considered instrumental in the founding of our export economy but we don’t mention the Métis - the historians don’t talk about that connection back to the Métis,” he added. “If somehow, we can move forward in the next generation to appreciate that, I think it would be beneficial to everybody in Canada.”
To change that engrained, one-sided perception offered by past history books, Wylynko said they also took a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ approach to providing a more fulsome picture of the past as well as having a bit of fun drawing parallels with popular culture.
“We even bring in some of the James Cameron movies — you know how people love underdogs but they don’t appreciate the underdogs who have populated the history of their own land - Canada,” he said.
Bringing history on tour
Already on its second printing less than two months after being released in January, the authors have toured extensively across Canada and will continue to do so into the summer, when they will be present at the Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill and at Métis Fest in Métis Crossing, Alberta on June 24, where a stage dramatization of the book will be presented.
Both Russell and Wylynko said while they aspire that the book will become a teaching tool in schools and universities across Canada, it has also proven to be exceptionally popular amongst the general public with Métis and non-Métis alike.
One such example was when they visited Owl’s Nest Books in Calgary during their tour, said Russell.
“We were there twice: to do a book reading and then a book signing,” she said. “The owner of the store pointed out that he had sold more copies of our book than he sold of Prince Harry’s.”
The book also contains extensive photographs, much of which is Russell’s work. For her, the cover image has deep sentimental meaning, however.
“The beadwork on the cover is a photograph of my mother’s beadwork. She had been making a pair of crow boots and the beadwork in the photograph is the part of the crow boots that wraps around the ankle,” Russell said. “She finished the beading and she took her needle and she put it into the stroud and then put the piece of work aside, and that needle has been in that spot for maybe 45 years.”
Overall, Russell said the book is a lasting legacy for future generations.
“It is for my family, for kinship, for the Métis Nation and for Canadians to read.”
Russell and Wylynko will be present in Yellowknife during the June 21 National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations.
