How the book Rekindling the Sacred Fire helped Amanda Rheaume connect with her Métis heritage
'It spoke to the questions that I had and the insecurities that I had about identifying as Métis.'
This interview originally aired on May 4, 2019.
Amanda Rheaume is a singer-songwriter from Ottawa who now lives in Toronto. She draws on her Métis family history and her own contemporary life in her songwriting.
A book she recently read is Chantal Fiola's Rekindling the Sacred Fire.
"It's a book that investigates the relationship between being Métis, spirituality and identity. For me, it brought to light the ongoing impacts of colonization and how colonization has affected, and continues to affect, Métis people and their relationship with their own spirituality.
"I grew up in Bar Haven in Ottawa. I wasn't very connected to my own spirituality and my own Indigenous and Métis identity. When Chantal put this book out, it spoke to the questions that I had and the insecurities that I had about identifying as Métis — why I was feeling the way that I was feeling, despite my family's heritage and my ancestry and the way I felt on the inside.
"I think that anyone could read this book. You don't have to be Métis, you don't have to be Indigenous. I think that there is a great overview of our colonial history in this country. On top of that, it explains what being Métis is."
Amanda Rheaume's comments have been edited for length and clarity.