Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Métis Ancestry and Anishinaabe Spirituality

by Chantal Fiola

Overview

Why don’t more Métis people go to traditional ceremonies? How does going to ceremonies impact Métis identity?

In Rekindling the Sacred Fire, Chantal Fiola investigates the relationship between Red River Métis ancestry, Anishinaabe spirituality, and identity, bringing into focus the ongoing historical impacts of colonization upon Métis relationships with spirituality on the Canadian prairies. Using a methodology rooted in an Indigenous world view, Fiola interviews eighteen people with Métis ancestry, or an historic familial connection to the Red River Métis, who participate in Anishinaabe ceremonies, sharing stories about family history, self-identification, and their relationships with Aboriginal and Eurocanadian cultures and spiritualities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780887557705
Publisher:	University of Manitoba Press
Publication date:	04/17/2015
Edition description:	1
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	1,051,361
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Chantal Fiola is Michif (Red River Métis) with family from St. Laurent and Ste. Geneviève, Manitoba. She is the author of Rekindling the Sacred Fire and Returning to Ceremony. Dr. Fiola is an Associate Professor in the Urban and Inner-City Studies Department at the University of Winnipeg, where she was named Distinguished Indigenous Scholars Chair (2021-2024). Chantal is Two-Spirit, Midewiwin, a Sundancer, and lives with her wife and daughter in Winnipeg.

Table of Contents

Gichi Miigwetch (Acknowledgements) 1 - Seven Fires Prophecy and the Métis: An Introduction 2 - Spirituality and Identity 3 - Understanding the Colonial Context of Métis Spirituality and Identity 4 - A Métis Anishinaabe Study 5 - Meeting the Participants 6 - Residence, Education, Employment, Ancestry, and Status 7 - Family History 8 - Self-Identification and Personal Experiences 9 - Relationship with Spirituality 10 - Conclusion: Lighting the Eighth Fire Notes Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Julie Pelletier

”Rekindling the Sacred Fire provides a marvelous example and model of Indigenized research.”

Editorial Reviews

01/11/2016
At a time when questions of identity are so important for people who have found themselves marginalized as a result of colonialism, the Métis could not be a more appropriate group to consider in order to dig into the deeper questions of identity, community, and belonging. They occupy an uncanny space as there has not been, and still seems not to be, a coherent definition of their identity, whether it is native, ‘mixed blood', or other. Fiola, a professor of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba and a descendant of the Red River Métis, examines how the Métis identify with the traditions of the past, and where they fit in the present. Her central question is how can the Métis relate to their Anishinaabe past and spirituality? Addressing this, Fiola focuses on lived experiences through a series of interviews that address identity, self-perception and the question of community. She focuses on how the Métis can rediscover their heritage and the implications in identity politics, law and history. This is a great book in an under researched field that tackles important questions without an overt recourse to the typical type of theory that can be alienating in itself. (July 2015)

Publishers Weekly

"Apart from the author’s personal expose on her experience as a Métis person, Chantal reconfirms the real impact that the historical experience of living among the Anishinaabe had upon not only the material culture of her people, but also on how many of them came to view the world."

49th Shelf - Blair Stonechild

"A great book in an under researched field."

Publishers' Weekly

A seminal work of truly impressive scholarship, Rekindling the Sacred Fire is exceptionally well written, organized and presented. Informed and informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking.”

Marilyn Dumont

A seminal work of truly impressive scholarship, Rekindling the Sacred Fire is exceptionally well written, organized and presented. Informed and informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Midwest Book Review - Marilyn Dumont

Firmly pushes Métis studies forward in ways that intimately integrate Métis sovereignty in ongoing dialogue with those of the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe, including the Saulteaux, Odawa, and Potawatomi) and Nêhiyawak (Cree).

Dylan A. T. Miner

Shows a fidelity to an Indigenous methodology and is an exemplar for how we as historians of education need to revise the narrative to place learners at the centre. We need to hear from Métis learners as they set new points of reference in the history of Indigenous education.

Jonathan Anuik