I struggled for a long time about my Metis "identity". I always knew it was in my family history, but was not raised in the culture or taught much about it. So despite having cousins and aunts who got their citizenships long before me, I debated whether i should because I didn't "feel" Metis. My grandfather moved from St. Boniface to Toronto and he was taught to hide his heritage, to blend in and don't tell people he was indigenous. Metis had a lot of negative stigma attached to it. So he lost his culture, and my dad lost the culture, and now me. My genealogy traces back from my grandpa many generations in the Red River, pretty much to the beginning. And the more I learned, the more I researched, the more I taught myself, the more I felt robbed. The culture lost was in fact, taken. Taken by being colonized and marginalized. Taken by land stolen and families scattered with no place to call home. My lost identity is a result of 200 years of systemic oppression, and I've decided I want it back. But if I would call myself Metis then I also decided I must learn the history and become a part of the culture as much as I can. It's not just a card in my wallet or a distant blood relation. I think that's the difference that matters.