A Day To ListenJean Teillet: The Great Grandniece of Louis Riel
2023 Host Shoshona Kish speaks to Jean Teillet about the legacy of the Riel family, her Indigenous rights work surrounding Indigenous identity fraud and the complications around Métis identity.
Teillet is an author, women’s rights advocate, and Indigenous rights lawyer. In October of 2022 she wrote a report on Indigenous Identity Fraud. She has appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada twelve times in Indigenous rights cases. Ms. Teillet’s popular history, The North-West is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel’s People, the Métis Nation was one of the Globe & Mail’s top 100 books of 2019 and won the Carol Shield’s and Manitoba Day awards. She is the author of Métis Law in Canada and has written for academic journals, the Globe & Mail, and Macleans. A frequent public speaker throughout Canada and internationally, Jean has been awarded the highest honour of her people, the Order of the Métis Nation. The Indigenous Bar Association has awarded Jean its highest honour, Indigenous Peoples Counsel. She has three honorary doctorates (University of Guelph, Windsor University, and Law Society of Ontario). In recognition of decades of work with midwives, Jean has been made an honorary lifetime member of the Association of Ontario Midwives. She is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and is the great-grandniece of Louis Riel.
