The Contemporaneity of Native North America is a two-day scientific event, organised by the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, centred around a university symposium accompanied by a cultural programme. While highlighting the European Francophone research on Native North America, and the ways it is applied, these two days will explore the themes of contemporaneity and its affirmation by the native populations of North America. The second day will close with the conference with Nicole O'Bomsawin and a screening of two films Angakusajaujuq: the shaman’s apprentice and Kuessipan.

Image: Jessica Gokey, "Native Foods Table Accent", 2014. www.jessicaleighgokey.com

PROGRAMME

Wednesday 27 April

10.15am: introduction (Amaury Frotté, Julie Graff, Marion Robinaud) 

10.30am-12.30pm: ART AND HERITAGE: FOUNDATIONS AND RENEWED STRATEGIES 

Moderator: Marie Mauzé (CNRS)

● Florence Duchemin-Pelletier (Université Rennes 2):  Rewriting the history of Inuit art. Discursive strategies and critical inscriptions (20 mins)

● Julie Graff (UdeM): Returned continuity: cultural revitalisation dynamics in contemporary indigenous arts (20 mins)

● Sarah Houllegatte (Université Rennes 2):  Cooperation between museums and indigenous peoples, comparison of Canadian and French museum practices: avenues for research (20 mins)

● Discussion 

12.30pm - 2pm: Lunch break

2pm - 4pm:  ENCOUNTERS IN DIFFICULT TERRAIN: ETHICAL COMMMITMENTS AND CHALLENGES 

Moderator: Irène Bellier (CNRS)

● Eugénie Clément (EHESS) and Janene Yazzie (IITC):  A dialogue on the ethics of research: how can French anthropologists work with/in Indigenous communities? (30 mins) > Zoom

● Marine Bobin (Université catholique de Lille):  Between prison and peacemaking: Navajo justice as a claim to contemporaneity. (20 mins) > Zoom

● Lucie Bonnet (Université Jean Monnet):  Combating domestic violence in Alaskan indigenous communities (20 mins)

● Discussion 

Thursday 28 April

10.30am-12.30pm: RELIGION IN TRANSFER AND ITS AGENTS

Moderator: Frédéric Laugrand (Université catholique de Louvain)

● Marion Robinaud (assistant LabEx HASTEC): Mapping research on women-led Catholic missions in Canadian indigenous spheres (20 mins)

● Marie-Amélie Salabelle and Virginie Vaté (CNRS): The native clergy in the fabric of an indigenous orthodox Church in Alaska (20 mins)

● Virgile Delmas (UNIL; UQAM): A sun dance in France: ethnography of an Iakota ritual disseminated in Europe (20 mins)

● Discussion 

12.30pm - 2pm: Lunch break

2pm - 4pm: SPACES AND ACCOUNTS OF RESURGENCE

Moderator: Carole Lévesque (INRS)

● Amaury Frotté (EHESS): Ethnographic approaches of two-spirited presences in Winnipeg (20 mins)

● Bastien Sepúlveda (research fellow at Réseau DIALOG, associate member of the SENS joint research unit), Edith Cloutier (Centre d’amitié autochtone de Val-d’Or native friendship centre), Caroline Desbiens (Université Laval):  The presence of natives in towns in Quebec: account of a long march towards reconciliation, recognition and autonomy. (40 mins)

● Discussion

4pm-4.30pm: break 

4.30pm: CLOSING ROUND TABLE (Auditorium) 

Nicole O’Bomsawin (Kiuna), Irène Bellier (CNRS), Nathalie Kermoal (Rupertsland Center for Metis Research), Suzy Basile (UQAT) [S. Basile on Zoom]: Collaboration, sharing and reconciliation as research practices: different perspectives and voices in France and Canada.

6pm-9.30pm SCREENINGS (Auditorium):

Short film The Shaman’s Apprentice (20 minutes)

Full-length film Kuessipan  (1hr57)

 8.30pm – 9.30pm Round table: Irène Bellier, Frédéric Laugrand, Nicole O’Bomsawin, Myriam Verreault.