Death often leaves those who stay behind losing their bearings, like out of balance compasses, unable to indicate the north… The playwright and director Dave Jenniss noticed this when his father died. This sad event served as an inspiration to write Nmihtaqs Sqotewamqol / The ashes of his bones, a touching piece where it is about reconciliation, the original quest, but also clan warfare and purity of blood.
Of Wolastoqey (Maliseet) origin, Dave Jenniss has often questioned his Indigenous origins in his work. With this piece presented in the privacy of the Little Unicorn, the artistic director of Productions Ondinnok delivers what could well be his most personal text.
Nmihtaqs Sqotewamqol / The ashes of his bones features Martin Kaktanish (incarnated with sensitivity by Nicolas Gendron), who returns to his land after the death of his father Roland (Roger Wylde). The reunion with his brother François (Charles Bender), who became mayor of a white village which adjoins the Wolastoqey territory, will not be smooth… He will also find his former lover, Sophie (Marilyn Provost), now in a relationship with Sébastien Tienis (Nicolas Desfossés, despicably detestable), who swore the loss of the Kaktanish clan.
For Martin, the death of his father, found lifeless under a tree, is an opportunity to reconnect with his origins and to mend the past.
“I must come back to where I come from”, he will say in the often poetic language, but never starched, which characterizes this text. However, how to return to the essence of oneself when one does not speak the language of one’s ancestors and when one is torn between two cultures?
How to take root, in a way, when its own people were not recognized as a nation by the government of Quebec until 1989? For a long time, the Maliseet Viger First Nation, as the Wolastoqey were once called, had no territory to congregate. All of this leaves marks, including in the relationships within the community itself.
The play dwells on the clan war between the Tienis and the Kaktanish. The reasons are not very clear, but the hatred seems visceral, which raises several questions. Can an Aboriginal person have purer blood than another? Who can call themselves Wolastoqey – and claim the land – when the origins of a people are lost in the haze of time? All these questions feed Martin’s inner drama and help understand the reality of those who, like him, need to look behind in order to move forward.
To accompany Martin’s intimate quest, Dave Jenniss called on musician Kyra Shaughnessy. Present on stage, she adds with her songs a lot of beauty to a piece already charged with emotions. And where everyone, native or not, will find comfort.