Métis time capsule buried in North Bay aims to preserve culture and history

North Bay -

Tuesday marks the 26th annual Louis Riel Day. A day to honour Riel’s contributions to protecting the history and identity of Métis people.

In North Bay, more than 50 people from the Métis community came together to bury a time capsule to preserve their culture and history.

“We finally decided, you know what how about we create a time capsule here in North Bay and the first one in northern Ontario,” said Ish Vanderrassel from the North Bay Métis Council.

“There’s beadwork, Indigenous artwork, dot art, finger weaving, we have a wide variety of flags. There’s a huge amount of submissions that is reflecting our history, including the history of our founding father.”

Ontario’s Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell made the trip from Queen's Park for Tuesday’s ceremony. Dowdeswell told CTV News it’s important to have ceremonies like this one, especially during the pandemic.

“We’ve learned so many lessons about inclusivity, about inequity about how we learn to live together,” she said.

“So a ceremony like this allows us to look back with pride on our history and to recognize what we’ve been through collectively.”

Members of the Métis community said burying the time capsule on Louis Riel Day made the ceremony even more important.

“He was the one that gave us the message that he was going sleep for 100 years and then when he woke up it was going to be the people and the artists and the people that were going to keep the culture alive,” said Vanderrassel.

Submissions placed into the time capsule came from all over the province. In 2085, the capsule will be opened on Louis Riel Day.