Métis history on display at Koushkoupayh Days
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/09/2018 (2670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
SOURIS VALLEY — The importance of this past weekend’s Koushkoupayh Days was clear to Grant Armstrong.
Held in the Souris Valley, the Métis festival brought people together, and gave a younger generation the opportunity to learn about their history, Armstrong said.
“I think it’s important a lot of young people come to this type of event and learn,” Armstrong said.
“The people that are responsible for putting this event on are doing something for future generations that they may not have an opportunity to see or read about otherwise.”
Armstrong himself had a white tent set up with a variety of items inside.
There were historical household items such as bowls and frying pans, and a bed set up with a cowhide rug on the floor. As the day progressed, people took the opportunity to walk through and see the variety of items that he had put up on display.
There wasn’t one in particular that stuck out for him, but everything put together is what makes it important, he said.
“Not only (can they see) what was available in terms of housewares and living styles, but the music and everything that accompanied it,” he said.
For some people, it may be the only opportunity that they have to see and hear this history, Armstrong said.
The music that was being played isn’t typical of this generation, he said, as fiddle music played in the background on the main stage.
“It’s a different type of music certainly than most people listen to nowadays. The songs that are sung here by different people tell stories. As well, the displays show people what the lifestyle was like up to 100 years ago in Manitoba,” he said.
About 100 people were there on Saturday, some sitting on lawn chairs or the grass to enjoy the fiddle music, while others milled around at the different tents to learn a bit about Métis culture.
“It’s not just for Métis people — we welcome the whole community to come out and enjoy this with us,” said festival co-ordinator Joseph Donald Nault. “It’s a celebration of Métis culture and heritage and food and music.”
The festival started in 2012, and it was a goal of Nault’s cousin Andy, Nault said.
“It was his dream to hold the festival here and never to charge anybody entry fee or camping,” Nault said.
Andy died in 2012, and that was the first year that the festival was held.
For all the years that it has been put on, it has continued to steadily improve, Nault said.
“It’s been getting a little bigger, and the entertainment is getting a little better now.”
The hope was to have those who came out to the festival take away something with them that they learned.
“Hopefully all of us are playing a role in history,” Armstrong said.
“Hopefully we can hand it off to the next generation of people.”
» mverge@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @Melverge5