Indigenous people's voices in Montreal

Still here! Indigenous people's voices in Montreal, on exhibit at the Centre des mémoires montréalaises (MEM) from October 15, 2024 to February 23, 2025, is the fruit of a collective effort involving many different people at various stages along the way. The exhibit mobilizes knowledge developed across two participatory research projects conducted by members of Montreal/Tio'tà:ke's Indigenous community between 2019 and 2023.  

The first research project, led by Stéphane Guimont Marceau, focused on relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the city's public spaces. Using the photovoice method, it brought together eight people via a series of sharing circles and resulted in an exhibition presented as part of the Présence Autochtone festival in summer 2021. The second research project, directed by Marie-Eve Drouin-Gagné and Stéphane Guimont Marceau, used participatory cartography to bring together eighteen youth (ages 18 to 35), resulting in the creation of an online interactive narrative map.

Designing the MEM exhibition brought together seven people involved in these two projects. The sharing of individual stories was central to developing the exhibit, as was collective analysis of the issues raised in the two research projects. The goal of the exhibit is to deepen our knowledge of Indigenous relations with and within the city, and to help make Indigenous people's presence and experiences more visible.

Team

The exhibition's creative committee was made up of Carole Brazeau, Richard Budgell, Alicia Ibarra Lemay, Myriam Landry, Coralie Niquay, Véronique Picard, Carling Sioui and Fabienne Théoret Jerome. The latter designed the graphics.

Photos : Denis-Carl Robidoux