Writer, poet, performer, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui is a very active creator. His piece The Wabush Pen is part of a literary project that first originated in the collection of short stories Kitchike Chronicles. The big one arrivesin 2017. The result of a collaboration between Productions Ondinnok and the New Experimental Theater (NTE), the show will be shown at Espace libre, after a webcast in 2021.
By creating the fictional universe of Kitchike, the Wendat author initially wanted to hold a mirror up to the members of the First Nations, and particularly those from the South. “In the Quebec media panorama, in the works, for a long time, there was very little room for the realities of the First Nations. And often, when we talked about it, it was always in the Far North, points out Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui. Whereas at all times, there have always been more Aboriginal people in the South, for obvious climatic and geographical reasons. “So a mirror, but distorting, satirical so that “people can recognize themselves and laugh a little about what is happening on our reserves”.
Humor plays a “great healing role” in communities. This is why the director of Kwahiatonkh! (“We write!” in the Wendat language), an NPO that promotes Aboriginal literature in Quebec, deplores its lack in Aboriginal writings here. “Aboriginal literary works, as magnificent as they are, have very little humor in Quebec. While this is not the case in the rest of Canada. I don’t understand, it doesn’t reflect who we are, as members of the First Nations, where humor is omnipresent in human relationships. In our traditions, it is conceived as medicine. It can also be a weapon when misused. But in general, we go with something that feels good and allows us to accept untenable situations. In The Wabush Pen, there are untenable situations. But the humour, which is often quite scathing, comes to attenuate certain passages more rough. And there is a healing process in terms of accepting the past, or the present. »
He himself, perhaps because he is trained in history and anthropology, he says, often “feels like he lives in a parallel factual universe,” where what he hears is inaccurate. “On the news or in a history book, there is practically nothing that is said in Quebec that is factual about the First Nations”, according to the author, interviewed precisely on the eve of the National Day of Truth and of reconciliation.
“I feel like I live in a matrix that doesn’t reflect reality. The facts are there, but there is people’s interpretation of them. Me, I have a lot of misery to live with that, it hurts me. And I think that hurts a lot of First Nations people. So humor becomes lifesaving. Because you can’t correct everything that is said. »
Transfiguration
Inventing this imaginary reserve “where everything is larger than life” allowed Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui to write a “real caricature”, by going to draw anecdotes and urban legends told on reserves. He also wanted the general non-Aboriginal public to understand that Aboriginal communities are not monolithic blocks. “Often, in the media, instead of saying ‘the great leader of the X community thinks that, wants that’, we say ‘the Wendats want such and such a thing’. The sympathetic and talkative author scoffs: “Did you do a Léger poll to find out? The great chief said that, but why do you attribute it to all the people? For me, it was important, in the universe of Kitchike, to show the different faces and the different points of view. »
The piece is more of a “character study” and shines the spotlight on the psyche of Pierre Wabush (played by Charles Bender). “This character is interesting because he represents a kind of identity blues. He has extraordinary abilities, is extremely intelligent, but has a very disillusioned side. He has done stupid things in his life, but he still thirsts for justice. And he has the impression that it is impossible on the reserves to obtain justice, whether in relation to the Quebec colonizers or the band council. »
If “the adventures in the Kitchike universe are all linked but can be read independently”, The Wabush Pen is also part of a “transmedia diptych”: the novel Awakening in Kitchike. The bleeding of possibilities, which has just been published by Éditions Hannenorak, was written at the same time and their narrative threads intersect. Even if it is not necessary, affirms the author, to read it to benefit from the spectacle.
The creator likes to play with form and says he is fascinated by the “porous border between art and reality”, which he has been exploring for ten years. “And with this diptych, that’s kind of what I’m doing. There is a moment in the book where Pierre Wabush is propelled into another dimension and it comes to life on stage, in The Wabush Pen. He goes back up into a psychomimetic dimension where he is forced to relive his past. There’s also a whole exploration of native mythology in the play, but in service of the character’s story. »
It is the “transfiguration” of this being engaged in a mystical quest that interests him.
In the Quebec media panorama, in the works, for a long time, there was very little room for the realities of the First Nations. And often, when we talked about it, it was always in the Far North.
Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui has created several theatrical projects in Wendake, where he lives, notably with Productions Papu Uass. But this time, he has “something that I have rarely had: the means of my ambitions, to serve creation”. He was therefore very happy to have been contacted by Ondinnok and the NTE. We see more and more “beautiful collaborations” between Aboriginal artists and non-Aboriginal companies, he notes. “The relationship is changing and that’s positive. Because before, we often went looking for artists by trying to frame them in a project, a way of doing things and in a work which, basically, was already drawn, to come and give an “indigenous” color. And that is not acceptable. But we see it less and less. I think there has been a certain awakening in the Quebec cultural milieu. »
Alexis Martin was dramaturgical advisor for The Wabush Pen. “What a beautiful relationship! I have always felt respect, mutual listening,” underlines Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui. In this production directed by Daniel Brière and Dave Jenniss, “we took the time to do things. And I think that’s important.”
In his fictional universe, the author “made the conscious choice to exclude allochthonous characters as much as possible” and the colonial world. Kitchike’s microcosm is “that of the reserve and we go into the dream world too, into the world of spirits. But we hardly ever go into the Quebec world”. He explains: “I wanted the Aboriginal people to see themselves, and not always in relation to the colonizer, who ends up defining us. »
Which obviously does not limit its interest to this public alone. “ Kitchike Chronicles, it’s not thanks to the Aboriginals that it caught on, we get along, there aren’t many of us to bring a book to life! laughs Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui. Several foreigners came to tell him that they recognized themselves in the power dynamics or the social relations of the stories. “And me, I dare to believe that from the moment your work is anchored in human characters and that we experience real feelings with them, it opens a door to universality. »