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Reflecting on his evolving identity as “a
human being, a Canadian and a Métis westerner,” Herb
Belcourt tells the remarkable story of one family’s enduring
connection to the dramatic history of western Canada. Belcourt traces
his ancestry directly to an early French-Canadian voyageur and his
Cree-Métis wife who lived in Rupert’s Land after 1800.
The eldest of ten children, Belcourt grew up in a small log home
near Lac Ste. Anne during the Depression. His father purchased furs
from local First Nations and Métis trappers and, with arduous
work, began a family fur trading business that survives to this
day. When Belcourt left home at 15 to become a labourer in coal
mines and sawmills, his father told him to save his money so he
could work for himself. Over the next three decades, Belcourt began
a number of small Alberta businesses that prospered and eventually
enabled him to make significant contributions to the Métis
community in Alberta.
Belcourt has devoted over 30 years of his life
to improving access to affordable housing and further education
for aboriginal Albertans. In 1971, he co-founded Canative Housing
Corporation, a non-profit agency charged with providing homes for
urban aboriginal people who confronted housing discrimination in
Edmonton and Calgary. In 2004, Belcourt and his colleagues established
the Belcourt Brosseau Métis Awards Fund, a $13-million endowment
with a mandate to “support the educational dreams of Métis
youth and mature students in Alberta and to make a permanent difference
in the lives of Métis Albertans.”
Awarded an honourary doctorate of laws by
the University of Alberta in 2001, Belcourt is also the 2006 recipient
of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Housing. In this
memoir, he describes Alberta’s opportunities with admiration
while speaking bluntly about the loss of aboriginal and Métis
land in western Canada, and about the difficult consequences of
generations of interracial misunderstanding in the West. Addressing
himself to young Métis, and to all Canadians, he speaks with
compelling candour about his love for this country, and his concerns
about its future.
The author is donating his royalties from the sales of this book to the following charities:
The Robin Hood Association in Sherwood Park, Alberta: Assisting people with disabilities to live, work, and play.
The Centre of Excellence for Service, Training and Research in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (fasd) at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta (with funds facilitated through the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation).
This book is printed on
ancient
forest-friendly paper.
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