Community comes alive at the 2026 Ste. Madeleine Heritage Local Métis Days

August 28, 2026

Red River Métis Citizens joined MMF and Ste. Madeleine Heritage Local for the commemoration and celebration of the historic Red River Métis community.

_{President Chartrand celebrates the monument unveiling with one of the oldest living descendants of Ste. Madeleine, Rosalie (Boucher) Drielich.}

Hundreds and hundreds travelled from across the Homeland to participate in Ste. Madeleine Heritage Local Métis Days from August 21-23, 2026. The weekend was a time for tears, laughter, dancing, and storytelling, highlighting both the grief of what was lost and the joy of coming together as a people.

The village of Ste. Madeleine, once a vibrant Red River Métis community, was destroyed - their land taken by the federal government to make room for cow pasture. The families forced from their homes never forgot the community of Ste. Madeleine and neither did their descendants, who return each year to remember their shared history and celebrate their community.

During the 2026 opening remarks, Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) President David Chartrand reminded attendees of the 2024 Ste. Madeleine Métis Days, and the Memorandum of Understanding signing with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew that returned 100 acres of Ste. Madeleine land to the Red River Métis.

"We have a Premier who is First Nation and understood what it meant. He understood the loss of land, the loss of family, the loss of what happened to a history and a culture... and he said, 'okay, I'm willing to sit down and make that deal. One hundred acres will be transferred shortly here,'" said the President. "The second transfer we're negotiating right now is 6-700 acres... that'll be yours again to celebrate as a family, and nobody will ever take it from you."

_{Dave Lamouche, President of the Métis Settlements General Council in Alberta (right), exchanged gifts with President Chartrand (left) after he and Darcy Lepowick (not pictured), Métis Nation of Saskatchewan Minister, delivered opening remarks.}

Ste. Madeleine descendant Jim Boucher gave the opening prayer; followed by remarks from Ste. Madeleine Heritage Local; MMF Minister Will Goodon, Vice-President of the Southwest Region; MMF Ministers Barbara Fleury and Wesley Hannah, Regional Executive Officers of the Southwest Region; Glen Simard, Minister of Municipal and Northern Relations and Brandon East MLA; Greg Nesbitt, MLA for Riding Mountain; Dave Lamouche, President of the Métis Settlements General Council in the Métis Homeland of Alberta; Darcy Lepowick, Regional Representative of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and Minister of Environment, Agriculture, Lands and Resources; and finally, remarks from MMF President David Chartrand.

Following the opening remarks, President Chartrand, along with one of the oldest living descendants, Rosalie (Boucher) Drielich, unveiled a monument telling the story of Ste. Madeleine.

"Here we established a community until 1939 when the federal government burned the Red River Métis Community of St. Madeleine to make a way for cows to pasture on the land, forcing hundreds of River Métis Citizens to relocate, leaving behind community and livelihood. For decades, the only thing that remained was our graveyard and family memories. With the return of the land, the Red River Métis can now see new hope. That's the message here," said President Chartrand. "This monument tells the beginning of the story."

It's the memory of this story that brought the Ste. Madeleine descendants back together. Red River Métis Citizen Joel Boucher, Ste. Madeleine descendant and Chair of the Ste. Madeleine Heritage Local, said the event has been held since the early '90s.

"They just started getting together, trying to reconnect, rebuild the lost relationships of the separate families that had lived out here. It's grown from that into [a] big celebration," said Boucher. "Everybody that comes out here has that connection to [Ste. Madeleine] and that generational memory that needs to be remembered."

For us to be able to stand up and tell the world what happened was wrong, but we're going to make it better. We're going to continue to work; we will not rest. - Minister Will Goodon

The weekend was filled with Red River Métis entertainment on the main stage, cultural competitions such as a jigging, fiddling, slingshot, cribbage, and bannock making held throughout the grounds, and the descendants' tent, which brought Ste. Madeleine Elders and descendants together to share their stories and showcase the history of the community and their families' stories.

Kalli Bowley, a Red River Métis Citizen, has been attending Ste. Madeleine Métis Days since she was only three years old.

"My great-grandmother and my grandma and my aunties and uncles actually held the first one, and we've been involved every year since," said Bowley. "It means coming back to our land... celebrating with our family, with our extended family, honouring our Ancestors, honouring the land that we came from, and just being together as a family."

Bowley's highlight was the Friday night local entertainment headliner, a family band from Binscarth and Ste. Madeleine descendants: The Cornerstones.

_{Red River Métis Citizens danced and sang all weekend long to the exceptionally talented Red River Métis musician lineup.}

"We get to celebrate Red River Métis music and dancing and culture and art and the little things like the slingshots, horseshoes, crib tournaments," said Minister Will Goodon, Vice-President of the Southwest Region. "It's all about who we are as a people, those fun things as well: laughing, telling jokes, teasing each other... then when the emotions overwhelm us, we're there to support everyone who's here."

The third and final day began with Sunday morning mass, where Citizens and community members gathered in the Ste. Madeleine cemetery, and witnessed the blessing of the new monument. Tearful closing remarks ended the weekend with a promise - to come back next year and never forget the great community that once was.

"There were families, dozens of families living here... it's hard to understand how people can make that decision to literally burn houses down, shoot dogs so that the people won't come back. It's a scorched earth process is what happened here," said Minister Goodon. "For us to be able to stand up and tell the world what happened was wrong, but we're going to make it better. We're going to continue to work; we will not rest."

 

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