Chartrand, Paul, Papers

The Gabriel Dumont Institute is pleased to include the Paul Chartrand Papers on The Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture.    In 2004, Paul graciously donated his papers to the Institute.  This collection is very important to the Métis Nation.  Paul has spent his entire adult life fighting for Métis rights, as a lawyer, an educator and a community activist.  This collection focuses on restoring the Métis’ Aboriginal rights through litigation and social activism.  

Paul Chartrand is originally from St. Laurent, Manitoba.  He has held teaching and other academic positions at universities in Australasia and North America.  He currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, and is an adjunct professor in Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law.  He specializes in Indigenous law and policy.  He is a published author, and has written extensively on Métis and Indigenous land rights and identity. He has served as a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991-95), and was the founding Director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (1998-99).  He is also the Métis Nation’s Ambassador to the United Nations.  Paul is very passionate about both his Michif-French language, and restoring Pierre Falcon’s “La chanson de la gournouillere” (“The Battle of Frog Plain”) as the Métis Nation’s true national anthem.