Émilie Monnet is an award-winning playwright and author and was the recipient of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for French prose with her play, Okinum. This is an exploration of a difficult health and healing journey through the Anishnaabe language, French, and English woven together. Monnet describes this journey as "building and removing a dam in my throat" as she interweaves the stories of amik the beaver. This play also includes detailed descriptions of the visual installations that accompany the performance, along with photos inside the theatre. Additionally, Monnet includes interviews with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and scholars in connection to the beaver and Anishnaabe Creation Stories.

Cautions / Content Warnings: Coarse language, Indigenous specific racism terminology.
Other End Matter: Glossary, Afterword, Interview with Simon Brascoupé, Interview with Floyd Favel
Images: b&w photographs
Contributor Affiliation: Author Émilie Monnet (Algonquin), Illustrator Meky Ottawa (Atikamekw), Photographers Christian Blais, Andrée Lanthier, Valérie Remise, Greg Hill, Clark Ferguson
Bibliography: No
Index: No

Source: Books BC - Indigenous Books for Schools

At the intersection of theatre, performance and media arts, Émilie Monnet's practice is centred on collaborative creations. Her work has most often taken the form of interdisciplinary theatre and immersive performance experiences. As a writer, performer, and director, Monnet created Okinum, a piece which is firmly rooted in issues surrounding colonialism and language reclamation. Okinum marked the start of Monnet's three-year artist residency at Centre du Theatre d'Aujourd'hui and announced her as a major talent in theatre. Both Anishnaabe/Algonquin and French, raised between the Outaouais, Quebec, and Brittany, France, she is now living in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyaang/Montreal. She is the artistic director of Onishka Productions and the new artist-in-residence at Espace GO.

Émilie Monnet's profile page

• Winner, Indigenous Voices Award

"A vast healing ritual, it's impossible not to be moved." — Le Devoir

"Extraordinarily relevant." — Le Délit

"Okinum speaks of the importance of transmission to the new generation, but also openness to others." — Mon Theatre