#presence autochtone

[theskanderbeg]

Yes. Albanians consider this their historic homeland.

It’s not based on some weird most-land controlled or conquered at some point by an ancient Albanian kingdom.

It’s based on continuous, deep-rooted autochtone presence of Albanians in these parts.

[archesa]

Assumption: Discovering Elona tingled Anwen's Priory senses so hard and she would like a chance to explore now that it's peaceful for a bit

Thanks a lot for the ask! 😁There's so much to say about Anwen's Priory senses, I will barely scratch the surface there but yeah! She's a scholar at heart, even if she has to refrain most of the time, due to other obligations, but Elona was a particularly enriching experience! 📖 For a number of reasons... 😶

"Well... The Pact had already a minimal presence in Elona. Since it was where Kralk had crashed and seemingly gone dormant, Trahearne had sent a few reconnaissance teams to map the terrain and build strong relationships with autochtones within weeks after our victory over Zaithan. We were so confident... So convinced that our alliance, once honed in such a desperate combat would withstand any hardship, destroy every obstacle, defy every fate..."

She shakes her head, a pensive smile piercing the shadows obscuring her features.

"In the end, it was as Dragon's Watch and not as ambassadors of the Pact that we set foot on Elona, but finding colleagues - Vigils and scholars of the Priory- in Amnoon made our arrival easier. We did not have to prove our goodwill at every turn since the Pact had built a reputation in the last few years, and whatever doors remained closed, Kasmeer's silvertongue opened for us. But, I digress... To answer your question, I was impressed by Kas, Rytlock, or even Canach's patience. I mean... Can you imagine? Trahearne, Meryw and I in Elona? Visiting the Tombs of the Primeval Kings, exploring the Forgotten City of Kesho, Fahranur, the First City, or just the numerous ruins left in the wake of Joko's conquest and propaganda! We were... there was a very tangible threat — an End of the World threat — but we were like children in a sweets shop! Too much to see, explore, research and too little time to do so... Unfortunately, we did not take the time to further explore Elona after the defeat of Kralkatoric... We were... Still very shaken by everything that had happened and... homesick... It would have seemed a strange thing to say, a few years back, that we missed Orr."

She shifts in her seat, absentmindedly playing with the ring on her left hand.

"A homecoming — especially after what we'd been through — is always such a strange experience... You want to pick up the threads of your old life, pretend that nothing has changed, that you haven't changed, but everything keeps reminding you that there's no going back... On the night we arrived in Caer Aval, Trahearne made sure that we would never look back with regret... A... reminder to move forward. As for Elona..."

Her gaze drifts to the desk bending under the weight of papers and notebooks, at the centre of which lies a draft to a two-hand article regarding the no-longer-lost verse of a certain Orrian poem.

"Yes, I think we'll be heading back there soon."

[indigenouscontemporaryart]

Catherine Blackburn | Tell Me the Truth. 2017

“Catherine Blackburn’s, Believe in Something, and Truth Basket pay tribute to her kinship relationships, and the land that has sustained the Denesuline people for centuries. Bound through the love that stitching suggests, these sculptural works become acts of reclamation in their refusal to be classified or minimized by the oppressive history of colonization, by instead celebrating the contemporary resurgence of Indigenous presence and identity.” La biennale d’art contemporain autochtone / The Contemporary Native Art Biennialbaca.ca

[allons-y-langues]

Mona le vampire: Vocab pt.2

L🧛‍♀️🌙🕯🧛‍♀️ Time for some more French spooks from my childhood!! 

