by Patrick Quinn, with files from Darren Weistche
Pottery workshops organized by Eastmain’s Maanuuhiikuu (mental health) department are giving community members a new way of connecting with the land. Mental health nurse Nathalie Mai Duong began hosting workshops at the Community Miyupimaatisiiun Centre (CMC) last November with clay from the Eastmain River.
“The process is all land-based,” Duong told the Nation. “It comes from earth, the mud turns into stone. We use the water and I’m looking to find minerals in nature to do colours. Then we fire it, so all the elements are there.”
Born in Quebec City, Duong started working with ceramics at age eight and quickly became her teacher’s assistant. Moving to Montreal’s artistic community, she specialized in sculpture at Concordia University before working many years as a makeup artist for movies, magazines and fashion shows.
Seeking a more meaningful career, Duong became a mental health nurse but grew disenchanted with the institution’s rigidity and the city’s noise and congestion. Coming to Eastmain last summer was a transformative change of pace, despite arriving during the community’s wildfire evacuation.
“It brought me closer to the people,” recalled Duong. “The community almost burned down but people were still making jokes in the plane. I really liked the humour and resilience. The fireweed was blossoming – it was so beautiful; I just fell in love.”
Duong notes that mental health issues in the Cree Nation are most often related to trauma, which invite more open therapeutic approaches. Working closely with Maanuuhiikuu therapist Dennis Windego, Duong learned the importance of the spiritual connection in land-based treatment.
She discovered natural clay on the banks of the Eastmain River that needs little or no processing – and which demonstrate the land’s healing power. In her workshops, Duong integrates sage and tobacco ceremonies. While clay is offered in Duong’s private sessions with mental-health clients, her small-group workshops are open to everyone.
“It could be to develop a new hobby, meet people, have a wellness moment of relaxation,” Duong suggested. “I’m hoping people find a new passion, maybe even a new career in art. I want people to just be in the moment and relax and let their hands speak for them.”
The therapeutic benefits of pottery are recognized for alleviating stress, fostering mindfulness and self-confidence and for bolstering self-expression. Working with clay helps overcome trauma, as clients are able to transform their pain through this tactile medium, reclaiming their sense of agency and natural abilities.
Duong hosts wellness sessions for CMC staff on Friday afternoons, when incense and music enhance the ambience. One participant said it brought back memories of going out to the teepee with her grandmother to make bannock.
“When you’re handling the clay it’s like kneading the dough, keeping that connection to the land and traditional movement,” observed Eastmain CMC director Leslie Tomatuk, who has created household items during Duong’s workshops. “We’re looking at it as a land-based approach to self-reflection.”
Tomatuk said the meditative clay-making process opens doors for participants to explore whether they have issues that are suppressed or inherited. In another application, Micheline Cheezo and her daughter Michelle created a cast of their hands clasped together to represent their familial bond.
“People are working on themselves without realizing that they are,” explained Tomatuk. “It’s created an opportunity to gather emotions and feelings. Nathalie is there for support if for whatever reason somebody should be triggered.”
Duong provides a safe space to talk for people where “everybody knows everybody.” She says art is a coping strategy for processing difficult emotions and was motivated to share its healing powers from personal experience.
“When my friend was dying from cancer, he asked me to make an urn for him because he knew it used to be my passion,” Duong said. “He passed away before I finished it. I went through with it anyway and it helped me process my grief. That’s how I got inspired to bring that healing process to help others.”
With ancient Cree ceramics found in Waskaganish and other parts of the territory, Duong hopes to revive the ancestral tradition of making everything from the land. Collaborators from the Cône10 pottery shop in Montreal who guided Duong’s ceramic experiments with raw materials are interested in analyzing Cree artifacts to learn more about traditional processes.
Working with her ex-boyfriend, who accompanied her to Eastmain and is now a teacher with the high school’s Mikw Chiyâm arts program, Duong aspires to fire up talented youth with this passion. She envisions art exchanges with other international pottery hotspots, perhaps even a project to help develop tourism.
Although Duong can fire clay to high temperatures outdoors, she needs a sheltered shaptuan in winter to prevent ceramics from breaking due to thermal shock. Tomatuk is inquiring into spaces to install an electric kiln, with a permanent location possible in the old band office that the health board has purchased and is in the very early stages of renovating.
“A dedicated place with an electric kiln to fire at higher temperatures can make it impermeable,” said Duong. “We could make bowls and mugs we could drink from. The possibilities would be endless. This project could become big, touching different dimensions – archaeology, tourism, a centre of artists.”