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St. Michael hopes to become formally bilingual within the next few years, although it can be a difficult process, Dogniez said.

The program is the result of a partnership between the school division and the Central Urban Metis Federation, Inc. (CUMFI) that started more than a decade ago with the goal of finding ways to support Metis content and perspectives.

The partners signed a new Metis education program agreement in 2015 and identified language as a priority. Since then, the partnership has looked at ways to introduce Michif in a larger capacity in the school.

“At that time, what the Metis community as a whole was sort of saying is, ‘Where are we in this big system? We have all of these schools in GSCS but where’s our role? Where’s our place?’ ” Dogniez said.

“You need to see yourself reflected in the schools and yet we weren’t there.”

Dogniez has spent the last year doing research on language programs around the province and studying initiatives the curriculum was carrying out already.

The program is part of the school’s broader role in serving as an incubator for Metis cultural programming in the division.

Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

St. Michael vice principal and fiddle teacher Cristin Dorgan Lee said educators being able to take pride in their Metis identities has a visible effect on students.

“For a long time, even within my own personal history, it wasn’t always acceptable to identify as Metis,” Dorgan Lee said. “We call ourselves Metis people and we have pride in that, and then the students are able to take pride in who they are.”