The real influencers | Refuse to be invisible

(Stanley Vollant and Stanley February) Innu surgeon Stanley Vollant and Haitian-born visual artist Stanley February have more than one name in common. Both have made the fight against injustice the driving force behind their action. And they did not hesitate to take center stage to denounce them.

When Stanley Vollant became a surgeon in 1994, he was the first Aboriginal to practice this specialty in Quebec. Since then, he has worked to pave the way for First Nations people, within the medical profession and in society as a whole.

After a first big walk of 6000 kilometers to promote healthy lifestyles among young people, called “Innu Meshkenu” (Innu path), Dr.^r Vollant created Puamun Meshkenu to inspire community members to chart their own “dream” path (puamun, in Innu). It was this organization that orchestrated, on the occasion of the papal visit last summer, the Great Walk for Healing, in which non-Aboriginals were invited to join for the last mile.

“Me, my dream is that one day, Aboriginal people can call themselves equal, egalitarian, to the rest of Quebecers,” says Dr.^r Flying with the young Aboriginals he meets.

As part of his master’s degree in visual and media arts, obtained in 2018, Stanley Juillet wanted to know the number of black Quebec artists whose works the Musée d’art contemporain (MAC) de Montréal had purchased during the previous 50 years. . This institution created by Quebec then had only one (Russell T. Gordon, died in 2013).

Faced with this state of affairs, Mr. Juillet created the “MAC invisible”, a website similar to that of the MAC which shows works by artists from cultural communities and First Nations, of which he is the general manager and chief curator. This is the role he assumed again last summer at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, with his exhibition entitled MAADI (Museum of Current Art/Department of Invisibles), in which he exhibited the works of artists from various cultural backgrounds that he himself had acquired over the past few years.

“To transform the environment, I myself had to gain power. MAADI has become an example of a new equitable museum. The empowerment of communities is what will bring about justice and balance”, explains Mr. Juillet.

A long fight

Even if they have the wind in their sails, the two Stanleys are not fooled: this justice to which they aspire for all is far from being won.

I don’t think that in one or two years, we will be equal, equal. That day, I don’t think I’ll see him in my lifetime. I hope my children and grandchildren will see it,” says Dr. Vollant.

“Before, we were immigrant, immigrant, visible minority artists, and today, we have become artists of diversity,” recalls February. He calls for a real “structural transformation” without which, “in 2032, another journalist will do the same kind of article”, on the same issues.

Two years after the death of Joyce Echaquan, and shortly after the arrest of a black Montreal citizen suspected of having stolen his own vehicle, the surgeon and the artist did not wait to be asked the question to address systemic racism.

“Despite what some politicians think, it exists, I have experienced it and felt it in my skin. I had to fight to defend myself when I was young,” says the Innu doctor, recalling that Aboriginal people are still overrepresented among the homeless and prisoners.

However, he said he was open to a compromise. If Quebec does not want to name this elephant in the room, “let him call him a two-ton pachyderm with big ears and let him make a hole to get him out”.

Both speaking in a calm voice, the two Stanleys prefer concrete action to incendiary declarations.

“I’m not denouncing, I’m telling you the facts. I take stock of the situation,” underlines Mr. Juillet, for whom art is a means of social transformation. “I create ‟spaces of becoming” in which the visitor takes part. These are excuses to meet the other. »

An attitude appreciated by the readers who proposed their candidacy.

In addition to addressing difficult societal issues, such as the death of George Floyd, Stanley February is bringing “a positive revolution”, wrote An-Lap Vo-Dignard to us. “Not only has he succeeded with perseverance in opening doors that were previously closed, but he shares his success and influence by bringing with him other artists from diverse backgrounds. »

Crossed on the Plains of Abraham during the Pope’s visit, Stanley Vollant “introduced himself to my spouse as if he were Mr. Everyman”, told us Guy Sirois, impressed by the wisdom, the delicacy and the charisma of the man. “You open our eyes with great class to the pain and abuse that the First Nations had to endure several decades ago, and still today. »