Honestly, it's as simple as the recognition that there are three distinct indigenous peoples in this country. There are still a lot of Métis students whose parents don't identify them in these systems because then they will be taught somebody else's culture.
The ability for educators to know that there are three distinct indigenous peoples and that we have our own cultures, languages, histories and stories.... That recognition matters. It starts as simply as that. Then to be able to have educators understand that there are unique resources for Métis students, that there are Michif resources for the language of the Métis people.... It's not the only language. Métis people speak Cree, Dene and many different dialects of the Michif language. To know the stories of the Métis nation, where we come from, who we are, why we are so proud to be who we are—those things matter.
It's fantastic to be able to learn about other people's cultures, of course, and that's really important, especially if you are in a neighbouring first nations community and your colleagues and classmates are coming from different cultures. It's important to learn about that, but it's also important for that Métis student to also feel like they are being honoured, that they can be proud of who they are and that they can be proud to teach their classmates about who they are. When their teacher knows who they are and where they come from and the language that they speak, those things are just so important.
That distinctions-based recognition seems so simple, but it's just not there.