Three-part dialogue : Philosophical and literary exploration with a “Sensible Savage”
Friday June 13, 5:30 pm to 7 pm AUDITORIUM OF LA GRANDE BIBLIOTHÈQUE, GROUND FLOOR
A literary “happy hour” Dialogue en trois temps will mark the opening of the exhibit Dialogues avec un Sauvage: perspectives contemporaines showing works by eight First Nations artists. They were invited to create artworks on the theme of intercultural dialogue, freely inspired by the dialogues between Adario and Lahontan, as recounted by the latter in his famous work Dialogues curieux avec un Sauvage dans les Amériques, published in 1703.
In this book from the dawn of the Enlightenment, the Baron, who actually had travelled and lived in Amerindian lands in the “New France” era discusses philosophy and politics with a “sensible Savage” whom he names Adario. According to historians, Lahontan developed this character from his meetings with Kondiaronk, the great Huron diplomat, well known to Frontenac and architect of Montreal's Great Peace of 1701.
This Dialogue en trois temps will open with a dramatic lecture by two actors of a few selections from Lahontan's work. Afterwards, Quebecois and Amerindian authors will read texts from their own poetic correspondence. This encounter between Quebec and Amerindian writing is an initiative by writer Laure Morali. This project led to the publication of Aimititau! Parlons nous! at Mémoire d'encrier. Joséphine Bacon, who first encouraged singer Chloé Sainte-Marie to explore Innu culture and offered her such songs as Mishapan Nitassinan for her disc Je marche à toi, will be on hand for the occasion, as will poet José Acquelin. Together they will read excerpts from letters exchanged in the course of this dialogue experience.
In the third part, renowned Huron intellectual Georges Sioui and Jean-François Chassay from Département d'Études littéraires at UQAM will wrap up this meeting between writers centred on Lahontan's work, opening a discussion about dialogue as a literary genre and literature as an agent of social change.
This literary event commemorating Lahontan's work and recreating his fictional dialogues with a “Savage philosopher” is first and foremost a free reworking of historical material, an invitation to examine the situations can set the scene for a real dialogue between Western and Aboriginal societies in today's world.
GEORGES E. SIOUI
Mr Georges Emery Sioui is a traditionalist Wendat (Huron). He was editor-in-chief of the magazine Kanatha, then of Tawow, and has published two landmark books on Amerindian history and philosophy: Les Wendats: une civilisation méconnue (1994) et Pour une histoire amérindienne de l'Amérique (1999) published in English as For an Amerindian autohistory: an Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic. Since January 2004, he has coordinated the Aboriginal Studies Program at University of Ottawa. In May 1990, Prof. Sioui and his four brothers obtained a landmark victory in the Supreme Court of Canada (the "Sioui Case") over territorial and traditional land use rights. In 1982, he and his four brothers (instigated) and defended what was to become the landmark “Sioui Case” (Supreme Court of Canada, 1990).
Mr Georges E. Sioui is a polyglot, poet, essayist, songwriter and world-recognized lecturer.
JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHASSAY
The essayist Jean-François Chassay is a Literary Studies professor at Université du Québec à Montréal. A member of the editorial board of the literary journal Spirale in 1984, then its co-director from 1986 to 1992. Afterwards, he was on the editorial board of Voix et Images, taking the helm in 1998. He has also written many critical essays in Jeu, Le Devoir and for Radio-Canada's cultural channel. He founded the group Savant et espace du laboratoire: épistémocritique de textes irrigués par la fiction. He is also co-founder of the group Imaginaire de la fin.
An First Peoples' Festival events organized by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and LandInSights.