Nearly 500 years after the arrival of Jacques Cartier, it is impressive to measure the extent to which Quebeckers and Aboriginal people know each other poorly, if at all. This is the reality the series is about First contactbroadcast on Canal D.
Modeled on similar series produced in Australia and English Canada, First contact invites six participants to visit, for three weeks, various Aboriginal reserves in Quebec.
The trailer for the series, which has undoubtedly gathered the most acerbic comments from its participants, gives an overview of the cultural gap that we are trying to bridge, but also – above all – of the path that remains to be traveled: “ I thought we had eliminated them all…”, “they want the butter and the money for the butter”, “for me, it evokes feathers and teepees”, etc.
By listening to the three episodes, however, we understand that the exchanges are generally respectful, and that, through the series of meetings they have in the communities, several participants will come to revise their judgment.
Anishinabe rapper Samian is the first to receive the group in his community, in Pikogan. He will follow him on his journey, in addition to taking on the narration.
Topics for discussion abound. Each person met in the community brings different concerns to the table: land claims, spirituality, water management, murdered or missing women, Indian Act, trauma resulting from residential schools for Aboriginals…
“We wanted to open the dialogue” and try to overcome “misunderstandings and prejudices”, says Mélanie Bhérer, general manager, Variety, lifestyle and documentary at Bell Media.
Meetings of choice
The choice of participants was also quite long, specifies the production team. First of all, we had to find people who were available, but also curious about the experience, beyond the attraction of being part of a reality show. They are also people ready to honestly expose “what they had in their hearts and in their heads”, notes the director, Jean-François Martel.
The people the group met were carefully chosen. In the Anishinaabe community of Kitigan Zibi, he meets the mother of Daisy Odjick, who disappeared without a trace in 2008, or John Boudrias, Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council (who died last September), with whom he discusses the thorny issue of unceded territories.
New experiences
In Montreal, the group meets Samuel Lemay, co-founder of the Wolf Pack, an organization that helps Aboriginal people in the big city. He also met members of the Atikamekw community of Manawan, where Joyce Echaquan was from. He participates in a pow-wow in the Atikamekw community of Wemotaci. In the Laurentians, he meets the Anishinabe hereditary chief Dominique Rankin. With him, he will experience the ceremony of madadoan Aboriginal healing practice, in a tent that represents the belly of the earth, a moment particularly appreciated by the participants.
Experience is necessarily limited. “We won’t be friends tomorrow morning,” said Guylaine, one of the participants, bluntly.
There is still a lot to do to break down the barriers between Quebecers and First Peoples. And it is also true for the younger generations, says Samian, who confides that remarks like those heard in the series are part of his daily life when he gives conferences in schools in Quebec.