Books & Music

We’re excited to share that Lii fil di nutr istwayr, Threads of our History is now available from MNBC and the Amelia Douglas Institute. This book explores the connection between Métis clothing and identity from the birth of the Métis Nation to today. Clothing and accessories have always been a vital part of Métis culture, inspired by history, shaped by economic and political change, and carried through resistance and displacement. The Métis style of dress blends traditional and contemporary elements, serving as a meaningful expression of identity.
This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning more about the history and significance of Métis clothing and accessories.

*PLEASE NOTE: BOOKS ARE NOW PRINTED WITH SOFT COVER* 

We are thrilled to share with you the completion of Métis Nation British Columbia’s book “Kaa-wiichitoyaahk: We Take Care of Each Other” a cultural wellness guide that explores the rich history and unique identity of Métis people in British Columbia.

 This book is the first of its kind in British Columbia, likely all of Canada, and was developed through engagement with Métis Elders and Youth across the province in 2019. We are thankful for the generous contribution of Provincial Health Services Authority and the Province's Ministry of Mental Health Addictions.

The title, Kaa-wiichitoyaahk, means we take care of each other in Michif and is an important cultural Métis teaching. It is our hope that this book will not only teach non-Métis Canadians about the rich history and culture of the Métis but also help connect Métis individuals to their cultural and community.

Maddy’s Sash,  by Marion Gonneville is a 10 chapter book suitable for 8-12 with illustrations by Kate Boyer and includes Michif words and glossary. This is the story of a young girl who connects with her Métis roots while she spends time with her Moshôm, Kohkom and their special dog Max. Maddy has many adventures at her grandparents’ farm in northern Saskatchewan, including an exciting berry picking adventure, a dramatic canoe trip, and a rollicking barn dance. 

Based on Métis artist Christi Belcourt’s painting “Medicines to Help Us,” this innovative and vibrant resource honours the centuries-old healing traditions of Métis women. For this stunning set of twenty-seven gallery-quality prints and accompanying companion booklet, Christi Belcourt fuses her evocative artwork with Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Western Science. With contributions from Métis Elders Rose Richardson and Olive Whitford, as well as key Michif phrases and terminology, Medicines to Help Us is the most accessible resource relating to Métis healing traditions produced to date.

ISBN: 978-0-920915-79-0
Author/Illustrator: Christi Belcourt
Translators: Laura Burnouf and Rita Flamand
Elder Validation: Rose Richardson
Awards: Nominated—2008 Book of the Year, Publishing, and First Peoples Publishing,
Saskatchewan Book Awards

wâpikwaniy: A Beginner’s Guide to Métis Floral Beadwork is a step-by-step guide book and DVD video which provides information and instruction on Métis floral beadwork.  The guide is intended for beginning beaders and includes an historical overview by Sherry Farrell Racette, followed by instructions on basic beading, supply lists and options, techniques and hints, and examples of traditional and contemporary beadwork.  Patterns are included in the book.

Created in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Food Security, the Version 2 Métis cookbook is a heartfelt homage to the traditions and tastes that define Métis cuisine. This cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes; it's a reflection of our commitment to sustainable and healthy living. Inside, you'll find traditional Métis dishes passed down through generations, each one a testament to our values of environmental stewardship and respect for nature.

This charming story, richly steeped in Métis culture, focuses on the boyhood reminisces of Moushoom as he describes finding the “great giving tree” with his mother and father. This vibrantly illustrated children’s book is a beautiful retelling of a traditional Métis story. Both Leah Marie Dorion and the Gabriel Dumont Institute are very pleased to share this story with the Métis and larger communities since it emphasizes Métis core values and beliefs including strength, kindness, courage, tolerance, honesty, respect, love, sharing, caring, balance, patience, and most of all, the important connection with the Creator and Mother Earth. This resource also includes a Métis values chart, and an accompanying narration CD in English and Michif.

ISBN: 978-0-920915-90-5
Author/Illustrator: Leah Marie Dorion
Translator: Norman Fleury
Grade Level: Primary
Format: Book/CD, English/Michif-Cree
Awards: Nominated—2010 Shining Willow Award, The Willow Awards

asowacikanisa: A Guide to Small Métis Bags is a continuation in the series of “how to” books on Métis material culture. This resource will guide you in the step-by-step process on how to create two different bags, a tobacco pouch and a sash bag, which were traditional utilitarian items used by the Metis. These bags are used today to carry traditional medicines and other treasured items. Complete with historical information, easy to follow instructions, detailed photos and accompanying DVD, this resource provides everything you need to know to make your own traditional bags. (Materials not included).

maskisina: A Guide to Northern-Style Métis Moccasins is a follow-up to the highly successful wapikwaniy: A Beginner’s Guide to Metis Floral Beadwork. Much likewapikwaniy, maskisina guides readers, step-by-step, on how to create their very own moccasins. It contains detailed photographs along with each step and also includes a DVD tutorial. It also includes a historic overview of moccasins by Sherry Farrell Racette. Patterns for cutting the correct sizes for the soles and vamps are included in the book.

