Digitizing and rematriating Metis Fiddle Dance and Chanson Collections
In response to ethnomusicology’s collection-oriented foundation, a growing number of ethnomusicologists have turned to repatriation. This area has become my primary focus since arriving at the University of Lethbridge. In 2018, I received an Insight Development Grant (IDG) to work towards documenting Métis Music in Archives. Like many collections of Indigenous music, archived Métis music is often difficult to access, unknown to the community for whom it matters most, and poorly documented. The IDG grant allowed me to travel to many archives (Glenbow/University of Calgary/Alberta Provincial/Manitoba Provincial/Centre du Patrimoine) to document the Métis music holdings. I was also able to hire three Métis RAs (Amy Lambert and Jonas Weselake-George using IDG funding, and Troy Bannerman through a Rupertsland Grant that I received summer 2020) to work with me documenting these belongings. Together, we created a comprehensive list of items, as well as a summary report that we are sharing with community, with the aim of finding ways to engage the community with the belongings—towards rematriation.