By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Museum exhibit helping to rediscover identity of Alberta’s Métis

Jan 21, 2019 | 2:06 PM

‘Hiding in Plain Sight: Discovering the Métis Nation’ has officially had its grand opening at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery.

Open since Dec. 15, the exhibit runs until March 10. Organizers held a special opening event for the travelling exhibition by Library and Archives Canada at the museum on Sunday.

“For me, it’s exciting and a great thing for our people because it brings us out of hiding. Lots of people are still unaware of their Métis heritage or they’re too shy to claim it,” says Raye St. Denis, president of Métis Local 492 in Red Deer, a part of the Métis Nation of Alberta.

“With this exhibit, it will encourage people to do that. It will break us from being the invisible people that we have always been and it will make the general population of Red Deer aware that we have been here for a very long time, and that we’ve made contributions to the development and original building here and in the province.”

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St. Denis added how proud she is of the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery for including local artifacts in the exhibit.

Alberta has the largest Métis population in all of Canada, with 96,865 individuals, or 21.4 per cent, according to the 2011 Canada Census. The 2016 Census from Statistics Canada showed there were 2,920 individuals identified as Métis in Red Deer.