Saison 1, ep 25 & 26- "L'esprit de la forêt; Le croque-mitaine" FULL EPISODE -YouTube-

VOCAB IN THE UNDERCUT

L'esprit de la forêt- The spirit of the forest 

Dépêchons- “Let’s hurry” 

Une présence sinistre- A sinister presence 

Un saint- A saint 

Un génie- A spirit (In this context. The world can also mean “genius”) 

Du bon sens- Common sense 

Bestioles- Critters 

Sanguinaire- Bloodthirsty 

Ç'est faut- “It’s false” 

Diverses formes- Various shapes 

Un corbeau- A crow 

Une feuille- A Leaf 

Rendre visite dans vos rêves- “-Visit in your dreams” 

Les indiens- Indians (OLD TERMINOLOGY. DO NOT USE. When referring to Indigenous peoples the proper term is “Autochtones”)

Là bas- Over there

Allons-y- “Let’s go”

Un somnambule- A sleepwalker 

Le totem- The totem 

-

Le croque-mitaine- The boogeyman 

J'ai gagné- “I won” 

Détruit- Destroy 

Bruit-noise 

Effrayant- Scary 

Le harceler- “Harass him” 

Culotte- Cheeky 

Dormir- Sleep

Jamais- “Never” 

Grincheux- Grumpy 

[montrealrampage]

First People's Festival Raises its Voice

First People’s Festival Raises its Voice

For 28 years, the Présence Autochtone / First People’s Festival has showcased the best in Indigenous cultures both locally and abroad. With multiple festival sites and a full week of free performances, and a rich programming of cinema, Indigenous cultures welcome everyone to listen, learn, and enjoy the offerings.

Tipi First People’s Festival. Place des Arts. Photo Rachel Levine

Cinema is a…

[trebuchetuk]

[dropcap style=”font-size:100px; color:#992211;”]M[/dropcap]usic has become a vital and integral part of the festival, and through the free concerts in Place des Festivals, it is now the most popular part.

The fact that Présence Autochtone coincides with Osheaga, now Canada’s biggest music festival (happening a short Metro ride away) hasn’t dampened enthusiasm. If Osheaga is Glastonbury, then this is WOMAD.

– Chris Patmore opines on this year’s Présence Autochtone at Montreal.

Sonido Pesao at Presence Autochtone 2017

Sunny Duval at Presence Autochtone 2017

Esther Pennell and LaBronze at Presence Autochtone 2017

Karim Diouf at Presence Autochtone 2017

Laura Niquay at Presence Autochtone 2017

Mamselle Ruiz at Presence Autochtone 2017

Street style at Presence Autochtone 2017

Nomadic Massive at Presence Autochtone 2017

Pierre Kwenders at Presence Autochtone 2017

Shauit at Presence Autochtone 2017

Photos and text by Chris Patmore.

Festival report here

Loitered Lens: Presence Autochtone 2017 Music has become a vital and integral part of the festival, and through the free concerts in Place des Festivals, it is now the most popular part.

[artinmovingframes]

The Bitter Irony of Commander Lawrence’s artworks in The Handmaid’s Tale

[CW: physical and psychological violence against women, violence against minors, murder, racism]

These are my thoughts regarding the relation between the art displayed in the set and the tv show The Handmaid’s Tale. Over-interpretation is part of the reflexion, but please let me know if anything I said may have hurt you or seemed to be completely misconstrued.

In the 12th episode of the second season of The Handmaid's Tale, we were introduced to a new character, Commander Lawrence, who "welcomes" Emily (Alexis Bledel) into his house. The whole setup is somewhat disorienting and the artworks displayed are an important part of it, so I would like to give you my train of thoughts when we were introduced to the house and its inhabitants.

Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) accompanies Emily and comments on how no-one wanted her, following her history of revolt. Of course we are intrigued as to whom would open their house to her, in the context of Gilead. And when the door opened for the first time on a one-eyed Martha, Cora, I had two very opposite insticts, which were then kept up during the episode:

first I thought the Commander would be a cruel cruel man, taking the women nobody wanted anymore to do whatever he wanted to them, a sadist even worse than the "norm" in Gilead.

then I hoped it'd be a kind and considerate man, trying his best to help the scorned, tortured women, (since Emily has also suffered inhumane mutilation).

We then enter the house, a cluttered house full of trinkets, books, paintings unlike the ones we've been accustomed to before (naked bodies, abstract and expressionist art etc.). Quick side-note: most of the art on display in Commanders' houses so far were Impressionnist works, Monet in Waterford's office, Pissarro in Emily's previous commander's bedroom.

