The First Meetings Project

This project includes the research and re-creation of the First Meetings between Alberta’s First Nations people and the French Voyageurs along the setting of Edmonton’s River Valley.  The project staged a setting where French/European Voyageurs men first meet the Aboriginal peoples in their camps and villages. The idea was to portray the true setting, where Canada’s First peoples are seen as healthy, friendly people who helped the first white voyageurs and settlers live on the land.  Many ideas and artworks of the “First Meeting” have been portrayed in history as negative, scary and shown in an idealized, romantic light.  We created an environment that was closer to the true history of the first meetings, where First Nations peoples are portrayed as healthy, kind and helpful people who shared their resources with men who had been travelling for months and in most cases were starving.

The exhibit is up in Galerie Cite until April 2018, and video components of the project will be up on the La Cite Francophone website in February.  https://www.lacitefranco.ca/galerie-cite