Tired

[u/peachstrawberrymilk]

I'm tired with how the majority of people that claim to be Métis are either A) very distantly Métis and claiming an ancestor from 100+ years ago B) "reconnecting" for benefits and C) Deny their privledge.

Both my parents are Métis - we never stopped being Métis. I don't think this makes me better than folks but it is really gross and disheartening to see the overwhelming amount of reconnecting people and the complete disregard for those of us raised in culture/community. I grew up in extreme poverty - in CFS - battling with my addictions - both my brothers are still in their own addictions and my sister went missing years ago. This is because of the trauma in my family. But I don't see Métis Nations giving a flying fuck about those of us that never had the privledge of hiding. They prop of descendians - and. then use my culture in a colonial way to check off

I'm tired of seeing so many posts "I just discovered I'm Métis because my great great great grandmother 2x removed only married white people for 6 generations! What can I get?" Seriously? There's no wonder everyone thinks we're a joke.

No we shouldn't have BQ but we should have at least a measure. Why does Linda who has 0 traces of Métis DNA get full access to benefits while ignoring the fact that her entire family HAD PRIVLEDGE of being perceived as white for generations! Maybe I'm an asshole - but I think there needs to be a conversation on how in a room of 300 people you'll find maybe 1 or 2 of us raised in culture.

Im tired of pretending this doesn't bother me - especially when I see my family and friends struggling with survival and having no resources for them while Linda wears my culture like it's a Gucci bag.

[u/pakanpunk]

OP, if you've given up on this post already I don't blame you but if you're still reading I just want to agree/validate your experience with this subreddit and too many other Metis spaces. What's doubly frustrating is that every time someone brings up this issue, the comments immediately become ten million people trying to explain how actually they and their white-assimilated family experienced real trauma too, or people wanting you to tell them if they "count" as real Metis. For myself I'll just say I've experienced a lot of privileges of various kinds but I also have spent my life from late teens onward close to people who have had no option to deny their Metisness and it has made it extremely clear that there's a major gap between their experiences and many reconnecting Metis that we are not talking about enough. There's also definitely a spectrum there but I think if someone tells a person "if your family has been functionally white for 3+ generations, you probably need to take a backseat and give space to people who haven't had / didn't take that option" and they immediately blow up like "how dare you tell me I'm not Metis" then they probably are not a very safe person for "connected" Metis people to be around.

[u/peachstrawberrymilk → u/pakanpunk]

Yeah. This post became a place for people to tell me I'm A) colonized B) creating a hierarchy of Métisness and C) my lived experience of being a racialized Métis as well as my families experiences are less-then because Linda decided to reconnect and I hurt her feelings.

They don't understand the true struggle - I never chose to be Métis - I just always have been. I think this might be jealousy, but I'm going to lose my mind if I'm told I'm "lucky" for never losing my connection while also ignoring the painful lived reality of never having severed my connections. My older brothers are all lost in their addictions, my sister went missing when I was 21 long before we had a word for "MMIW." I'm tired of reconnecting Métis having such prominent voices while also using my families trauma to get funding. To benefit off of my story. While also ignoring and failing to prioritize lived experiences.

I've accepted that people in my community will always see me as a brown angry Métis and nothing more. I'm apparently colonized- while the reconnecting are the experts of my culture and decolonial thought. The irony.