Aunt Lydia is surprised, as we are. The maid freely "jokes"(?) and talks back to the Commander as though there wouldn't be any consequence, or maybe she doesn't care about the consequences.

In the staircase, two paintings:

"Julius Caesar on Gold", Jean-Michel-Basquiat, 1981, Sotheby’s "Dark tree trunks", Georgia O'Keeffe, 1946, Brooklyn Museum

Contemporary art in these households?

But then, Commander Lawrence appears. And of course we know Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, but the role which he's now associated with is that of Dean Armitage in Get Out (what, you haven't seen Get Out? Go watch it and come back thanks). In Get Out, his racism (and that of his family) is for the first part of the movie contained to a "fascination" towards black people, hypocrite statements and intrusive behaviour. And the same uneasiness transpires through his character in The Handmaid's Tale.

During this episode, we learn from his wife, seemingly mentally broken and abused, that he is the founder of the Colonies system. We also learn that she was an Art professor.

“Life didn’t turn out the way she wanted it to. She was an art professor. She wanted everything to be beautiful.”

And like Mrs. Waterford who's in charge of the decoration in her home and chose impressionnist paintings (we can assume stolen from museums) to reflect her love of watercolor, it might be an indication that she at least participated in the decoration of the place, maybe even collected these pieces before Gilead existed. However, like everything in this world, and an earlier scene of Commander Waterford supervising the hanging of a family portrait reminds us, men are in charge, and the art surrounding them reflects on the taste and character of these men.

According to me, the art in the Lawrence household is very loud, and talkative.

The Handmaid's Tale has handled very poorly its treatment of race relations (or lack thereof), even though the Colonies are a shameless parallel to slavery and plantations. Here, the casting choice of Bradley Whitford combined with the artworks is voluntary, even though no explicit commentary is made. The irony of a Basquiat representing a black Julius Caesar hanging in the home of what would clearly be described as a white supremacist is not lost on us. O'Keeffe's paintings are known for their erotic symbolism, but here, deprived of any woman agency, the dark trunks might be an echo of a (black?) woman's body, dehumanized. This point of view is reinforced when Commander Lawrence forces his wife back to (her or their) room, and you can see in the background a painting representing two naked women, akin to the orientalist harem paintings of the late 19th century.

This manipulation of art, described as "the elite absorbing the Rebellion" is also evident in the painting by Sidney Nolan featured in the dining room during their last talk.

“After Glenrowan Siege (Second Ned Kelly series)”, Sidney Nolan, 1955, MoMA

The artwork depitcs Ned Kelly, a bushranger, an ambiguous figure of Australia's history, a defender of worker's rights, also associated with the killing of policemen. As an ultra-conservative religious system based on strict order, we could hardly see them align with the politics of Kelly; but as a sectarian minority who imposed their law by force, they might see themselves as rebels (remember the right always complaining of being oppressed by people wanting to be treated equally and respectfully...)

Gauguin is featured as well, surrounded by sculpted women torsos. in my opinion joining the contradictions of this Commander. The painting is that of christian Britton women in a landscape. For the post-impressionnist, Britanny was already an elsewhere, a place of wonder, deep religious fervor even though he was anticlerical, but not enough. He then traveled to French Polynesia where his "fascination" for the autochtones led him to abuse women, minors. We remember the art as one lauding the simple state of nature, with bright colors, celebrating pleasure and harmony, even though that art emerges from his imperialistic and machist desires and abuses.

“Landscape with two Breton Women”, Paul Gauguin, 1889, Boston MFA

The invasive and creepy conversation imposed by Commander Lawrence on Emily is ambiguous at best. I have little hope that we are presented with a respectful, righteous man. Even though in his turns of phrases he seems to disregard the hypocrite politeness of Gilead, and even their beliefs, as he seems to recognize Emily as a woman married and with a child, and not a gender traitor. But his interest is that of a man who maybe enjoys the brutality itself, celebrates genius and intellect and thinks art strives only from pain. So he appropriates that struggle, that of the artists, their history and fights. He is as entitled as the rest. His wife, complicit to a point, may have understood too late, may have felt guilt over their actions (her panick is shown as an illness when she is a voice of reason). She participated in that art deal, because she felt she could make the world beautiful, evidently according to her vision of beauty, so she bought, decorated, put varnish on a system that stripped creators from their agency, perverted their voice, or hid away their true nature.

