Louise Portal will play an Innu grandmother, a kukumon the boards of the Pierrette-Gaudreault room, in Jonquière, in the room Mashinikan, written and directed by Marco Collin. Known to the general public for his many television roles, including Bill Wabo in The lands abovethe Innu actor has decided to offer all Aboriginal roles to non-Aboriginals and vice versa.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
“I was wondering if I could put white people in my shoes so that they try to understand who I am, since aboriginal people often know more about Quebec culture than the reverse,” says Mr. Collin. Since the start of rehearsals, the experience has paid off. “We discuss themes and our ways of thinking which are not the same. It’s interesting to see the fears of the actors who wonder if they play their characters well. »
Louise Portal seems eager for discoveries. “As a performer, you enter a universe that we haven’t been told,” she explains. When I was little, we went to the Pointe-Bleue reserve, or Mashteuiatsh, but we knew very little about their culture. »
In the summer of 2021, I participated in an immersion. It was so enriching to discover the Aboriginal universe and their realities.
Louise Portal
The more time she devoted to learning her text, including certain passages in Innu, the more this language inhabited her. “Every time I arrive in rehearsal, I say to Marco: ‘It’s not funny, I dream of passages in Innu!’ It’s a beautiful language, but it’s a huge challenge to learn. Fortunately Marco is very flexible. When I was too worried about it, he lightened the Innu portions. »
The production provided her with recordings to learn the words phonetically. She took Innu lessons with Monique Verreault, from Mashteuiatsh. But she doubted her success. “At one point, I was telling Marco that I wasn’t going to make it, because it was too difficult. Even for the Innu who have not learned their mother tongue, it is very difficult. To learn my text, I had to make images in my head. Note that the few passages in Innu will be translated for the public.
Response to the case Kanata ?
If the productions of SLĀV and of Kanata spilled a lot of ink on the subject of cultural appropriation in the summer of 2018, Marco Collin ensures that his project is in no way a response to scandals. “I was there,” he says. I met Robert Lepage and Ariane Mnouchkine. Lots of things have been said about it. There were plenty of angry locals. I thought they weren’t at the same meeting as us…”
That said, he is fully aware of the context that generated such strong reactions.
I can understand the desire to want to express themselves from those who have not often had the floor. On several occasions, I was myself a prisoner of the words that were put in my mouth and of the color of the character that was given to me.
Marco Collin, author and director
Louise Portal also questioned her legitimacy in playing an Innu grandmother. “When I read Marco’s text, I immediately felt that I had the humanity to embody Kukum, but I wondered if we were going to incur people’s anger. Marco told me it was his choice of director and author, and he’s a guy from Mashteuiatsh. »
If the novel kukum, by Michel Jean, has been a spectacular popular and critical success since 2019, with more and more Indigenous artists reaching the general public. “There is an effervescence in the arts,” says Marco Collin. Everything leads to meet us. In 1990, the Kashtin group was on a roll, but everything went backwards after the Oka crisis. Today, we sense a curiosity among foreigners to discover a culture they don’t know. »
Back to basics
By agreeing to play with the Théâtre la Rubrique, Louise Portal experienced a real return to her roots. Indeed, since the start of rehearsals, she has been treading the boards in the room where she discovered the theater in 1967. She then played the words of Jean-Pierre Bergeron alongside Rémy Girard, Marie Tifo and Anne Masson , under the direction of Ghislain Tremblay.
“Coming back to 71 years old in the theater where I played at 17, it’s great! I think Kukum is part of my journey of destiny. In the book the enchanted, which I published in 2001, was full of references to Aboriginal culture. It had risen in my writing. So it was already in me, this desire to dive into the native universe. It’s a call. »
The piece will be presented from March 2 to 19 at Salle Pierrette-Gaudreault in Jonquière.