Screening and Discussion: Documentary Mami Wata

The Museum invites you to a screening of the documentary Mami Wata by Monik Dofen, assisted by Petunia Alves, as part of the exhibition To All the Unnamed Women by artist Michaëlle Sergile.

The screening will be followed by a round-table discussion moderated by Michaëlle Sergile, with Désirée Rochat and Brenda Paris.

Mami Wata

By Monik Dofen, assisted by Petunia Alves, Quebec, 1991, 30 minutes. Original French version.

This archival documentary explores the histories and lives of Afro-descendant women in Montreal, whose contribution to Quebec society has too often and too long been ignored.

Director Monik Dofen (1947-2023) was an active member of Montreal’s Haitian community, known for her work in the community sector. She was a feminist activist, with a focus on immigrant and Indigenous women.

Information

• Free activity, in French, presented on October 16, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
  Space is limited, reservation required.
• Discussion and public Q&A in French and English.
• Location: J. Armand Bombardier Theatre at the Museum

Is the activity you’re interested in fully booked? Show up 15 minutes early to get on the waiting list. Places may become available before the start of the activity.

Panel

Michaëlle Sergile

Michaëlle Sergile is an artist and independent curator working mainly on archives from the postcolonial period, from 1950 to today. Through her artistic work, she aims to understand and rewrite the history of Black communities, and more specifically of women, through weaving. The artist uses this technique, often perceived as a craft medium and categorized as “feminine,” to question the relationships of domination linked to gender and ethnicity.

She has recently exhibited at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art de Joliette, the Fonderie Darling and the Off Biennale in Dakar, Senegal. Her name featured on the long list for the prestigious Sobey Art Award in 2022. In 2023 she won the visual artist of the year award at the Gala Dynastie and began a residency at the Fonderie Darling.

Désirée Rochat

Désirée Rochat is a community educator and transdisciplinary scholar. Guided by an integrative approach connecting historical research, community archival preservation and education, her work aims to document, theorize and transmit (hi)stories of Black communities’ activism. She has authored pedagogical material for the community sector on Caribbean communities in Quebec and worked in various initiatives for the preservation and promotion of Black community archives. Her latest community project “Black lives in/and archives” aims to foster an archival ecosystem dedicated to caring for and activating the archives of Afro-descendant communities in Montreal. Rochat is currently a FRQSC post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University.

Brenda Paris

Brenda Paris is an educator and social justice activist. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Montreal Urban Transport Corporation (MUTC, now STM) from 2002 to 2009, and President of its Ethnic and Social Diversity Committee, she created the first forum of its kind on “The Integration of Ethnocultural and Visible Minority Employees in the Workplace”. Brenda co-founded the Black and Third World Student Affairs Department at Dawson College, whose mandate was to ensure student excellence and success. The Department will be highlighted during Black History Month in 2025. She was a trainer with the federal government through Status of Women Canada (now Women and Gender Equality Canada) on Gender Based Analysis (GBA), a tool used to develop programs and policies in the private and public sectors. She was elected president of the Mayor of Montreal’s political party and was Senior Advisor to the Head of the Official Opposition at Montreal’s City Hall. She has sat on advisory boards of the Chief of Police, the Conseil des Relations interculturelles du Québec and The Estates General, a commission on election policies for the provincial elections. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Harambec (a Black Feminist collective), Black Art History Montreal (BAHM), and When the Village Meditates (an organization that fosters meditation and yoga practices).