A new advertisement campaign in Quebec is hoping to shed some light on the 11 different Indigenous nations in the province.
The new ad, commissioned by the provincial government, introduces for them all: Wendat, Eeyou, Kanien’kehà:ka, Mi’kmaq, Abenaki, Wolastoqiyik, Innu, Atikamekw, Anishnabe, Naskapi and Inuit.
The video, directed by Kanien’kehà:ka (Mohawk) filmmaker Sonia Bonspille-Boileau, is reportedly the first step in Quebec’s Indigenous awareness campaign — something the province desperately needs, says Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière.
“It’s sad to say, but when I visit schools, I always bring the map of Quebec with 55 communities, the 11 nations, and for many, it’s an awakening,” said Lafrenière. “So I hope this will do the same thing. I see this as the beginning.”
Lafrenière said future steps in the campaign would be determined and announced at a later date. However, he said more work needed to be done with regards to school curriculum, but did not give specifics about integrating more Indigenous content in Quebec schools.
The current CAQ government came under fire in 2021 when it replaced its “ethics and religion” course for one called “Quebec values and citizenship.”
Denis Gros-Louis, director of the Wendake-based First Nations Education Council, said the curriculum said “that first and foremost, everyone is Quebecois ‘from the same culture’ – with no ‘s.’”
Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) chief Ghislain Picard said that course has “strong nationalistic content [that] will be taking us back years.”
According to Lafrenière, the ad campaign is meant to help respond to one of the recommendations from the province’s 2020 report from its action group against racism to “include in [a] national anti-racism awareness campaign a specific component on the realities of Indigenous peoples, to continually inform the public about the racism and discrimination experienced by First Nations and Inuit people.”
The government worked with Indigenous experts, like historian Médérik Sioui, to create the ad.
“It’s like saying Europeans when we’re talking about the French, the English, or Italians, to say that fails to differentiate between those nations, it’s the same thing for us,” said Sioui.
He said recognizing Indigenous diversity is vital to understanding why self-determination is so important.
“We have our own voices, our own ways of doing things, and I think that’s the biggest issue – to respect our self-determination and our way of doing things,” said Sioui.
Philippe Meilleur works for Native Montreal, an Indigenous advocacy group. He said the campaign is also important for breaking down stereotypes.
“I really appreciate that it was developed by an Indigenous person, Sonia Bonspille, and that all the different people that were filmed in it could decide what was the setting,” said Meilleur.
“It shows that we all have very distinct realities, lifestyles, and that’s the key to really breaking down race relations between Indigenous people and Quebecois because treating us as monoliths, it kind of dehumanizes us, and the more we’re close to our distinctions and our realities, the more we’re actually able to work together.”
While Meilleur was happy with the ad, he said there’s still a long way to go.
“I’m still very hopeful, but there’s so much work that needs to be done,” he said, “because at this point, we still have to work out a lot of different tensions and issues and access to services and that’s really where the value lies.”
