Radio Elsewheres (RE) Application. Here are some sounds we would like to propose that are extracts from our Lost Food Banquet of The North projet. We would make a selection of stories for RE.
Presented in March 2025 at the McCord Stewart Museum (Montreal, Canada) via the Fika(s) Festival, The Lost Food Banquet of the North is a Place Courage immersive and participatory exhibition, exploring the memory of dishes and ingredients from Nordic and circumpolar regions. Combining written stories, audio, video, handcrafted objects, and live testimonies, this installation invites the public to sit at a banquet to discover, exchange, and enrich the shared stories. More than 800 stories were collected with communities.
This project celebrates the connections between biodiversity and intergenerational transmission for anyone who calls “The North” their home, while addressing mourning, displacement, preservation, and the revitalization of living heritage. The collective has traveled to co-create with Nordic and circumpolar communities from both America and Europe in order to foster intercultural conversations. The stories of the Inuit, Innu, and Sámi peoples form an important part of the banquet, alongside stories from Montreal, Quebec, Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, and Alaskan communities. Supported by these local and international friendships, Place Courage invites the weaving of bridges between communities, generations, and culinary memories.
A selection of 3 stories
Below, an excerpt from the film Aivvianiq (Walrus Hunting) directed by Samuel Lagacé (Kuujjuaq). Voices and songs in Inuktitut. Johnny Ovvaut and Charlie Okpik talk about walrus hunting, the changes in walrus habits in recent years, and the challenges of passing on knowledge.
Further down, “Peruna”, a nursery rhyme sung in Finnish by Anne Paré, pays tribute to the potato. The potato is at the heart of numerous stories of survival, intergenerational transmission and lost dishes for many circumpolar communities.
The next story of a lost dish is that of Annette, a French-speaking child.