About Us
The Northwestern Ontario Métis Community (NWOMC) represents and serves Métis citizens in Northwestern Ontario. It is made up of four chartered community councils: the Atikokan Métis Council, Kenora Métis Council, Northwest Métis Council, and Sunset Country Métis Council.
The NWOMC is a distinct regional rights-bearing community with a unique history, identity, relationship to the land, and self-government structures. This history includes both historic and ongoing collective assertions as a distinct Métis collectivity, including, the negotiation of the “Adhesion by Halfbreeds of Rainy River and Lake” to Treaty No. 3 in 1875 as well as the establishment of distinct settlements at locations such as Rideout, French Portage, McPherson Island, amongst others. (For more on the history of the NWOMC, see “Our History.”)
Since the 1990s, the NWOMC has participated within the Métis Nation of Ontario’s self-government as a distinct regional rights-bearing Métis community. In 2017, the NWOMC signed an agreement with Canada to address its distinct rights and claims through negotiations with the federal Crown.
Today, the NWOMC is comprised of over 3,000 Métis citizens who are the descendants of the Halfbreed Adhesion to Treaty No. 3, as well as other Métis who made up the historic Métis community or who make Northwestern Ontario their home. The community is represented at the local and regional levels of the Métis Nation of Ontario through four democratically elected Community Councils and a Regional Councilor. It also has offices located in Fort Frances, Atikokan, Dryden and Kenora that support and deliver programs and services to its citizens. In 2021, it established Northwestern Ontario Métis Child and Family Services—the first Métis child and family services agency in Ontario.