The territory, as it is conceived by the Aboriginal people, goes far beyond the small dots indicating the communities found on the maps of the Government of Quebec.
This territory, it has survived in particular in the native imagination. And this very powerful imagination is what has ensured the survival of Aboriginal identity down to us, despite the history of residential schools for Aboriginal people.
This deep conviction drives all the work of the artist Sonia Robertson, art therapist and curator of the exhibition. Eshi uapatakau ishkueuatsh tshitassinu/ Women’s perspectives on the territorywhich opens at the Galerie de l’UQAM on February 10.
“Among the First Nations, it is very developed, the relationship to the imagination. The transmission is done through tales and in stories. The strength is taken in symbolizing this. It has always existed, this artistic force which makes us still resistant and alive. That’s why we have to keep it, develop it. »
The women exhibiting here are Marie-Andrée Gill, Sophie Kurtness and Soleil Launière, all from the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, as is the case Sonia Robertson and Caroline Nepton Hotte, who acted as project guide. The Innu of Mashteuiatsh are from the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation.
An Innu Celine Dion
For Marie-Andrée Gill, the world is populated by parallel universes. So she is not afraid to bring Celine Dion back to life in the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, in a collage taken from the singer’s biography.
“I like to use pop culture to make art and to get my message across,” she says. I cut out every word from Celine Dion’s official biography. I took the character of Céline that everyone knows, and I gave birth to her in Mashteuiatsh, on the same date. She sings and goes for a walk in Montreal, then she sees that it’s not the fun, the American dream. She decides to come back to Mashteuiatsh, she meets René and they go into the woods together. »
This gives pretty sentences like this: “One night, she had a dream. Water limousines populated the Saguenay River. She knew forest jazz by heart. »
“Our family stories are stories of nomads, comments Caroline Nepton Hotte, stories of the ascent and descent of the territory in different regions. […] My grandparents have stories like that, Sonia’s too. »
The territory, in this context, becomes a pharmacy, pantry, hardware store and library.
The transmission is done through tales and in stories
Further on, Sophie Kurtness also takes us into the marvelous world of the territory. At the center of his installation, four rocks sleep in a memepsuna kind of suspended hammock.
“Rocks represent a lot of things that are linked to the territory, that carry life. I said to myself, I too, I carried life, and I too am a territory. The rocks are representations of my four children. »
In the Innu imagination, rocks are alive and animated, they represent memory and wisdom. In the sweaty tent, the rocks that heat up are called ” mushum which means “grandfather” in Innu.
All around this installation, Sophie Kurtness has traced drawings on the ground. By walking, visitors risk altering these drawings, as we alter the earth when passing through them.
“I want people to realize that they’re leaving a trail, that it’s going to change, want it, don’t want it,” she says. […] There is a fragility in the earth, even if it is something that seems hard. »
The territory as a place of healing
The third artist, Soleil Launière, approaches the territory as “a place of healing, of meeting with the spirits”, explains Sonia Robertson. “In the past, we had ceremonies, including one called the shaking tent, which had a lot of power. We saw a black hole there, which made us travel in space and time. The one who was imbued with the spirit entered the tent and made it tremble. He acted as a translator between the world of the living and that of the spirits. In her installation, Soleil Launière associates this tremor with that caused by the train, which passed near her home, while she was living in Mashteuiatsh, explains Sonia Robertson.
The three exhibitions presented are from a residency at the artists’ center Le Lobe, in Saguenay.