ISBN: 978-1-926795-11-9
Author: Gregory Scofield and Amy Briley
Grade Level: Secondary/Post Secondary/Adult

The Métis Alphabet Colouring Book is an adaptation of Joseph Jean Fauchon’s popular children’s book of the same name. With enhanced cultural content, this colouring book highlights historical figures, significant events, places of interest and other aspects of Métis identity to take youthful readers beyond the alphabet to explore the richness of Métis history and culture. George Gingras’s images—which are meant to be coloured and are inspired by illustrations and photos—provide an engaging complement to the text. The Métis Alphabet Colouring Book strengthens Métis pride and identity while providing young readers with an informative reference book about the essence of being Métis.

Relatives With Roots: A Story About Métis Women’s Connection to the Land is a heartfelt story about a Métis grandmother who takes her granddaughter out into the bush to teach her how to pick traditional medicines. As the granddaughter learns the traditional beliefs and stories about how the Métis people use the plants for food and medicine, she feels happy to be a Métis child with access to such wonderful cultural knowledge. This charming and vibrant book introduces young readers to key concepts in the traditional Métis worldview while focusing on the special relationship between a young Métis girl and her grandmother. Relatives With Roots is the second in a series of children’s books relating to traditional Métis values by Leah Marie Dorion. The first book, The Giving Tree: A Retelling of a Traditional Métis Story, was nominated in 2010 for a Willow Award in the Shining Willow category.

An Illustrated Beginner’s Guide Including Detailed Patterns and Common Mistakes

Carol James presents a 64-page, full-colour guide to fingerweaving. The book includes beginners’ and advanced methods that are fully illustrated with drawings, sketches, and photos. There is also a section on mistakes—how to prevent them and how to fix them. However, the maker may consider that while “a skilled weaver identifies errors quickly and corrects them. A creative weaver sees the potential, repeats the ‘mistake’ several times, and calls it a design element (p. 7).” To complement the guide, there are reproductions of historical sashes from different collections, including that of St Boniface Museum and of the Manitoba Museum. The book is divided in three main sections: Getting Started; Tips, Tricks and Troubles; and Traditional Patterns. In the last section, the author shares instructions for traditional patterns, including the Arrowhead, the Assomption, and the Acadian. In the last few pages, graph patterns are offered as well as a glossary.

ISBN: 978-0-9784695-0-4
Author: Carol James
Illustrators: Carol James and Janet Lafrance
Grade Level: Secondary/Post Secondary/Adult

Leah Marie Dorion’s The Diamond Willow Walking Stick: A Traditional Métis StoryAbout Generosity focuses on a Métis Elder’s remembrances of traditional teachings about generosity that were taught to him by his grandparents during his childhood. These lifelong lessons imparted on him “how to live in a good Métis way,” and taught him how to live with respect within the circle of life. In this charming children’s book, the third in an ongoing series on traditional Métis culture, author and illustrator Leah Marie Dorion takes the reader on another enchanting journey while once again honouring the special bond between Métis children and their grandparents. With breathtaking artwork and an elegant Michif translation by Norman Fleury, this heartfelt, coming of age story will resonate with both young and old. This book also includes a chart on the uses of the willow tree and an accompanying narration CD in English and Michif-Cree.  This retelling of a traditional Métis story is most suitable for younger children.

Author/Illustrator: Leah Marie Dorion
Michif-Cree Tranlator: Norman Fleury
Grade Level: Primary
Format: Book/CD, English/Michif-Cree

Based on Métis artist Christi Belcourt’s painting “Medicines to Help Us,” this innovative and vibrant resource honours the centuries-old healing traditions of Métis women. For this stunning set of twenty-seven gallery-quality prints and accompanying companion booklet, Christi Belcourt fuses her evocative artwork with Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Western Science. With contributions from Métis Elders Rose Richardson and Olive Whitford, as well as key Michif phrases and terminology, Medicines to Help Us is the most accessible resource relating to Métis healing traditions produced to date.

