A new exhibit depicting the importance of bison to Métis culture is on display at Whistlers’ Campground in Jasper National Park.

Through 10 double-sided interpretive panels, colourfully rendered by Métis artist Jesse Gouchey, Lii Buflo: A Métis Way of Life uses story telling devices and technology to articulate the relationship between the Métis and the buffalo—an animal which was critical to the Métis lifestyle.

“That relationship is intertwined with how Métis people have survived on the land,” said Celina Loyer, an Aboriginal Programmer with the Musée Héritage Museum, in St. Albert.

Lii Buflo: A Métis Way of Life is a travelling exhibit displayed at Whistlers Campground in Jasper National Park. // Bob Covey

Loyer was on the Métis advisory committee which Parks Canada and the Arts and Heritage Foundation of St. Albert worked closely with to showcase Métis stewardship, voices and stories in the exhibit. She said it was important to Métis community elders to highlight Lii Buflo as their kin.

“They wanted to highlight how integral [buffalo] were to our existence here in this space,” Loyer said. 

Part of the exhibit tells the story of Métis people learning from their First Nations grandmothers how to make tools and utensils from buffalo horns and bones. Clothing, ties, thread, containers, blankets, tipis and drums were made from the bison’s hides, skins, sinews and guts.

“They became a keystone in our society,” Loyer said. “And when that was taken away, we had to adapt to other ways of living.”

With its colourful imagery and interactive panels, the new exhibit at Whistlers Campground is geared toward families. // Luuk Wijk, Parks Canada

In the 1800s, tens of millions of buffalo disappeared from the plains of North America—through predation, disease, fires and competition from horses, but overwhelmingly from the wanton slaughter of buffalo by settlers, for sport and market. In the place now known as Edmonton, when the buffalo disappeared, Métis had to adapt to a very different way of life.

“It was their main source of income, food and clothing,” Loyer said. “There’s no way to understate the importance of that.

More than a century after their near-extermination, buffalo are bred at Elk Island National Park’s bison conservation program and 31 wild bison have been released into Banff National Park’s backcountry, a program Parks Canada is calling a success, five years on.

Bison were reintroduced into Banff National Park in 2018. // Karsten Heuer, Parks Canada

And in Jasper National Park, Lii Buflo: A Métis Way of Life showcases the historic ties and spiritual bond between the Métis people and the buffalo—a concept which, if visitors and residents can start to understand the significance of the buffalo to Métis, would mark a step towards reconciliation, according to the agency.

“The government of Canada is committed to renewed relationships with the Métis community,” project coordinator Jessica Burylo explained. “Parks Canada recognizes the significant cultural relationship between bison and Indigenous Peoples.”

Lii Buflo: A Métis Way of Life is on display near the playground and the theatre at Whistlers Campground until September.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com