A University of Northern British Columbia anthropology professor has been named the co-winner of a prize for the best French-language book in the humanities and social sciences published in Canada.
Dr. Michel Bouchard is sharing a $10,000 prize from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences with co-authors Dr. Sébastien Malette of Carleton University, and independent researcher Guillaume Marcotte for their book Les Bois-Brûlés de l'Outaouais (Bois-Brûlés: The Untold Story of the Métis of Western Québec).
Bouchard called the news a shock and an incredible honour given the distinguished academics who have received it in the past.
The book makes the argument that a historical Métis community exists in the Outaouais region of western Québec and points to cultural similitudes and ancestral linkages to established Métis communities in western Canada.
"We wanted to research an aspect of Canadian history that has been overlooked," Bouchard says. "We didn't have a set agenda when we began our research, we wanted to see what story the archival record would tell us about how people were identified in the 19th century."
The findings of the book have sparked debate about the nature of identity and who can claim Indigenous ancestry.
Bouchard is hopeful the prize will encourage more people to read the book and engage in the conversation about what it means to be Métis in 2020
"We are grateful to the jury as we know this book does challenge what was assumed to be true," Bouchard said.
"As we wrote, rather than reducing reality to a Manichean world view that opposes identities such as white versus Indian, or white versus Métis, or lastly Québécois versus Métis, we carefully analyzed a cultural and historical landscape in which identities are ever shifting and evolving as living entities, in which individuals and communities can call upon elements of their ethnic and symbolic heritage to define and redefine themselves."
An English version is now available through UBC Press.