ISBN: 978-0-920915-79-0
Author/Illustrator: Christi Belcourt
Translators: Laura Burnouf and Rita Flamand
Elder Validation: Rose Richardson
Format: Prints and Book, English/Île-à-la-Crosse Michif/Michif-Cree
Awards: Nominated—2008 Book of the Year, Publishing, and First Peoples Publishing,
Saskatchewan Book Awards

20.12m: A Short Story Collection of a Life Lived as a Road Allowance Métis celebrates and acknowledges the humble living conditions of Métis Road Allowance families and it exemplifies their grit and tenacity to survive and indeed succeed in the face of so many hardships. “20.12m” refers to the narrow width of many of the road allowances throughout the prairies. This unoccupied crown land became one of the meagre options for many impoverished Métis families as so few owned land.

In this passionate coming of age book, Arnolda Dufour Bowes honours the true-life experiences of her father, Arnold Charles Dufour, a resident of the Punnichy, Saskatchewan Road Allowance community. The strength of the oral tradition has kept these stories solidly in place in Arnolda’s memory. Weaving true elements with those drawn from her own creativity, these five engaging stories share a lived experience that is little-known to most Canadians. This collection of cherished remembrances of this Métis family will also strongly resonate with many other Métis families who lived similar lives. In keeping with the family focus, Arnolda’s sister, Andrea Haughian, skillfully complements these poignant stories with expressive illustrations, which both honour and richly portray road allowance life.

ISBN: 978-1-926795-99-7
Author: Arnolda Dufour Bowes
Illustrator: Andrea Haughian
Grade Level: Secondary/Post Secondary/Adult

The holiday season has always been a very special time for Métis families.  A family-oriented people, the Métis often didn’t have money to buy expensive presents, but instead made practical items with much love.  In this spirit, award-winning author and illustrator, Leah Marie Dorion takes readers back to the Métis tradition of making mittens for loved ones. Métis Christmas Mittens is a touching ode to Métis family life is accompanied by Leah’s distinctive and evocative art.

ISBN: 978-1-926795-79-9
Author and Illustrator: Leah Marie Dorion
Translator: Norman Fleury
Grade Level: Primary
Format: Book

A vibrantly-illustrated social history of the Métis by artist Sherry Farrell Racette, this book was originally produced as a special project to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the 1885 Resistance. Complete with a glossary, it can be used as a class text, or a storybook. This book is also suitable for use in studying Canada’s Aboriginal peoples.

ISBN: 978-0-920915-97-4
Author/Illustrator: Sherry Farrell Racette
Translator: Norman Fleury
Grade Level: All Ages

Gerry St. Germain's story begins in "Petit Canada" on the shores of the Assiniboine, growing up with his two younger sisters, his mother and his father--a shy Metis trapper and construction worker who sometimes struggled to put food on the table. St. Germain was initially troubled in school, scrapping with classmates and often skipping out to shoot pool, but an aunt and uncle with some extra cash paid his tuition to Catholic school, where a nun recognized his aptitude for math and encouraged him to pursue his dreams. He would go on to become an air force pilot, undercover policeman and West Coast chicken farmer. Business gave way to politics, and in 1988 he became one of a tiny number of Aboriginal Canadians named to a federal cabinet. That milestone was just one of many for a man who played a critical role in Canada's Conservative movement for a generation.

From the Brian Mulroney era to the roller-coaster leadership of Kim Campbell, then to the collapse of the Progressive Conservative party in 1993 and the subsequent rebuilding of the movement under Stephen Harper, St. Germain remained a trusted confidant of prime ministers and a crucial and often daring behind-the-scenes broker in bringing warring factions together. But he is most proud of his efforts during his later years in the Senate, when he was a quiet hero to Canada's Aboriginal community. He spearheaded major Senate reports on key issues like land claims and on-reserve education during the Harper era, when there were few friendly faces for First Nations leaders on Parliament Hill. That role reflected St. Germain's profound determination to help people who are still dealing today the brutal legacy of residential schools and the paternalistic Indian Act. Memories of his humble beginnings, and the shame he once felt over his Metis heritage, bubbled to the surface in his final address to Canada's Parliament in 2012, when he said in a voice quaking with emotion: "I am a Metis."

Ride across the plains with GABRIEL DUMONT!
Based on historic events, Ride, Gabe, Ride tells the tale of a dangerous, exhilarating hunt led by the famed Métis buffalo hunter.
From the award-winning author of Fiddle Dancer, Dancing in My Bones, and Call of the Fiddle.