At one point, Emily, who, as a woman, is not allowed to read, leaned over an open copy of Art Spiegelman’s Maus. The graphic novel is (as best as I can remember), about the artist learning about his family's history, the Shoah. This, too me, is as perverse as the game gets for Lawrence. He purposefully let that book open, at a page where people are shown hanged. We can imagine in this world how "provocative" art could be burnt, destroyed; maybe Aunt Lydia thought so when she entered. Commander Lawrence knows how Gilead could be compared to Nazi Germany (interestingly enough, right wing conservatives who call everyone nazis for wanting gun control, abortion rights etc. always feel offended when Trumpism and their "free thinking is called out as fascist, but I digress). Lawrence shows the totality of his power, how he controls her no matter how free she thinks she can be (by reading). He controls the narrative.

There is something potent in art, especially when we consider who owns it. Because there we either see the limit of the works, or that of the owner's honesty. The apparent failure of a piece brings about that of the person who chose to select it. Therefore, the failure, the crackling varnish, is not only that of Lawrence, whose perversity filters through his presence onscreen and not just because of how the artworks mirror his ambiguity, but a failure of the show itself, either because I gave them too much credit where it is not due, or because this awareness reflects on its previous flaws. I really hope I am wrong about this character, that he is in fact charitable, that the art is there for the wife, and allowed because he’s such an important member of Gilead (think of the high ranking officials who kept artworks for themselves in Nazi Germany). However, I wanted not to give a diagnostic but merely to try and think of ways to interpret art as reimagined in their fictional surrounding. For more debate I invite you to check the Handmaid’s Tale subreddit (as I did... after writing all this down urgh) here here and there. Other mentioned artworks I seem to have missed include Cézanne, Klimt (another wink at Nazi spoils)...

[cpmusicfoto]

For 27 years now, Présence Autochtone (Montreal First Peoples Festival) has been championing the lives and culture of the indigenous people of Canada and further afield, at its annual festival in the Quebec Province city. What was originally a somewhat niche film festival, has grown into a much larger event encompassing all of the arts. Films are still very much at its core, with offerings from across the globe showing in cinemas and other venues around the city. Documentaries make up a large part of the feature film programme, as there are still many issues to be investigated and tackled, but the fictional films also address them, and often in a more palatable way. And some films cross into both genres, such as Kuun metsän Kaisa, which mixed fairytales, animation, archive footage and social history of the Skolt Sami people of Lapland. The film went on to win the festival’s best film and best documentary awards.

What was particularly encouraging to see was not only the number of short films showing, but also how the quality has also grown with the quantity. This can primarily be attributed to the ongoing work that Wapikoni Mobile is doing, taking filmmaking and other media skills to the First Nations communities. They work almost exclusively with the youth, many of whom are disillusioned and unsure of their identities and future. Through filmmaking, they are able to explore the conundrum between tradition and today’s digital, social-media driven world. The project is uncovering a lot of talented young storytellers, who would otherwise have trouble expressing themselves.

The amalgamation of heritage and modernity was perfectly displayed in the art exhibition From Smoke to Cyber Signals at Espace Culturel Ashukan. Artist Carmen Hathaway has combined digital and 3D art with ideas from traditional stories and myths, which are then printed onto canvas. Some of the images are very finally detailed and look like they are created with brush and paint or airbrushes.

This fusion of traditional and contemporary cultures was also extended to the food that was on offer in Place des Festivals, which is very much the public face of the festival, with its giant teepee dominating the square in the downtown entertainment quarter. Usually when one talks about fusion food, one thinks of traditional food that has been spoilt by Westerners that think they can improve on dishes that have been perfected over centuries and millennia (I’m specifically thinking of Indian and Middle Eastern/North African food, where the combination of ingredients and spices take on health-giving properties). However, in this case, indigenous chef George Lesner has taken a different approach.

