Controversy over Indigenous representation pursues Robert Lepage play as it opens in Paris

For Kim O'Bomsawin, there has been a "before" and an "after"Kanata, the contentious play by Robert Lepage that premiered in Paris this weekend.

"Everybody knows that we are here, capable of telling our story and that it will no longer happen without us," she said Monday.

O'Bomsawin, an Abenakifilmmaker,travelled to France to see the play that she and a number of other Indigenous artists and activists had publicly denounced earlier this year for its representation of Indigenous people without their input.

Lepage'sproduction company, ExMachina, initially cancelledthe Paris production ofKanatain July whensome North American co-producers withdrew financial support amid the criticism.

But aFrench theatre, Thtredu Soleil, decided to mount the play anyway,despite revelations there had been no consultation withIndigenous people in its creation.

The theatre said it would produce the play with itsown funds and "with the help of RobertLepage, who will direct the production without remunerationand in a personal capacity."ExMachinadissociated itself with the production.

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O'Bomsawin, who signed a letter criticizing the production this summer,said one of the more offensive parts of the play about residential schools had been taken out, but more could have been done to rid it of its colonialist undertones.

A positive debate

The most significant thing about the playto her, though,was not its content, but the conversation it started on the need for more collaborationwithIndigenous people in Quebec entertainment.

"All this debate was very positive," O'Bomsawinsaid."I think there was a before Kanata and an after."

Since the original controversy, O'Bomsawinsaid, she has been consulted by several producers in the entertainment world "who want to do things right."

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She applauded the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for collaborating with Inuit, Cree andInnuartists for its operaThe Trickster's Questearlier this fall.

"All I want to say is that I thinkKanatawould have been better with us in it," she said.

"If there hadbeen [an Indigenous]co-writer, or maybe a co-play directoror a musician, it would have just been better."

How Kanata depicts settler-Indigenous relations

O'Bomsawinexplained that the play is about a French couple who moveto Vancouverfor the male partner to improve his English and further his career as an actor.

Meanwhile, the female partner is a painter lacking inspirationwho meets a Mohawk woman on the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.

The pair become friends in the play, but the Mohawk woman is later lured and killed by serial killerRobert Pickton.

"That gives inspiration to [the] French woman, French artist, and she starts to paint the faces of Native women that have been killed in the Downtown Eastside," O'Bomsawin said."In the end, she becomes a type of saviour."

ToO'Bomsawin,the depiction of the white-settler relationship with Indigenous people felt superficial and simplistic.

The play overlooked decades of efforts by Indigenous women to shine a light on the violence experienced by their community, she said.

"We've been trying for years so that people can hear us, saying:'Hey, there's a problem here: we're losing women,'"O'Bomsawinsaid.

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The Thtre du Soleil version of Lepage's play was called Kanata Episode I La Controverse. It's unclear whether there will be a sequel.

More than 500 people packed into the theatre to see it, according to aRadio-Canada culture commentator,Katia Chapoutier, who is based in France.

"A lot of people left with tears in their eyes," she said.

The play received a more tepid review in the New York Times, which called the transitions "clunky,"the acting "artificial" and said the dialogue had "little flow to it."