Audiences invited to feast on Indigenous culture in Mtis cabaret show

A new type of performance is taking the stage in Vancouver to showcase Mtis songs and stories.

An acoustic band will join Vancouver-based Mtis artist Andrea Menard to perform Rubaboo, a Mtis cabaret performance featuring songs thatexplorethemes of unity, loveand truth and reconciliation.

"'Rubaboo'is a Michif word that means 'soup' rubaboo is me and it's the Mtis culture because we're also a mix of different languages, different locations, different peoples," said Menard.

"I wanted that word, that flavourand that spirit of the Michif meal, feast to come together into a show."

Menardsays the show is her way of guiding people to "walk towardreconciliation"through music and singing.

She says she hopes the production will make audiences fall in love with Indigenous culture and art, and "with the idea of there being hope, of there being a chance for us to do this together."

Healing and hope

Menard describes Rubaboo as a mlange of artistic elements that form her version of a cabaret performance, which traditionally comprises music, song, danceor drama and isheld in a dining room or pub.

"I'm calling it a cabaret because it's storytelling, it's singing, it's sacred," she said.

She said the 90-minute performance came about when Dennis Garnhum,artistic director of the Grand Theatre in London, Ont., offered her an opening for a new show.

Menard adds she wasn't interested in creating a show for the sake of it, but decided to usethe opportunity to further reconciliation and educate people about Mtis history.

"There's still so many people who don't know anything about the residential school system of why the Mtis people resisted in 1885," she said, referring to the Northwest Rebellion against the Canadian government.

"I wanted to be somebody who was furthering education and expanding compassion."

Menard adds much of the show's production took place during the pandemic, which inspired her to put together a show to inspire and spread feelings of joy.

"It's about healing our collective wounds I want people to walk away with hope," she said.

"I want to leave this world a better place than when I came into it, and the best way I know how is through telling songs and stories," she added.

WATCH |Andrea Menard shares the inspiration behindRubaboo:

B.C. performer shares inspiration behind creation of Mtis cabaret

2 years ago

Duration 2:54

Mtis performer Andrea Menard created Rubaboo, a Mtis cabaret performance, to help people heal and learn more about Indigenous history in a time of Truth and Reconciliation.

Room to share

Garnhum says Rubaboo tells a variety of stories using the natural elements of earth, wind, fire and water.

But the heart of the show really comes from Menard's own lived experience, he says.

"It's very clear to me that Andrea wants to be a bridge She wants people to come gather around and hear her story. It's her turn," Garnhum said.

"You get to listen to someone's personal experience of living on this planet and you get to connect with Andrea. Not an idea, but a person."

He adds it's important to give Indigenous artists room to share their art and stories with a variety of audiences.

The show, which opened in London, Ont.,earlier this year, is currently playing at Vancouver's Granville Island Stage until April 30. Garnhum says the show will be in Edmonton next year with plans to expand further in the future.