“I want to define what indigenous food is. I do not think it solely consists of ingredients and recipes from pre-colonial contact. That was such a long time ago, and what has happened to our land, people, culture and relations have changed our diets and needs dramatically over the years. What we cooked 600 years ago to survive was completely different to what we cooked when our meat was taken away by colonisers, and rotten flour was given to us instead. With my food, I want to represent our peoples’ struggles, and innovations we were forced to go through. I want to showcase that we are a contemporary peoples, as well as make a statement that we may have had our land taken away. Colonisers may have taken many of our lives but our resilient spirit is still here, and our resistance is not going anywhere.”

As such, he has created dishes that use local ingredients and are prepared with influences of French cuisine, that appeal to the sophisticated palettes of the Quebecois.

Another area where cultural fusion works particularly well is music. It is a universal language that spans the limitations of geography, heritage and time. Ignoring the most pretentious of musical snobs and purists, for most people born post WW2, rock music is what they were raised on. Along with blues and jazz, it is possibly the greatest contribution to modern culture the US has made.

Our voices, and drums, are our most primordial means of communication, and listening to the Buffalo Hat Singers, you can feel that right to the core of your being. For me, if music doesn’t have live drumming it is lacking its heart and soul. Of course, a great voice accompanied by a solo guitar also works.

Music has become a vital and integral part of the festival, and through the free concerts in Place des Festivals, it is now the most popular part. The fact that Présence Autochtone coincides with Osheaga, now Canada’s biggest music festival, happening a short Metro ride away, hasn’t dampened enthusiasm. If Osheaga is Glastonbury, then this is WOMAD. The “world music” aspect was further highlighted this year through the festival’s collaboration with Vive 375, a year-long celebration of Montreal’s 375th anniversary.

Présence Autochtone is not only a celebration of the aboriginal heritage of Canada and the Americas, but the indigenous people around the world that have suffered at the hands of European Christians and imperialists. The festival’s annual parade and presentation has always celebrated the city’s diverse cultures, which make it the vibrant place it is, which is especially evident during the balmy summer months.

Thursday evening saw Silla + Rise performing a fascinating mix of Inuit throat singing combined with electronic beats. Some of the songs were freeform, like hip-hop or even jazz scatting. A rather fascinating and unique sound.

Like the previously mentioned Wapikoni, Musique Nomade is an initiative for indigenous musicians to record, promote and distribute their music. The music available is as diverse as the nations it comes from, and with a multitude of influences. This was perfectly displayed at Nikamotan MTL, a showcase of Musique Nomade artists that featured individual performances and duets, embracing styles from blues to hip-hop to country to reggae.

This musical cross-pollination continued on the Saturday evening with Nova Stella, which incorporated a panoply of musicians and spoken-word artists from across the city’s émigré communities. As with the previous night’s Nikamotan MTL, there were duets from unlikely pairings of diverse performers. Rap and hip-hop were fairly predominant, but the highlights were Congolese singer Pierre Kwenders, who mixes rumba with electronic beats and a riveting stage presence; Shauit, a regular at the festival, performed original reggae songs in his native Innu tongue; and Nomadic Massive, an international collective of musicians whose upbeat mix of primarily hip-hop and soul, proved to be a crowd-pleasing finale to the evening.

The importance of first nation people’s contribution to contemporary music was further underlined in the closing night film Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. The film’s title comes from the classic instrumental by Link Wray, who was a native American. Released in 1958 it was a groundbreaking guitar tune that predates the current garage and surf rock by 50 years, and was a major influence on the world’s great rock guitarists such as Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Despite this, Wray’s heritage was unknown or hidden from the general public.