Author: Wilfred Burton
Illustrator: Lucille Scott

This book is a collection of stories about culture, history, and nationhood as told by Métis women. The Métis are known by many names — Otipemisiwak, “the people who own ourselves;” Bois Brules, “Burnt Wood;” Apeetogosan, “half brother” by the Cree; “half-breed,” historically; and are also known as “rebels” and “traitors to Canada.” They are also known as the “Forgotten People.” Few really know their story.

Many people may also think that Métis simply means “mixed,” but it does not. They are a people with a unique and proud history and Nation. In this era of reconciliation, Stories of Métis Women explains the story of the Métis Nation from a their own perspective. The UN has declared this “The Decade of Indigenous Languages” and Stories of Métis Women is one of the few books available in English and Michif, which is an endangered language.

by Bailey Oster

By (artist)Krista Leddy
Foreword byAudrey Poitras

ISBN: 978-0920915-76-9
Authors: Wilfred Burton and Anne Patton
Illustrator: Sherry Farrell Racette
Translator: Norman Fleury
Format: Book/CD, English/Michif-Cree
Awards: Nominated—2007 Regina Book Award, Children’s Literature Award, and First Book Award,
Saskatchewan Book Awards
Nominated—2007 Children’s Book of the Year, Ânskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival
Nominated—2009 Shining Willow Award, The Willow Awards
Grade Level: Primary
Fiddle Dancer tells the tale of  a young Métis boy, Nolin, and his growing awareness of his Métis heritage and identity while his “Mooshoom” or grandfather, teaches hime to dance.  Authors Wilfred Burton and Anne Patton masterfully weave a childhood story rich in Métis culture and language.  This delightful story captures the importance of Elders as role models, a child’s apprehension at learning new things, and the special bond between grandparents and children.  Sherry Farrell Racette provides many beautiful illustrations for the book.

Road Allowance Kitten: Broken Promises shares more of the adventures of the main characters, Rosie and Madeline, and their pet kitten. Their adventure began in Road Allowance Kitten, which has become a very popular and widely-acclaimed book within the canon of Métis children’s literature. Readers urged author Wilfred Burton to share what happens next.

The stories shared in these books blend the experiences of Métis families who were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to an unfamiliar part of the province, where they found so little of what was promised to them.

Award-winning children’s author Wilfred Burton skillfully shares this story through the eyes of the children involved. Christina John’s vibrant illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this authentic vignette of a little-known part of Prairie history.

The Métis Alphabet Book Study Prints is the companion volume to Joseph Jean Fauchon’s children’s book The Métis Alphabet Book. This resource contains background information about each topic listed, Michif-Cree words and terms, and a bibliography. Prints are 9″ x 12″.

They say, “Home is where the heart is.” For Rosie and Madeline, home also included their pet kitten. Imagine being told you have to leave your home … without your pet. Based on a true story, Road Allowance Kitten gives readers a glimpse into the history of the Road Allowance Métis and their forced removal from their humble, but beloved, homes on the road allowance. Award-winning children’s author Wilfred Burton skillfully shares this story through the eyes of the children involved. The vibrant illustrations by Christina Johns are the perfect accompaniment to this authentic vignette of a little-known part of Prairie history.

ISBN: 978-1-926795-72-0
Author: Wilfred Burton
Illustrator: Christina Johns
Translator: Norman Fleury
Grade Level: Primary
Format: Book/CD, English/Michif

Few figures in Canadian history have attained such an iconic status as Louis Riel. Celebrated Metis poet Gregory Scofield takes a fresh look at Riel in his new collection, Louis: The Heretic Poems, challenging traditional conceptions of Riel as simply a folk hero and martyr. By juxtaposing historical events and quotes with the poetic narrative, Scofield draws attention to the side of the Metis leader that most Canadians have never contemplated: that of husband, father, friend and lover, poet and visionary.

Scofield also uses the collection to raise attention about the more crucial historical events of Riel’s lifetime–such as the Manitoba Resistance and the Northwest Resistance at Batoche–in order to illuminate the history of western Canadian Metis people and their struggles toward recognition. Scofield also examines Riel’s own poetry, most of which was devoted to exploring religious themes. Accordingly, religious imagery features strongly in the collection, complemented by a poetic voice that is rhythmic, repetitious, and lush with potent symbolism and simple, powerful images.

ISBN: 978-0-88971-262-1
Author: Gregory Scofield