Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves

Forcibly removed from her Indigenous family as a child, Andrea Currie journeys back to her Nation and the truth of who she is

Otipemisiwak is a Plains Cree word describing the Métis, meaning "the people who own themselves."

Andrea Currie was born into a Métis family with a strong lineage of warriors, land protectors, writers, artists, and musicians—all of which was lost to her when she was adopted as an infant into a white family with no connection to her people. It was 1960, and the policy...