As I previously said, contemporary (20th century) American music, which encompasses jazz, blues, folk and rock, is arguably the nation’s greatest contribution to world culture, and for the most part is attributed to African-Americans, but this film reveals that the First Nations’ people played a far more influential role than is generally known. Part of this is due to the fact that the Indians were even more marginalised and persecuted than the blacks, and their story suppressed (in much the same way as the genocide of Roma/Sinti in Nazi Germany is). The film investigates the cross-pollination of Afro-American and First Nations’ people, both physically and culturally. Jimi Hendrix is undoubtedly one of the most famous sons. The film also looks at other influential artists such as blues singer Charley Patton, jazz singer Mildred Bailey, the aforementioned rock guitarists Link Wray, protest folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie (who became a victim of a CIA/FBI witch hunt), The Band’s Robbie Robertson, as well as the tragic story of prodigious guitarist Jesse Ed Davies. The film also interviews many luminaries from the music world who all attest to the important contributions and influence of these musicians, and the music of the indigenous people in general.

This is a brilliant, eye-opening documentary that adds a vital chapter to the origins of modern music, and served as fitting coda to the festival that had been celebrating the universality of music, as well as highlighting, through its film programming, the ongoing struggles, and triumphs, of aboriginal people throughout North America and the rest of the world.

Should you ever find yourself in Montreal in the summer months, possibly to take in the plethora of high-profile festivals, take time out to explore the offerings of Présence Autochtone, with its free music concerts and thought-provoking films.

Présence Autochtone For 27 years now, Présence Autochtone (Montreal First Peoples Festival) has been championing the lives and culture of the indigenous people of Canada and further afield, at its annual festival in the Quebec Province city.

[abtec]

An Open Letter to Michèle Audette, Commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Nia:wen to AbTeC for allowing me to post here. It was a bit too long for a FaceBook post.

A couple of months ago, I was invited by Ondinnok to do a curtain raiser. In theatre, that’s a short performance before the main show. Catherine Joncas, director of Montreal’s first Indigenous theatre company, said she wanted to respond to Montreal’s 375th celebrations with some reminders that Indigenous presence in this place dates much longer than that. She organized an entire series called “5 minutes pour que je te dise” or, in English, “5 minutes so I can tell you”

As soon as I had heard that Michele Audette would be a Commissioner, I wanted to write her a letter.  I took this opportunity to do so. I simply stood in front of the audience, gave a brief introduction, and read it (slightly shortened, as I went way over 5 minutes!) in French. Merci to Karina Chagnon for her careful translation.

Skennen sewakwekon, Skawennati iontiats.

Bonsoir tout le monde, my name is Skawennati. I am a Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) of Kahnawake and am of the turtle clan. My mother is Brenda Dearhouse and my father is Luigi Fragnito. I wish to share with you a letter I have written to Michèle Audette, commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Dear Michèle,

How are you? It has been many moons since we last spoke. I have seen in the news that you have been active, as usual! I was thrilled to learn that you would be one of the commissioners for the inquiry on the missing and murdered Indigenous women.

I have this great photograph of the two of us. It was taken in 1997, I think. We already had known each other for a couple of years. While working the Centre d’Amitie Autochtone, I had organized a march for the Journée National d’Action. I believe you were the president of Quebec Native Women at the time, and I asked you to be one of the speakers. Though I don’t remember what you said that day, I remember that you addressed the crowd in French, and I translated your words into English. I did not notice another friend, Jamie Riddell, taking pictures, but several weeks later, he gave me this photo. In it we are standing side by side, a team surrounded by our community. I hold a megaphone to my mouth, making sure your words reach the whole crowd.

I am writing today with my thoughts about why Indigenous women are disappearing.

Like me, you are the daughter of an Indigenous mother and a non-Native father. Like me, you understand how the Canadian government, through its legal system, has been complicit in the deaths of Indigenous women. Even us.

As you know, it was the Indian Act, enacted in 1876, that stripped Indian women of their status if they married non-Native men. The children of these marriages, likewise, did not have Indian status. (Of course, you also know that the converse was not true: Indian men who married non-Native women did not lose their status; Not only that, their wives gained status, and so did their children.)

