Arts easing racial, political tensions

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The audience reaction when much beloved Quebecois singer Claude Dubois brought his talents to the Montreal Spectrum stage for the Rez, White and Blues annual concert organized as part of the First Peoples' Festival showed that the Land InSights founders are well on their way to accomplishing an ambitious goal.

Earlier in the evening, prior to the 8:30 p.m. start time for the show, Pierre Thibeault, one of Land InSights founders who was charged with organizing the evening's events, was as nervous as an expectant father. A much larger than anticipated crowd was filing into the downtown Montreal theatre, paying top price to see an impressive collection of talent. That, together with the preparations required by the CBC-TV technicians who would tape the performance for broadcast, was adding to the pressures on the organizers.

Dubois sings in French for audiences in Quebec. He is adored as much for his devotion to his culture as for his considerable talents. He refuses to cash in on the huge U.S. market by crossing over to the English language. Organizers say he claims a bit of Metis ancestry and approached Land InSights, offering his services to the festival, because he sees the festival as a worthy enterprise.

His name on the St. Catherine St. marquis lured many non-Native Quebecers to the Spectrum that evening and they were not disappointed. In fact, it appeared they were delighted by the talents of the other performers, including traditional throat singers and drummers from Nunavik. Thibeault and his colleagues would have been happy to see the 1,000-seat theatre half full. Instead, there were few, if any, empty seats when the show began.

Thibeault believes the arts community will succeed in bringing French Canadians and their Native neighbors together long before political or business connections ease the tensions that still linger from the 1990 confrontation at Oka or the bitterness of the James Bay Crees' vocal resistance to Quebec separation. Those tensions are the reality of everyday life in Quebec for Native people, a fact of which the Land InSights committee is well aware. Based on the enthusiasm of the audience, one could say the gap is definitely closing.

Closing that gap is something Thibeault and his fellow committee members are consciously working at.

"In a sense, we're social engineers," he told Windspeaker.

Just one of many cultural performances during the festival, Rez, White and Blues featured Innu singer Lucy Idlout, former Kashtin mainstay Claude McKenzie, Mohawk violinist Tara-Louise Montour, Dubois, performance artist Jocelyne Monpetit, Innu drummer Aqsarniit and others.

Idlout started the evening, hammering the audience with a blues rock performance that included the song, E5770, My Mother's Name, about the harsh realities of the residential school experience.

In stark contrast to that experience, Kahnawake's Tara-Louise Montour, a classically trained violinist, enlisted the aid of a well known Quebec composer to put together a classical treatment of a traditional Chippewa song sung by the women as they watch their men go off to war.

She was followed by Claude McKenzie. After several years away from the stage after a personal tragedy, organizers say McKenzie's appearance signified his return to performance and it was triumphant. The charismatic singer-guitar player was obviously delighted to be back and the audience returned his energy with an enthusiastic response.