Ask any Canadian what "Metis" means, and they will likely say "mixed race." Canadians consider Metis mixed in ways that other indigenous people are not, and the census and courts have premised their recognition of Metis status on this race-based understanding.

According to Andersen, Canada got it wrong. Our very preoccupation with mixedness is not natural but stems from more than 150 years of sustained labour on the part of the state and others. From its roots deep in the colonial past, the idea of "Metis as mixed" has pervaded the Canadian consciousness until it settled in the realm of common sense. In the process, "Metis" has become a racial category rather than the identity of an indigenous people with a shared sense of history and culture.

Andersen asks all Canadians to consider the consequences of adopting a definition of "Metis" that makes it nearly impossible for the Metis nation to make political claims as a people.

This provocative book makes the case that by defining Metis people as racially mixed, Canada is undermining the ability of the Metis nation to make political claims as a people.

About the Author
Chris Andersen is an associate professor, the associate dean (research), and the director of the Rupertsland Centre for Metis Research in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. He is also the current editor of aboriginal policy studies, an online, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing on Metis, non-Status Indian, and urban Aboriginal issues in Canada and abroad. He is co-editor of Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation (UBC Press, 2013).

Reviews

"Metis" is, without a doubt, essential reading for everyone who studies the Metis, Indigeneity, and/or race and racialization as it provides a powerful critique of Metis racialization and an example of the impact of racialization on Indigenous nations.

-- Monique Giroux * Acadiensis *

Andersen's book is thorough and deep, insightful and provocative. Some will find it unsettling. But, for anyone interested in questions of Metis identity, or more generally Indigenous rights in Canada, it is an essential read.

-- Dwight Newman * Review of Constitutional Studies *
Andersen does a superb job of engaging with the scholarship of the field, allowing the reader to gain a clear understanding of its historical trajectory and where Andersen's work stands in comparison ... Metis is an important contribution and I expect that it will spur lively discussions, productive critiques, and shift the scholarship in the field. -- Jill Doerfler (White Earth Anishinaabe) * NAIS (Native American and Indigenous Studies) Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2015 *


Awards
Winner of NAISA Best Subsequent Book Prize, NAISA 2015 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9780774827225
Author Chris Andersen
Format Paperback
Page Count 284
Imprint University of British Columbia Press
Publisher University of British Columbia Press
Weight(grams) 440g