Saint Lawrence Iroquoians
Located at the heart of a network of river routes, in the midst of the immense Saint Lawrence and crowned by a mountain at its centre, Montreal is a communications and trade hub between the Iroquoian and Algonquinian worlds, between the Northern hunters and gatherers and the farmers of the temperate zones. Montreal's birth certificate and its Expo 67 motto, Man and his world, bear the indelible mark of their Amerindian past.
The practice of traditional arts and crafts are indissociable from our representation of the universe and the role humans play in it. Craftworkers' every gesture connects them to the creation of the world. We see the farmers' craft in the corn that flowed from the breasts of Skywoman's daughter after she died giving birth to the Enemy Twins who would determine the world's order through their Homeric confrontations. Connected to fertility and female cycles, corn cultivation and the crafting of its fibres are women's prerogative. Techniques and rituals cross paths and get caught up in each other's snares.
***
Jacques Cartier met Saint Lawrence Iroquoians in the Gaspé. He visited Stadaconé. Then he went upstream to Hochelaga. The Iroquoians lived in several sedentary villages in the Saint Lawrence River valley, where they cultivated corn, squash and beans. In summertime, the men went fishing and hunting in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Now we know that this way of life goes back to the 1000s BCE. When Samuel de Champlain travelled upstream in turn, the banks were deserted and all the Iroquoian villages had disappeared. We are still striving to understand what brought about their disappearance.
The festival's outdoor site is once again becoming a place where rivers run together, this vibrant heart of a trade network now extending far beyond the limits of the time. Craftspeople and guides presenting their skills will show us a different technique every day as a demonstration with commentary: wampum, ceramic figurative pipes, corn braiding, pottery and stonecutting are all craft forms that called upon our ancestors' know-how and means to discover the traces of their cosmological universe.
This twin demonstration/interpretation program is the outcome of a LandInSights / Société Recherches amérindiennes au Québec partnership, bringing us attractive, captivating presentations, showcasing authentic crafts from this unique heritage.
RECHERCHES AMÉRINDIENNES AU QUÉBEC
La Société Recherches amérindiennes au Québec has published a journal for 35 years, devoted to Aboriginal cultures and realities of the Americas. Its scientific articles and chronicles are read in Quebec and throughout the French-speaking world. It also published monographs, organizes conferences, and has recently begun producing audiovisual documents. On its website, it circulates Internet summaries of its production and activities. In short, thirty-five years in existence, marked by the great above all political, cultural, but also social and economic, changes in the lives of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec as well as other regions of North and South America.
Cherokee
The Montréal First Peoples' Festival is proud and pleased to welcome a dozen ambassadors from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation to the heart of Montréal.
These special guests from western North Carolina are leaving their magnificent mountains to travel to the lands of their Iroquoian brethren during the annual great celebration of the First Nations that the outdoors site of the festival has become for Montrealers and visitors from all over.
According to some ethnolinguists and anthropologists, the Cherokees were the forerunners of Iroquoian culture. Beyond the symbolic value of their presence at our outdoors site bedecked in Iroquoian colours and traditions, their visit provides concrete expression to the growing commitment among First Nations of the Americas to point out their essential contribution to the world's common heritage and share it with others.
This encounter, sponsored by the Montréal First Peoples' Festival, has taken shape thanks to the welcome partnership of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.
CHEROKEE BASKETWEAVING AND POTTERY
Like other peoples of the American Southeast, the Southern Appalachian Cherokees interweave the supple strands of canebreak ( Arundinaria gigantean ), a sturdy native plant that is a cousin of bamboo. They dye it with warm, natural colours. They make various types of baskets and other forms of basketwork that were once in practical use and now treasured by collectors.
Cherokee potters are also famed for their embossed pottery in an Iroquoian style, fired in an open hearth; a technique they have mastered for over 2500 years.
These two types of containers made from natural materials with elaborate geometric motifs also contain the traditions, changes and pride of the Cherokee people. They express Cherokee cultural identity.
Potters and basketweavers from the Cherokee nation will be with us for the four-day outdoor site. Age-old traditions will find new life in the expert hands of craftspeople who are very much in tune with their times.
Three Sculptors
The Émilie-Gamelin park area bordering Saint Catherine Street is becoming a vast sculpture studio where the tradition of sculpted posts dear to many First Nations continues to inspire the original approaches of sculptors Steve McComber, Mohawk, Denis Charrette, Métis and Victor Gill, Abenaki.
