Nestled between Rue St. Catherine and Rue St. Laurent is the Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises (MEM). In the lobby on the second floor, you’ll see a large road sign displaying Rue Amherst’s renaming to Rue Atataken, moving away from its colonial origin of Jeffery Amherst who, according to the accompanying description, wished smallpox upon Indigenous communities. In contrast, “Atateken” is a Mohawk term loosely translated as “sisters and brothers,” emphasizing values of friendship and collaboration. This display is just one of many references to Indigenous culture sprinkled around the MEM.
According to their website, the MEM “place[s] citizens’ voices at the heart of their actions.” They aim to “share authentic local histories” and “reflect Montreal’s diverse realities” in order to “facilitate responsible, sustainable cohabitation.” This is done through innovative exhibitions, which include first-hand accounts and artifacts from various time periods and communities.
Said communities, of course, include the First Nations people, who have lived on the island of Montreal and in Canada at large for hundreds of years. According to the MEM’s permanent exhibit, “Montréal” the Greater Montreal area was home to an Indigenous population of over 4 million in 2016. Through its mission, the MEM plays a role in preserving the memories of the Indigenous, who have been here longer than anyone else, and thus have the richest history in Montreal, even if much of it remains buried, undocumented, or even neglected.
Indigenous memory is layered with stories of loving community, as well as immense trauma. Many Indigenous people carry the weight of intergenerational suffering on their backs, with family members having faced discrimination at best and unimaginable abuse at worst. In the temporary exhibition that ended on September 21 titled “A Mile In My Shoes” a collaboration between the MEM and the Empathy Museum, visitors are given a pair of shoes belonging to a storyteller with the same shoe size, which they are encouraged, but not forced, to wear, along with a pair of headphones and an audio device to listen to the owner’s story. The exhibit is designed to instill empathy in the visitor by being given a tangible symbol of the storyteller’s real existence. This exhibit included shoes and stories from Montrealers of various demographics, including those of Indigenous background.
As one of the storytellers in “A Mile in my Shoes,” Innu poet Maya Cousineau Mollen, represented by an eclectic pair of boots, speaks on the trauma she faced as an Indigenous child raised by her adoptive white parents, and the uneasy feeling of never being enough for either side. These themes of cultural upset, echoed by bead artist and seller Oskenontona Philip Deering, his story represented in this exhibit by a pair of brown sneakers, who discusses the abandonment of his Indigenous name in his youth, are representative of the grey area Indigenous people often occupy between their native identity and the colonised world we live in.
This cultural dissonance persists to this day. Montreal and McGill University continue to occupy unceded Indigenous territory, the landscape of which has been and continues to be drastically altered by urbanisation. Another exhibit, “Detours – Urban Experiences,” is an immersive experience featuring short video clips of various Montrealers sharing their life experiences. In one of these videos, Indigenous radio host and activist Melissa Mollen Dupuis brings a cameraman around Mont-Royal, which she describes in the footage as “Montreal’s lung.” As development projects encroach on natural spaces worldwide, Dupuis illustrates the importance of preserving Mont-Royal not just for environmental reasons, but to maintain the enduring connection between Indigenous people and nature, especially considering Mont-Royal’s status as an important green space.
In the hustle and bustle of globalisation, where the frontiers between cultures and continents grow increasingly blurred, we cannot afford to neglect Indigenous narratives, which extend far beyond our collective consciousness. Cousineau Mollen states, in the English dub of her recording in the exhibit, that she would like people to “find a way to be happy in society together.”
As inhabitants of their land, we must make an effort to uplift the sorrows and joys of Indigenous people, ensuring that they are seen not only as victims but as fighters. In historically resisting and continuing to rally against systems that continually oppress them, their experiences are powerful markers of the importance of community and resistance, which we must seek to uplift. After all, the Indigenous people are not just memories — they are still here.
Find out more about the MEM at their website. Tickets for students are $10.90.