Métis History & Culture
This distinct Indigenous people emerged in the Red River region from the intermarriage of First Nations women and European fur traders.
Who are the Métis?
This is the largest French-speaking community in Manitoba and the historic heart of Franco-Manitoban culture.
What is Saint-Boniface?
This Winnipeg neighbourhood is home to Festival du Voyageur each February.
What is Saint-Boniface?
These canoe-travelling workers transported furs and trade goods across rivers and lakes for fur trading companies.
Who were the voyageurs?
This sweet treat made by pouring maple syrup onto snow is a popular winter festival food.
What is maple taffy?
This Métis leader headed the Red River Resistance of 1869–1870 and later the North-West Resistance of 1885.
Who is Louis Riel?
This French-language school division serves students in Manitoba outside of immersion programs.
What is Division scolaire franco-manitobaine?
The festival's official mascot, named after a French word meaning a knit cap, is a red-coloured character who wears a sash.
Who is Léo la Tuque?
This company, founded in 1670, became one of the most powerful fur trading companies in North America.
What is the Hudson's Bay Company?
This traditional Métis and French-Canadian meat pie is often served during winter celebrations.
What is tourtière?
This colourful finger-woven sash, often worn around the waist, is an important symbol of Métis identity.
What is the ceinture fléchée?
This provincial law, passed in 1890, removed French as an official language of Manitoba’s legislature and courts.
What is the Official Language Act of 1890?
This official festival drink, often made with maple syrup and whiskey, is served hot to keep visitors warm.
What is caribou?
This rival Montreal-based fur trading company competed fiercely with the Hudson’s Bay Company until the two merged in 1821.
What is the North West Company?
This instrument is central to Métis music and is often played at dances and community gatherings.
What is the fiddle?
This 1870 Act created the province of Manitoba and promised land rights to the Métis people.
What is the Manitoba Act?
This major French-language cultural centre in Saint-Boniface includes a theatre, art gallery, and hosts many community events.
What is Centre culturel franco-manitobain?
This cheerful French-Canadian greeting, shouted with arms raised, is the traditional welcome exchanged by attendees throughout the festival grounds.
What is "Hé ho!"?
This lightweight form of transportation was essential to voyageurs because it could carry heavy loads and be portaged between waterways.
What is a birchbark canoe?
This lively partner dance, common at Franco-Manitoban and Métis celebrations, is often accompanied by fiddle music.
What is a jig?
This traditional Métis fiddle tune, often considered an unofficial anthem of the Métis people, shares its name with a river in Manitoba.
What is the Red River Jig?
This Franco-Manitoban newspaper, founded in 1913, is the only French-language weekly newspaper in Manitoba.
What is La Liberté?
Festival du Voyageur began in this year.
What is 1970?
This animal’s pelts were the most valuable in the North American fur trade because of their use in making fashionable European hats.
What is the beaver?
This traditional Métis sash, worn around the waist and sometimes used practically to carry items, has become a powerful cultural symbol.
What is the ceinture fléchée?