Montreal marks National Indigenous Peoples Day with art, hot dogs and seal stew

Montreal’s Inuit diaspora came together Saturday to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day with ragout, bannock hot dogs, and activities.

The Southern Quebec Inuit Association is a non-profit organization that offers services such as intervention workers, spaces for families, and parenting workshops to the nearly 2,000 Inuit who live permanently in southern Quebec.

For two years, they have partnered with Native Montreal to host National Indigenous Peoples Day events, this time in Verdun’s Arthur-Therrien Park.

A participant of the soapstone carving workshop Saturday in Cabot Square cuts a large chunk to use for a sculpture, with the guidance of the workshop teacher. The Cabot Square event was hosted by POP Montreal, Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and Resilience Montreal. (Photo by Cedric Gallant, special to Nunatsiaq News)

“The decision was that we would combine our efforts to have a bigger gathering, and more to offer to our community,” said Tina Pisuktie, the Quebec Inuit association’s executive director, in an interview under the shade of a tree at the gathering.

The event featured an artist market with around 50 booths displaying Indigenous artwork for people to enjoy. A station served hot dogs made with bannock buns, and a stew made from a seal harvested on the Magdalene Islands.

The goal was to provide a family-friendly event with an emphasis on sobriety.

“We wanted to have a space where our families can feel like they can equally come out and celebrate,” said Pisuktie.

“In an atmosphere where they felt very comfortable for their kids to be running around and having a good time.”

Pisuktie said Verdun has a lot of young Inuit families, so it is important for her association to provide spaces for them. She pointed out that Inuit account for only five per cent of Canada’s Indigenous population.

“It is very easy to get drowned out in all the noise that is the Indigenous community,” Pisuktie said.

She acknowledged that it can be difficult for Inuit to move south permanently — some come with a very well-defined plan, and others come with no plan at all.

“I think it is really important for [Inuit] to have some point of connection, a place where they can go, where people that look like them, speak like them, can help them navigate southern environments,” Pisuktie said.

Soapstone carver from Salluit Putullik Qumaq was simply passing by the event, and started carving under a tent, where he was joined by other fellow Inuit. (Photo by Cedric Gallant, special to Nunatsiaq News)

Her organization helps Inuit navigate health-care systems and the job market, which she said can make a “huge difference” in how well people adjust to life in the south.

Pisuktie believes that when Inuit leave their home community for Montreal, they also leave behind a sense of community that is not so well defined in the city.

In the North, “I am part of a whole, I am part of a community,” she said. “I am part of something bigger than just me.”

“Whereas in the city, the mode of life is created around being an individual, and being able to stand on your own and do everything by yourself for yourself.”