Today we know that this law was meant to disrupt the matrilineal system, and, by extension, Native societies.

In effect, this law legally killed Native women, and their children. It sent a strong message across the land that Indigenous women needed to be eliminated in order for Canada to survive.

In 1985 Bill C-31 reinstated those women like our mothers, and their children. Finally, Michel, you and I were Indian in the eyes of the Federal government.

However, that amendment to the Indian Act was unable to change the original message: that Native women have no value, and should disappear.

In Kahnawake, where I was born, the Band Council refused to put my mother, myself and my siblings, on their membership list, stating that the Mohawk tradition is “Marry Out, Get Out.” But Mohawks, like the other five nations of the Iroquois confederacy, are supposedly a matrilineal society. Traditionally, when an Iroquois man and woman married, the husband would go and live in the wife’s longhouse, with her mother and sisters. Still today, clans are passed on through the mother. That tradition of “Marry Out, Get Out” started with the Indian Act.

In 48+ years since her wedding, my mother has witnessed families turning their backs on their daughters, sisters and aunties. She, and women like her, were told by their community that they were no longer wanted nor welcome in the community they had belonged to since birth. One band councilor even had the nerve to say to her group that if they wanted their status back, they should kill their husbands! Words and actions like these, have communicated to my mother, and me, that we were expendable, disposable, worthless.

Michèle, there is no doubt in my mind that this behaviour is connected to the crisis of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in this country. It is a direct legacy of Canada’s deliberate attempts to target Indigenous women in their goal of “killing the Indian”.

My old friend, fellow warrior, now you have the megaphone. And I am still right beside you, as I was 20 years ago. Nia:wen. Thank you for taking up this fight. I know you will make sure my words are heard.

With love and respect, Skawennati

[meninaeidethea]

The New Völkerwanderung Emil Cioran (1911-1995), Écartèlement (tr. ‎Richard Howard):

   In the Métro, one evening, I looked closely around me: everyone had come from somewhere else ... Among us, though, two or three faces from here, embarrassed silhouettes that seemed to be apologizing for their presence. The same spectacle in London.

   Today's migrations are no longer made by compact displacements but by successive infiltrations: little by little, individuals insinuate themselves among the "natives," too anemic and too distinguished to stoop to the notion of a "territory." After a thousand years of vigilance, we open the gates ...

   When one thinks of the long rivalries between the French and the English, then between the French and the Germans, it seems as if each nation, by weakening one another, had as its task to speed the hour of the common downfall so that other specimens of humanity may relay them. Like its predecessor, the new Völkerwanderung will provoke an ethnic confusion whose phases cannot be distinctly foreseen. Confronted with these disparate profiles, the notion of a community homogeneous to whatever degree is inconceivable. The very possibility of so heteroclite a crowd suggests that in the space it occupies there no longer existed, among the indigenous, any desire to safeguard even the shadow of an identity. At Rome, in the third century of our era, out of a million inhabitants, only sixty thousand were of Latin stock. Once a people has fulfilled the historical idea which was its mission to incarnate, it no longer has any excuse to preserve its difference, to cherish its singularity, to safeguard its features amid a chaos of faces.

   Having governed two hemispheres, the West is now becoming their laughingstock: subtle specters, end of the line in the literal sense, doomed to the status of pariahs, of flabby and faltering slaves, a status which perhaps the Russians will escape, those last White Men. Because they still have some pride, that motor, no, that cause of history. When a nation runs out of pride, when it ceases to regard itself as the reason or excuse for the universe, it excludes itself from becoming.

   Dans le métro, un soir, je regardais attentivement autour de moi, nous étions tous venus d'ailleurs ... Parmi nous pourtant, deux ou trois figures d'ici, silhouettes embarrassées qui avaient l'air de demander pardon d'être là. Le même spectacle à Londres.

   Les migrations, aujourd'hui, ne se font plus par déplacements compacts mais par infiltrations successives: on s'insinue petit à petit parmi les «indigènes», trop exsangues et trop distingués pour s'abaisser à l'idée d'un «territoire». Après mille ans de vigilance, on ouvre les portes ...