McComber's works, fired with uncommon energy, draw upon the Iroquoian tradition and iconography coupled to a thorough knowledge of the distinctive features of Pacific Coast Nations art. They are powerful, spirited creations.
Denis Charrette creates works attentive to the forces of nature and respectful of Eastern Woodlands and Great Lakes First Nations heritage. A constant attention to life forms, concern for meaningful detail and solid workmanship give these sculptures an undeniably authentic cast.
Victor Gill follows in the path set by the sculptor Panadis. In the 1960s, his forerunner introduced the tradition of sculpted posts in his Odanak community. Gill's art is the outcome of crossings and balances, containing elements of the St-Jean-Port-Joli style combined with others specific to Abenaki symbolism.
Rendez-vous
Every day, Lysanne O'Bomsawin, a young, enthusiastic chef from the Odanak Abenaki community, reveals many secrets of the First Nations culinary arts, with products from the land. We could call it fusion cuisine and a remarkable alternative historical trip as America discovers Asia. Our chef has even invented an Amerindian take on sushi. A gastronomical adventure in the heart of original territories.
The Borucas of Costa Rica are of Mayan culture and language. Elisende Coladan, an archaeologist specialized in Central American cave and rock art, will help us learn more about this people. With the participation of a Boruca sculptor and a Boruca weaver.
JUNE 23 FROM 3:00 P.M. TO 4 P.M. at UQAM, room J-1050 (Berri corner Ste-Catherine)
In partnership with Cercle des Premières Nations de l'UQAM
Lectures and Demonstrations
WICKIUP SPACE, ÉMILIE-GAMELIN PARK
In partnership with Recherches amérindiennes au Québec
By recreating ancient techniques, anthropologists and archaeologists have succeeded in better understanding the Iroquoian way of life and social organization. Some of these specialists had to learn and master these techniques to fully understand the ins-and-outs of their invention and use.
JUNE 21 AT 3:00 PM : Lithic toolkit,
with Éric Chalifoux from Recherches amérindiennes, and presenter Michel Cadieux, cutting stone tools: arrowheads, knives and other everyday objects will take shape before our very eyes.
JUNE 22 AND 23 AT 3:00 PM: Iroquoian clay pipes,
with archaeologist Laurent Girouard and Michel Cadieux, master of the subtle craft of pipe making.
The Boréades of Dance
ÉMILIE-GAMELIN PARK
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY JUNE 24 TO 25
FROM NOON TO 6 P.M.
IF IT RAINS: The dance troupes will perform at the Agora of the Judith-Jasmin building at UQAM, 405 Saint Catherine Street E.
Exuberant and daring dance troupes from the indigenous traditions of North and South America express pride in sharing their rich dance heritage. Dancers from the Mohawk, Wendat, Abenaki, Quechua and Maya traditions show off their ancestral know-how embellished with the ardour and creativity of youth, at the festival outdoor site. Through dance, First nations show the world that their cultures are alive and afoot. The fervour ‹and sometimes the urgency‹ permeating their choreography pay homage to the vital forces that have always marked human's lifespan on Earth. Joy sets dancers' gaze afire, the dance is an offering and it is its own reward.
The dancers' movements and finery are echoes of everything life is made from. Following the dance in its shapes and splendour is a way of celebrating life.
WARRIORS OF ANIKITUHWA
On the occasion of their first visit to our festival, the Cherokee dancers of the Warriors of Anikituhwa will re-enact their traditional social dances. These have evocative names such as the Bear Dance, the Beaver Hunting Dance and the Friendship dance and provide the clearest possible illustration of the symbolic universes and actual landscapes where Cherokee culture took root. For example, the friendship dance remains a recurrent theme in the First Nations dance repertory. In the 18th century, an English lieutenant described a war dance and what he called an Eagle's tail dance in his memoirs. The Warriors of Anikituhwa will treat us to an authentic version of these for us to learn and appreciate. Les Boréades de la danse, the great annual popular meet-up at Montréal First Peoples' Festival, is inviting us to share in this spectacular display in which the dancers' posture, attitude and movements contribute to the impact of their performance. Here, tradition has light feet, carried off in the great movement of life.
