Christi Belcourt wants name removed from Métis Nation of Ontario registry

Up North7:11Renowned Indigenous artist Christi Belcourt leaving Métis Nation of Ontario

Her father was one of the founding members of the Métis Nation of Ontario. But now Métis artist Christi Belcourt says she wants her name removed from the group's registry, because of its support of pipelines and mining companies.

An internationally known Métis artist from northern Ontario wants her and her daughter's names removed from the Métis Nation of Ontario registry.

Christi Belcourt is from Espanola and her artwork can be found in some of Canada's most prestigious galleries. In a letter to the Métis Nation of Ontario this week, Belcourt said she disagrees with the group's decision to sign deals with Energy East, Nuclear Waste Management Organization and other mining agreements.

"We need to, as Indigenous people, hold true to our values and our ways of our ancestors, which are ways of the land, ways of the water" she told CBC News.

"We need to be able to live with integrity, as our ancestors have always done, which is to walk in balance with the earth, and to walk softly."

Belcourt said it's not a decision she made lightly, as her father Tony was one of the people who started the Métis Nation of Ontario.

There are 155 First Nations who have signed the Energy East deal, along with the Métis Nation, but Belcourt says they're doing so out of poverty and desperation.