Conference - Lori Beavis et Michelle McGeough

Lori Beavis and Michelle McGeough, curators and researchers from Île de la Grande Tortue/Canada and members of the Mobile Decolonial Do Tank, are in residence at Intermondes to pursue their research projects in La Rochelle and Brouage.

→ With her project Résister avec amour et médecine (traditionnelle), Lori Beavis revisits Samuel de Champlain's impact in New France, laying the foundations for new relations between Brouage and Île de la Tortue through the creation of a medicinal garden and the development of an exhibition.

→ Michelle McGeough follows in the footsteps of her ancestors, Anne Bellesoeur, Marie Elizabeth Camus, Catherine Clérice and Catherine Marchand, Filles du Roi and Marie Madeleine François/Lefrançois and Marie Lorgueil, Filles à marier, all of whom left for New France from La Rochelle or Dieppe between 1663 and 1673. The Métis - a nation of which Michelle McGeough's family is a member - are known as otipemisiwak, meaning those who govern themselves, and these French women embody the same courage. Her project aims to explore how genealogy shapes identity and belonging, and what a tool for asserting sovereignty and nationhood it can represent from an Aboriginal perspective.