   Quand on songe aux longues rivalités entre Français et Anglais, puis entre Français et Allemands, on dirait qu'eux tous, en s'affaiblissement réciproquement, n'avaient pour tâche que de hâter l'heure de la déconfiture commune afin que d'autres spécimens d'humanité viennent prendre la relève. De même que l'ancienne, la nouvelle Völkerwanderung suscitera une confusion ethnique dont on ne peut prévoir nettement les phases. Devant ces gueules si disparates, l'idée d'une communauté tant soit peu homogène est inconcevable. La possibilité même d'une multitude si hétéroclite suggère que dans l'espace qu'elle occupe n'existait plus, chez les autochtones, le désir de sauvegarder ne fût-ce que l'ombre d'une identité. A Rome, au IIIeme siècle de notre ère, sur un million d'habitants, soixante mille seulement auraient été des Latins de souche. Dès qu'un peuple a mené à bien l'idée historique qu'il avait la mission d'incarner, il n'a plus aucun motif de préserver sa différence, de soigner sa singularité, de sauvegarder ses traits au milieu d'un chaos de visages.

   Après avoir régenté les deux hémisphères, les Occidentaux sont en passe d'en devenir la risée: des spectres subtils, des fin de race au sens propre du terme, voués à une condition de parias, d'esclaves défaillants et flasques, à laquelle échapperont peut-être les Russes, ces derniers Blancs. C'est qu'ils ont encore de l'orgueil, ce moteur, non, cette cause de l'histoire. Quand une nation n'en possède plus, et qu'elle cesse de s'estimer la raison ou l'excuse de l'univers, elle s'exclut elle-même du devenir.

http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-new-volkerwanderung.html

[isumatv]

KANGIQSUJUAQ is a selection from the Montreal First People’s Festival 2015 (Presence Autochtone), which is working with IsumaTV to present selected films online. Come have a look at Kangiqsujuaq on isuma.tv!

Description: In a Nunavik village, a very culturally diverse hip-hop group is invited to facilitate workshops for Inuit youth.

[trebuchetuk]

Rocking the World: Présence Autochtone 2017 (Part Two)

Rocking the World: Présence Autochtone 2017 (Part Two)

[dropcap style=”font-size:100px; color:#992211;”]O[/dropcap]ne area where cultural fusion works particularly well is music.

It is a universal language that spans the limitations of geography, heritage and time. Ignoring the most pretentious of musical snobs and purists, for most people born post-WW2, rock music is what they were raised on. Along with blues and jazz, it is possibly the greatest…

[trebuchetuk]

What Does Dignity Taste Of? Présence Autochtone 2017

What Does Dignity Taste Of? Présence Autochtone 2017

[dropcap style=”font-size:100px; color:#992211;”]F[/dropcap]or 27 years now, Présence Autochtone (Montreal First Peoples Festival) has been championing the lives and culture of the indigenous people of Canada and further afield, at the annual festival in the Quebec Province city.

What was originally a somewhat niche film festival, has grown into a much larger event encompassing all of the arts.…

[montrealrampage]

Short Films Cover Large Themes : Montreal First People's Festival

Short Films Cover Large Themes : Montreal First People’s Festival

Wapikoniis a mobile studio that travels to First Nations communities (mostly in Canada, but also throughout the world) with the goal of providing workshops to indigenous youth to master digital tools for directing short films. Mentor filmmakers assist the participants in the creation of approximately 70 short films and 30 musical recordings each year, which adds to the collection of over 1500…

[trebuchetuk]

Loitered Lens : Presence Autochtone

Loitered Lens : Presence Autochtone

[dropcap style=”font-size:100px; color:#992211;”]T[/dropcap]o increase the public profile of Présence Autochtone, the festival takes over La Place des Festivals, in the heart of Montreal’s entertainment district, with a huge suspended teepee as the centrepiece.

Displays of crafts and other free cultural events happen here, including a continuous open-fire barbecue. The main attraction is the free…