GDI share giant Mètis map at Sask’s largest summer festival

The Saskatoon Exhibition, Saskatchewan’s largest summer festival, is known for its midway rides, games, grandstand concerts, and unique carnival foods. But the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) has been aiming to bring more education and culture to the festivities.

Throughout the entirety of this year’s Exhibition, GDI shared the Canadian Geographic Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada – a massive 36 by 26 foot (11 meters by 8 meters) map composed of many vinyl tiles.

Setting aside the political boundaries of provinces and territories, the map instead focuses on historical treaties and land claims, the distribution of Indigenous language families, the locations of reserves and band councils, and the sites of former residential schools.

“It’s a very important teaching tool,” said Karon Shmon, Cultural Advisor at GDI. “It’s a history lesson, walking around and reading the map. There’s so many ways, so many lessons that go along with the map.”

For presenting the map at this year’s exhibition, GDI placed pins with the Mètis flag throughout the map, each pin representing a large centre or smaller community where Mètis populations are located.

“When you look at it, you can see that it follows the Mètis homeland, because they’re dispersed mainly through the prairie provinces, the Northwest Territories, and a little in Ontario – all places where people relocated,” said Shmon.

The map also included treaty relationships and historic connection to First Nations peoples through representation of the medicine lines bordering the various treaty territories, as well as historical milestones, significant individuals, timelines, and cultural narratives.

GDI worked on the development of the map with Canadian Geographic as a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. Shmon said Canadian Geographic was flexible in working with GDI to help realize their vision for the map that focused on Mètis history.

“They had political boundaries that were encircled in red maple leaves and we said we didn’t want that. Instead of those maple leaves, we put a timeline to show that we were here before 1867, and that we are going to go beyond 1867,” she said. “We have circles indicating First Nations, Mètis, and Inuit milestones in a chronological fashion.”

Shmon said the scale of the map can serve as an effective teaching resources. As a visual tool, Shmon will fold in half a regular 8×11 sheet of paper and place it on the map – indicating roughly how much land mass Mètis people hold in Canada.

“It’s way less than one percent of the map for Mètis settlements. It’s a startling example,” said Shmon.

“We want to show just how much the Mètis have been short changed. We only got into the Constitution in 1982, thanks to Harry Daniels.”

Shmon said that during its display at the Exhibition, there were always people coming by to look at the historical map.

“We saw lot of Indigenous stopping by. I think seeing it there made them feel good.”

Shmon said she believes there is still a significant lack of basic education and awareness around Indigenous, Mètis, and Inuit history and culture in Canada. She hopes that accessible tools, like the map, act as a springboard for individuals to start their own education and understanding of the lesser-known parts of Canadian history.

“It would be nice to have this map public, where anyone in the community can come look at it, because going to the Exhibition is expensive,” said Shmon.

“The motivation is to ensure that people have better and more accurate understanding of Indigenous people’s histories and cultures.”