WINNIPEG FREE PRESS: SIBLINGS SPARKING THE MÉTIS SPIRIT

Two local filmmakers have been asking community members what it means to be Métis.

The brother-and-sister Franco-Métis filmmaking team of Janelle and Jérémie Wookey has been seeking 100 video submissions from Métis youth across the country as part of the multimedia project called 100metis.ca.

The project consists of interactive online archive featuring videos and a television documentary about the process that will air later this year. The duo co-owns Wookey Films. Both siblings attended Collège Louis Riel and are graduates of the Creative Communications program at Red River College. Laurence B. Lemaire has also been a key player on the project.

"We’re creating an online archive of 100 videos submitted by 100 Métis people over the 100 days," said Janelle Wookey, 29, who lives in St. Boniface.

"The goal at the end is to put together an online archive to create a portrait of who Métis people are today and where they are heading tomorrow. The archive will create a mosaic of faces that will be moving and alive that visitors will be able click on and get a small piece of the pie. We’ve had some great responses and I’m pumped about how many people have chosen to express their Métis identities."  

The documentary will be called Augustine’s Wish as the project was inspired, in part, by proud Métis elder, great-niece of Louis Riel and matriarch of Manitoba’s Métis community Augustine Abraham, who died last year, aged 96. Abraham was interviewed by the siblings on many occasions. Her wish was that the "found generation" keep the Métis spirit alive so that an important past isn’t forgotten.    

In 2008, Wookey told her own family’s story on screen by showcasing the last three generations of the Red River Métis: her grandmother’s, her mother’s and hers.

"It’s important for me to undertake this project because I believe there is a population of young Métis in my generation that is feeling conflicted about their heritage," Wookey said.
"Our first film, Memere Métisse, contributed to the conversation about the taboo of revealing Métis ancestry among my grandmother’s generation. Through 100metis.ca, we hope to create a platform to again spark a conversation that will help orient young Métis people to move forward in a united, confident way."

"Part of the conversation is about way the Métis community processes its identity. Right now, some people are conscious and proud, while there is a whole slew that doesn’t even know about their Métis background. At one point, Métis were a strong and independent part of Manitoba’s population, but after the Battle of Batoche and the hanging of Louis Riel, the Métis became a joke in society and hid their identities underground to protect themselves. We’re now picking up where our ancestors left off three or four generations ago," she added.

The deadline for submissions to 100metis.ca is 5 p.m. on Fri., March 11. Submissions will be accepted after that, but for the purposes of the timeline of events won’t be included in the documentary.