And We Did 1 Thing!

Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble

Sylvain Thibault, Laur Fugère, Sylvain Poirier & Paula Kline

Quelle ambiance chaleureuse et électrique au Bain Mathieu vendredi dernier pour notre Show pour les réfugiés : Do 1 Thing. Une palette de musiciens se sont succédés sur scène – tous aussi talentueux les uns que les autres…..le tout enveloppé par la voix chaude et pleine d’énergie  de notre animateur par excellence Alfredo Lombisi!  Et ça dansait les amis – au fond de la piscine!

Nos plus sincères remerciements aux artistes : Nomadic Massive, Wesli Band, Murray Lightburn, Laur Fugère, Sylvain Poirier, Emrical, Ngabo, Eliza Moore, Mohamad Haiek, Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble, Odaya, Micros Armés ….. et Thomas Hellman notre porte parole engagé. Voilà la preuve éloquente que la communauté artistique montréalaise, ainsi que les Montréalais de divers horizons, ont à cœur la cause des réfugiés. Grâce à vous tous, l’hospitalité retrouvera sa place dans notre histoire collective! Merci!

Alfredo Lombisi & Laura-Julie Perreault, journaliste

Nomadic Massive

Thomas Hellman (à gauche), porte-parole du Projet Refuge

'We were all so struck by how much HEART there was in the entire production. Truly is mind bending-ly beautiful when humanity unites in song and dance and open-hearted deeds.' 

Singer Eliza Moore 

Photos: Michelle Knight

And the Story continues...

Camille Fouillard  is a freelance writer based in St. John's, Newfoundland, and has been working with the Innu for several years. Through this short but compelling glimpse into their story, we can begin to grasp the connections with our own. Merci Camille!

Camille – in 1995, you edited a book in partnership with the Davis Inlet Band Council and the Innu Nation: Gathering Voices; Finding Strength to Help Our Children. What did those voices tell you about women’s strength in a harsh environment?

The book was the result of the Davis Inlet People’s Inquiry, a community self-examination into a house fire that killed six children. I went on to work with one of the Inquiry’s Innu commissioners Nypmpha Byrne to produce a book of Innu women’s stories and writings, entitled It’s Like the Legend. Amongst many things, the voices we gathered told us that culture is key to healing and women are key to the survival of the culture. They have been less assimilated and have less invested in the structures of the dominant culture. This means, for example, that they can actually imagine throwing a judge out of the community to make a statement about how the justice system is not working in their community, and then make it happen, and later renegotiate his re-entry with openness from the system to try new ways.

Camille Fouillard (left) with colleague

What impact did it have on the women and their community to have these stories told and then see them in print?

I believe in the power of the story, that the process of sharing the story for the Innu has been key to reclaiming their place in this world. I have seen people turn their lives around after being given the opportunity to tell their story. My Innu colleague Nympha has talked about how the process of the Inquiry and compiling the anthology encouraged her to return to school, obtain her high school and two college diplomas and eventually train to become an addictions counselor. Women in Labrador Innu communities are much more active today than 25 years ago, both in formal and informal leadership positions. I do believe that the storytelling process of creating these books contributed to this development.

Jack Penashue, Social Health Director of the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation

How did listening to the stories of the Innu women impact you? How did it change your own story?

My time and work and friendships with the Innu have been a gift in my life.  I’ve learned so much in this relationship about myself and my humanity, my own suffering, about the sacredness of our planet, about joy and laughter, courage and resilience. I’ve learned about the racism in Canada, how we need to challenge our ‘us-and-them’ thinking. I’ve learned about how on this small and fragile planet, there is no room for ‘us and them.’ Whatever the politics, the geography, the culture, the gender, the context, there can no longer be a “them,” there is only an ever-evolving “us.” Do we have time to listen to what the Innu and their culture have to tell us about how to care for our planet?

How important is it, do you think, to tell these stories to a larger audience? What does the larger society have to gain?

I love these books because they give us a glimpse into individual lives of the Innu. This is what Nympha and I wrote in our introduction to the women’s book: We hope this book will serve as a bridge between the Innu and the outside world. As the readers travel through these stories, they will sit close with Innu women. Perhaps they can imagine themselves perched comfortably on a bed of aromatic fir boughs, with a fire crackling from a small sheet-metal stove as soft moonlight shines through the canvas of the Innu tent. Or perhaps readers can invite these Innu women into their own homes to offer them a cup of strong tea. We hope readers will connect with the humanity of these stories. The door will be open for the reader to enter the world of the Innu. Readers can join the women in a place where experiences of love, pain, fear, laughter, sorrow, joy and hope cut across our differences.

What are you working on right now with this community?

I am editing another book, a memoir by George Gregoire, an Innu man from Natuashish. George’s story traces the amazing trajectory of a man, born in the wilds of Labrador before the Innu were settled in communities, yet who somehow managed to get enough education to write this book. The writing is brutally honest, candid, and poignant, cynical, funny, nostalgic. It reveals George in all his complexities. It gives us the personal story along with very articulate views of the bigger picture.  It provides the reader with an intimate glimpse into an Innu life, impossible to grasp from the stereotypical and sensational media stories that bombard us about the Innu.

I’ve also just finished working on a community health needs assessment with an Innu team from Sheshatshiu and I’ve been trying to wrestle my own book of fiction to the ground.


Photos provided by Camille Fouillard

Michaëlle Jean was a refugee!

