Anne-Marie Proulx, Co-Artistic Director, VU, and Member of the Kwatriho'tat Committee
"Often, it's someone who connects us together. For me, it was Guy who put me in touch with Anne-Marie, and it was that first meeting that allowed us to talk, discover common ground, and, over time, want to work together. I would say that it was our artistic side that brought us together, the desire to share something together."
Teharihulen Michel Savard, member of the Kwatriho'tat committee
“I was 16 when my father took me to meet Maurice Picard at his canoe shop in Wendake before I started building my cedar canoe, which was a rite of passage from adolescence to early adulthood. Sixteen years later, I was led to build another one, this time in the Amazon, to explore the waters there and meet its inhabitants. It was with this canoe that I was introduced to the figure of the great serpent, which accompanied me for several years and with which I returned to Quebec along the St. Charles River, which I now call Akiawenrahk. Then Michel told me about the Great Serpent that lies beneath the Kabir Kouba waterfall, and I realized that I had reached a point in my life where I was going to undertake a portage.”
Véronique Isabelle, Project Manager, VU and member of the Kwatriho'tat Committee
" For me, it was a desire to get to know each other, but above all to work collectively to determine what we wanted to create together. I got involved in this project with the feeling that art can be a space that welcomes different perspectives but also creates opportunities for sharing and new senses of belonging."
Jacynthe Carrier, co-artistic director, VU, and member of the Kwatriho'tat committee
"The pivotal moment for me was when I first saw Nadia Myre's work Indian Act. Even through its virtual presence, the installation moved me deeply. Following this encounter, my relationship with the colonial system—within which I had always lived and which I had not really noticed until then—was turned upside down. It was this initial realization that led me, step by step, to join the Alliance."
Julia Caron Guillemette, Artistic and Administrative Co-coordinator, Ahkwayaonhkeh
What led us to become allies
We are often asked how the Alliance began, and we always find it a little difficult to answer this question, because the path that led us there was not a linear one. It is more like a river and its tributaries, made up of relationships, where each person who joins originates from their own direction.
It is undoubtedly no coincidence that the project that brought several of us together before the Alliance was formed was Yahndawa’ ("river" in the Wendat language), an exchange between artists from Wendake and Quebec City. But that is only part of the story, just one branch of it.
Before Yahndawa’, all kinds of paths led the various people involved to this project. And other people who were not present at Yahndawa’ joined us a little later.
To illustrate these diverse paths, we asked various individuals involved in the Alliance to name a key event that, directly or indirectly, led them to it.