DRELIZABETHFAST.WORDPRESS.COM

Tansi, I am Métis and Mennonite, born in the Red River Valley and spent my childhood in St. François-Xavier and Winnipeg, Manitoba. I currently teach in a graduate Youth Work program, First Peoples Studies and serve as the special advisor to the Provost in Indigenous Directions at Concordia University... My personal connection to this work comes from my mixed ancestry - Mennonite on my father's side and Métis on my mother's side. The Cyr family that my mom was born into had 11 children that spent much of their time in an area just west of Winnipeg - St. François-Xavier, Manitoba. I learnt very little about my Métis ancestry growing up, because as I later learned, my grandfather's very "Native" appearance and the extreme racism that existed in the prairies led my family - and many other Métis families to hide their identities, and instead say they were "Franco-Manitoban". It wasn't until I was 17 that I traced our geneology and got a copy of the Scrip that signed away my great-great-..

Primary location: Montreal