“Je suis moi-même fils de réfugié, j’ai bénéficié de l’accueil offert par la société canadienne » disait Thomas Hellman à la conférence de presse pour annoncer notre concert bénéfice Do 1 Thing: Le Show pour les réfugiés.

Thomas Hellman & Sylvain Thibault

And what better way to highlight the importance of hospitality to refugees arriving in Canada to begin a new life in safety and dignity!  They – their children and grandchildren are tomorrow’s artists, doctors and electricians…and Governors General!

Dancer Mohamad Haiek & Thomas Hellman

Sylvain Thibault, Eddy from Micros Armés & Laur Fugère

En compagnie de quelques uns des artistes et le coordinateur du show,  Sylvain Thibault, Thomas  a invité les Montréalais à venir en grand nombre. En France ils sont 3,5000 annuellement au concert bénéfice pour les réfugiés. Nous pouvons sûrement remplir les 500 places du Bain Mathieu !   Hope to see you this Friday !

Photos: Michelle Knight

Ru

Photo: Benoit Levac

…et pour suivre le fil de la narration, je vous recommande fortement de vous procurer un petit bijoux de livre: Ru, un récit autobiographique de l’écrivaine Kim Thuy, une réfugiée vietnamienne arrivée au Canada à la fin des années 70 alors qu’elle avait 10 ans. 

Chaque page un chapitre, chaque chapitre un poème à la vie, à la survie, et au besoin de communiquer son histoire afin de pouvoir la continuer!  

(The English version of Ru will be available in January. Don’t miss it!)

Tell me a Story!

“Most of us have stories about home – a past or present home, a home we were forced to leave, a home we want to create. Home is a common denominator that connects us to each other and taps into what matters to each of us”

Those words come from The First Door – a video and now a book describing the experiences of refugees at MCM’s Project Refuge-Maison Haidar.  Liz Miller at Concordia University Communications Department sensed the latent power in the silent stories of refugees, And so one day she and her team came to Maison Haidar  to begin  ‘mapping the memories’  with the residents.

Click here Mapping Memories  to view The First Door: Finding Home in a New Place. If you would like a copy of the video First Door, let us know. And we’d love to hear your thoughts and impressions! How can story telling make this world we live in kinder and more just?

Do 1 Thing!

Show time is quickly approaching. If you haven’t already got your ticket to the event of the season – Do 1 Thing: le Show pour les réfugiés, go to Pop Montreal to purchase them on line, or to avoid the 4$ admin cost, call us at 514-376-2069 to buy directly.

We’re thrilled with the talented artists that will be performing in support of refugees here in Montreal at our own Projet Refuge and abroad at the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya.

 Thomas Hellman

Ngabo

Vous ne voulez pas manquer:

Thomas Hellman, Murray Lightburn (The Dears), Nomadic Massive, Replay, Wesli Band et plusieurs autres.

So is it a date? Au plaisir de vous voir au Bain Mathieu, 2915, rue Ontario Est, le 25 novembre 2011 à 20h.

 Replay / Laur Fugère & Sylvain Poirier

Nomadic Massive

Photos fournies par les artistes

Welcome to the MCM blog! Bienvenue!

Growing up in Halifax on the Atlantic Ocean, I was anxious to set sail for new horizons – to experience other cultures and learn different languages.  Studies and travels in Germany, Mexico and Chicoutimi, Quebec finally led me to Montreal where I put down roots in the late 70s. After various jobs, it was my volunteer work that landed me a position with Montreal City Mission in the mid 80s as community worker. At the time, I recall thinking, this is probably going to be the best job I will ever have!  And I was right! My work at MCM not only turned into a great job but also into a vocation. The opportunity to build on a strong, now centenary, foundation,

 and expand the vision of collegiality and hospitality has been life-giving. Underpinning this evolution is ‘right relation’: putting into place practices and policies that allow healthy inter-personal dynamics at the work place and in the community. These, in turn, allow all of us at MCM to connect with our inner wisdom - our mystique - where creativity, compassion, love for one another and a sense of justice reside and give life.

While completing my Masters in ‘Intervention sociale’ at the Université du Québec à Montréal in the 90s, I explored the concept of latent social development and the need to attune one’s senses to things below the surface - emerging ideas and realities. More recently, the work of social theorist Otto Sharmer in his book Theory U – Leading from the Future as it Emerges has once again reminded me of the importance of observation, listening and creating the space for the ‘other’ to be. At MCM, we are constantly exploring new ways to do just that: be present as listeners and advocates, and together with refugees and immigrants, create the opportunity for giving back. The courage of the people we serve provides us with daily inspiration; their vulnerability, talent and strength create a latent story in our collective narrative, a story that needs to be lifted up and shared.

‘Life is a journey and the journey itself is home’, once said a 17th century traveling Buddhist monk. My life journey seems to bring me back frequently to the classroom. I have recently embarked upon a two year part-time Masters of Divinity program through the United Theological College with the goal of ordination in 2013. The United Church of Canada, like all mainline Christian denominations is in major transition – one could even say crisis or upheaval.  But it is also an exhilarating time of change and new possibilities – a time when what constrains and limits us can be discarded, and what heals and energizes us can be embraced.

Photo: La Presse / Rémi Lemée

The current challenge for all of us will be to find ways to create a counter-culture narrative based on interdependence, love and justice. No matter what our system of beliefs and values, we are all connected through the human story of struggle, pain, hope and joy. Finding ways to make and strengthen those connections is indeed a life journey and the journey itself is home!

Pour la Version française