Still Here! Indigenous Peoples’ Voices in Montréal

This exhibition is the result of collective work carried out in various stages and with the participation of numerous people. It is a knowledge mobilization tool based on two participatory research projects involving members of the Indigenous community of Montréal/Tiohtiá:ke and a team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), conducted between 2019 and 2023.

The first project, on relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in public urban spaces, gathered the perspectives of eight people in a series of sharing circles using photovoice methods. It culminated in an exhibition presented as part of the International Festival of Indigenous Presence in the summer of 2021. The second project involved eighteen Indigenous youth, aged eighteen to thirty-five, in a participatory mapping process, and resulted in the publication online of an interactive story map.

The MEM exhibition was designed in collaboration with seven people who had participated in one or the other of the two projects. The approach focused on the sharing of individual stories and facilitating discussions to collectively analyze the issues that emerged. The purpose of these explorations was to deepen our understanding of the relationships of Indigenous individuals with and in the city, and to contribute to making Indigenous presences and experiences in urban spaces more visible.

This project is made possible thanks to the Montréal Cultural Development Agreement.