” Where do you come from ? This question, Nicolas Ouellet was asked countless times during his life. As he grew up in the suburbs of Quebec, where he ended up at the age of seven weeks, the obvious answer seemed to him “Sainte-Foy”. But we still insisted: “Where are you really from? To which he replied Senegal, the country of origin of his biological parents, where he has never set foot.
This interaction, repeated many times, is at the heart of the quest for identity of the Afro-descendant Quebec host in his documentary web series Where do you come from ?. “With everything that has happened in recent years, I had to come to terms with my definition of what it is to be a black person in society,” explains Nicolas Ouellet in an interview with The duty. By this “everything”, the host refers in particular to Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, George Floyd: three Afro-American men killed by white police officers during the last decade.
His profession in the media and as an animator also invites him to position himself in relation to the challenges of diversity, he indicates. “There was like an awakening in me and I asked myself a lot of questions about how I was allowed to take part in this conversation, given my identity, given the way I grew up, explains- he. That is, yes, being a black person, but who was adopted very young, who grew up in Quebec, in a family of white parents, with predominantly white friends, in predominantly white environments. »
And it is with this thought in mind that this series took shape. “It was really important for me that the conversation start from me, that is to say that it be personal, since it engages only me. In this series, I am not trying to generalize the experience of what is called the black community – even if it is rather from black communities,” he said.
To establish his thinking, the 34-year-old host chose to carry out a DNA test to confirm his Senegalese origins. That said, the show is not just about this intimate adventure. While waiting for the results, which will arrive at the end of the six episodes, Nicolas Ouellet seeks to understand what it means to be a black person in Quebec society today. A reflection that he will share with many guests, such as Pierre-Yves Lord, Gabriella Kinté, Bruny Surin, Isabelle Racicot, Corneille and Boucar Diouf, to name a few.
Moving encounters
Despite a line-up of relevant guests, Nicolas Ouellet first names his parents when asked about the memorable meetings and discussions he had in the context of the documentary, although he specifies that all the people interviewed were significant in their own way.
” [Mes parents et moi], we were never afraid to talk about my adoption, but it was fragmented conversations spread over the 33, 34 years of my life, he explains. It really touched me to see their lucid and candid perspective on adopting and raising black children in a predominantly white society,” adds Nicolas Ouellet, whose older brother, François, is also adopted and Afro-descendant.
The episodes, grouped according to different themes, such as sport, the media, childhood, present various discussions, including one with three friends and colleagues of the host around a dinner. This meal was the first in 33 years of existence that Nicolas Ouellet shared only with black people, he confides.
“I am happy to answer questions [des personnes non racisées], but when you don’t have to do that around a table with people, it feels really good. It’s soothing, then it also allows you to go a little further in the discussion, in the reflection”, he mentions, since all three share certain realities perceived as obvious which are not questioned, among others.
“It makes you realize all the little reflexes that you develop from a social point of view in conversations when you are a black person in a predominantly white environment,” he adds.
Open chat
“If the series inspires people, young people, I will be the first to be delighted,” says Nicolas Ouellet, while indicating however that the show does not have this claim. For the host, the purpose of the series is rather to give “the impetus to certain people to assume themselves, to ask more questions or even to want to enter into conversation with others”.
“I always felt different, always sitting between two chairs. And I realized that whether we are first-generation immigrants, raised with African-American parents, or adopted, we all have different points that make us feel marginalized in certain aspects of identity, he argues. But when we talk about it, we realize that we all feel a little like that, and so we end up not being alone anymore. »
“I started the series telling myself that it would be a great quest for identity, [qui allait durer] for a few months, and [j’allais] get out of there and know exactly who I am. But the more questions you ask, the more questions arise, he says. This quest for identity there, it will last all my life. That’s what I made my peace with, actually. »
Almost a year after the start of filming and a few days before the release of the web series, Nicolas Ouellet “fundamentally hopes that [celle-ci] will resonate with other people, black people, racialized people, people from diversity, but also people who are marginalized regardless of their identity or their ethnic identity”.
He also hopes that, in the coming years, “we will be able to see diversity without talking about it as a main axis. It’s not about saying “don’t see the colors anymore”, but rather about making sure that the stories are seen through the perspective, the eyes, the prism of people of diversity, rather than just for their diversity “, he concludes.