Métis Kitchen Table Party
Written November 16th, 2023 for History of Canadian Art 2801 at The University of Winnipeg.
I attended a Métis Kitchen Table Party held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on the evening of September 29th. The event ran approximately two and a half hours and displayed an array of Métis singers and jiggers as the night went by. The event hosted seven different performances as well as a speaker who discussed the history of the event and the connection kitchen parties have in the Métis community, and in their own life as a Métis person. Performers at the event, all of whom are Métis, included Sarah Shuttleworth, Contessa Lestrange, singers from the Manitoba Opera, Morgan Grace, Keith Ginther and Brandi Vezina.
The night started with jigging while Morgan Grace and Keith Ginther played traditional songs, including the Red River Jig, on guitar and fiddle. A youth jigging group performed first, allowing spectators to see the next generation of top notch Métis youth learning to jig. Upon the introduction of Sarah Shuttleworth, she told the crowd she was once a youth dancer who, through countless years of practice and performance, had come near to master the art of it. As the dancers performed the full crowd clapped to the rhythm and hollered with joy as the dancers carried on. Every seat in the house was full -save for when the group stood up together to learn a two-step- and standing room at the back spilled down the corridor in the back.
“Get up and dance,” someone at the microphone said. “Get on the tables and dance. Have a good time, it’s a kitchen party!”
A key attribute of the performances was the display of Métis culture with a modern twist. For example, Contessa Lestrange is a drag performer who danced around the massive room lip syncing I Will Survive while wearing traditional Métis garb of what appeared to be deer skin with bead work. What Lestrange captured in their expression was the power of Métis culture to endure, to survive, the last two centuries. The beadwork on both outfits worn that night by Lestrange were particularly Métis, showing different flowers blossoming from the same stem. Lestrange also displayed Métis culture in a modernity as drag performances and lip sync dance shows are not traditional. Through these two mediums of expression, clothing expressing Métis heritage while drag can be used as a courageous way to express personality through an alter ego, Lestrange was a shining reflection of dualism between past and present.
The Métis nation is a rich, beautiful culture which continues to be celebrated by its people. The night started and ended with jigging with a live fiddle player, something Métis people have cherished for generations. Having an opportunity to partake in the music and dance of our ancestors is how we will keep our culture strong. Some performers of the night had very little Métis culture in their work -singing covers from the 1960’s- while others showed more modernization of Métis culture. A duet of operatic singers performed in Michif, something likely never fathomed until recent years. The Métis culture has undergone immense stresses of communal separation and suppression, making a night like this even more beautiful. This night was a tremendous celebration of being Métis and an opportunity for the people of this great nation to come together to share food, music, and accompaniment of other Métis people.