Listen To The Article
Avignon Theater Festival highlights the indigenous memory of Quebec through the play Marguerite : Le Feu (Marguerite: The Fire), which revisits the story of Marguerite Duplessis, the first indigenous slave to initiate legal action against colonial authority. This performance also serves as a “mirror” to recent tragedies that have struck the indigenous populations of Canada.
The story of Marguerite Duplessis, an indigenous slave who lived in the French colonial territories in North America (1534-1763), is brought to the stage by the Canadian artist Emilie Monnet, of Anishinaabe origin. Captured as a child in Iowa, Marguerite, originally from the Pawnee tribe, was sold to several owners in New France. In 1740, she faced deportation to Martinique, accused of being a thief and libertine. At this point, she rebelled, becoming the first indigenous slave to initiate legal action against colonial power.
Monnet, along with three other actresses, recounts part of this historical trial in their performance. The performance, embellished with indigenous chants and dances and punctuated by abstract video projections, brings Duplessis’s destiny back to life. “Never forget, the dead love to hear us sing,” they declare toward the end of the piece.
Monnet explains that her intention is to “paint a portrait of a reality from yesterday to reflect today’s world.” The history of slavery in Quebec, which primarily affected indigenous populations rather than black slaves from the Atlantic trade, remains largely unknown despite numerous initiatives to shed light on it.
For the artist, there are still “Marguerites” in today’s context, referring to indigenous women who have disappeared or been murdered since the 1980s in Canada. Monnet also speaks of the ongoing discrimination against indigenous people, particularly in terms of access to drinking water or healthcare. She recalls the tragic case of Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman who died in a Quebec hospital and had recorded a video where hospital staff were heard hurling racist insults at her. This case revealed the “existence of systemic racism within Quebec’s institutions” toward indigenous people.
With AFP
