The Liminal Space of Métis Poetry: Between Centre and Periphery

Abstract

This article explores the literary space of Canadian literature in world literature and the liminal space of Métis poetry, which is distinctive in being situated between the European and Indigenous aspects of Canadian literature. The paradox is that Métis poetry and literature in Canada, long marginalized, can now create another space for Canadian literature, or for poets born or living in Canada, in world literature and comparative literature, a small literature among large literatures. By examining Métis poetry in Canada and analyzing the poems by Louis Riel (1844–1885), Pauline Johnson (also known as Tekahionwake or Double Wampum, 1861–1913) and Naomi McIlwraith (contemporary), the article can provide a sense of distinctiveness and uniqueness, even if some of these qualities are also present in “Métis” poetry outside Canada. Riel and McIlwraith occupy a literary and cultural in-between space—Riel writing in French and McIlwraith in English and Cree—mixing major and minor centers and part of this “nation within a nation,” this threshold space where self, identity and other are all called into question.