A Place to Call Home
- NC Raine | February 21, 2022
A newly opened 26-unit building in Saskatoon is exactly what was needed, say its residents. “I’ve been looking for this place for 20 years,” said Marlene Conron.
The Métis Elder is one of the first residents of the newly opened Round Prairie Elders’ Lodge. Since stepping into her suite in early December, Conlon said she immediately knew she found her place.
“It’s home,” she said. “I’m from Round Prairie, my family lived out there. It was their own settlement, it was theirs. So this place has been a long time in the making.”
Round Prairie was once one of the largest Métis settlements in the province and was located 40 kilometers south of Saskatoon. The lodge is a 25,000-square-foot building on Avenue P South. It was constructed in eight months at a cost of about $7 million through a collaborative effort between the federal, provincial, municipal, and Métis governments.
The home was created to provide Métis Elders with culturally appropriate housing that is safe, affordable, and accessible. “We have never done anything like this, that is Métis specific,” said Shirley Isbister, president of the Central Urban Métis Federation, Inc. (CUMFI). “This home will probably be the first and only (one) like it. We wanted it Métis specific because we wanted to ensure our Elders, when they moved in, had family connections.”
The physical health of the Elders will be handled by CUMFI, providing proper nutrition, exercise classes, and access to medical personnel.
Despite restrictions due to Covid-19, the Elders’ are already ecstatic about their lodge.
“They are absolutely loving it,” said Isbister. “Everyone seems so content. There are family connections here. We have an uncle and nephew here, as well as a brother and sister, living in different suites. Those family connections and bonds are forming. It’s going to be even better (after Covid-19).”
Once safety concerns are alleviated, Isbister said, they will regularly engage the Elders in cultural and health-minded activities, everything from cooking traditional foods and speaking Michif, to storytelling with children from the nearby elementary school, to classes with healthcare professionals on diabetes awareness.
The lodge has a prayer room, exercise room, as well as stand-up garden plots for each of the residents, so they can garden in the summer without having to kneel down.
Isbister said the pandemic has been particularly difficult on the mental health of the Elders, many of whom have been isolated from family and loved ones for long periods of time. Creating a space where the residents are able to truly connect was the top priority in creating the lodge, said Isbister.
Conron, who previously lived with her daughter, is already receiving that positive impact.
“It’s a very tight knit community,” she said. “I know almost everyone in here.”
Right now we can’t visit because of Covid. But someday we’ll be able to get together in the gathering room, share meals together, play cards. We’re all looking forward to that.