Thematic Shifts in Metis Life-Writings

Before the 1970s, Canadäs Aboriginal peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and the Metis) were hugely underrepresented in Canadian literature. This was especially true of the Metis Nation, whose mixed First Nations and Euro-Canadian heritage presented myriad roadblocks to any forms of self-expression. Canadian literary canon either excluded Metis characters entirely or their roles were marginalized and stereotyped. Since the 1970s on though, spurred by the intellectual movements of the time, Metis authors like Maria Campbell, Beatrice Culleton Mosionier, or Lorraine Mayer have gained discursive control over their self-representation and launched their campaign for the inclusion of Metis voices in Canadian literature. Their literary prolificacy resulted in an ever increasingly growing number of Native life-writings emerging to fill this representational void and counterbalance the heavy weight of the strictly selective mainstream literature.