A very personal journey

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This article was published 01/09/2021 (1819 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tracy Charette Fehr’s current exhibit at Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum represents a deeply personal journey.

The exhibit is called In My Blood: Women Standing Strong, and it explores the legacy of the past generations of Charette Fehr’s family.

She hopes their stories will help shine a light on the strength and resiliency of Métis women, and that the exhibit “will be a message to the larger community that our Métis legacy is a proud one.”

“The exhibit originates from my family,” Charette Fehr told The Lance recently. “The names in the exhibit include those of my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother.”

The showcase is a personal exploration and testament to the lived experiences of the Charette/Nault family, Charette Fehr said, and it includes works in different mediums including textiles, embroidery, sculpture, and clay.

The exhibit is dedicated to Charette Fehr’s mother, Beatrice Charette, and grandmother, Louisa Nault Charette.

The multidisciplinary artist said she’s descended from a line of strong Métis women who were the caretakers and builders of Métis culture and identity, and part of her creative journey through the years has been to explore the traditions passed on by these women through their families, hard work, resilience, creativity and art.

Charette Fehr’s family history is a fascinating tapestry, although it’s not without tragedy. One life changing event occurred in 1966, when her mother died aged 29 on a trip home to La Rochelle, Man., from Winnipeg. As a result, Charette Fehr and her five sisters went to live with their widowed father in Winnipeg, which effectively severed their ties to their maternal Métis family in La Rochelle while growing up.

It wasn’t until her twenties that Charette Fehr was able to reconnect with her maternal relatives, and she’s spent the last few decades finding out more about her ancestors and what they lived through. In 2018, after spending years immersing herself in learning about Métis embroidery and needle arts, Charette Fehr received a Canada Council grant that enable her to travel to B.C. to spend time with and interview several of her aunts that grew up in Manitoba. The same year, she also went to Quebec to research and understand the impact the legacy of the religious orders had on her relatives and other Métis women.

“I was able to research what influence the Ursulines and Grey Nuns had on my family,” Charette Fehr, who is currently studying for a master’s degree in fine art at the University of Manitoba, said. “There was real shame in being a Métis woman in some quarters. I found out a lot about my grandmothers, and how Métis women had historically been the backbone of us surviving, not least the women who married voyageurs and were integral to the fur trade.”

As well as the exhibit at Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, the 61-year-old is also showcasing her creations at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq.

The exhibit, which opened on Aug. 20, is called Heartbeat of a Nation – Métis Women, 250 Years, and it traces seven generations of Métis women dating back to 1770.

The many stories of these women are represented and honoured by 250 handmade, smoke-fired clay bowls made by Charette Fehr. In partnership with Infinity Women Secretariat and the Manitoba Metis Federation, each of the bowls will be given to Métis women across the province at the end of the exhibit.

Charette Fehr said a key element of both exhibits is also to bring some parity to the stories of Métis women compared to their male counterparts.

“You don’t really hear too much about the stories of these women, and both of these exhibits are about that. I’ve been making art all my life, and I felt I needed to do this. I used to get into trouble for drawing on walls and showing other kids how to paint murals,” she said, with a laugh.

“I’m hoping these exhibits resonate with people, and if they bring people together, that’s great. I’m hoping people will recognize part of themselves in them. Now, I’m feeling there’s a place for this in Manitoba and Canadian history, not least because the Métis nation was birthed here. It’s about recognizing what happened as part of the historical record.”

Go online at msbm.mb.ca or www.wag.ca for more information.