Michel Durand Nolett

Tortue aux plantes médicinales abénakis

Visual Art and Botany

Saturday 29 August 2026, at 5 PM

DesPrés | Cultural Meadow — 57 Principale Nord Street, Sutton (Quebec)

The result of a collaboration between botanist Michel Durand-Nolett and artist Christine Wawanoloath, this living sculpture takes the form of a turtle oriented eastward, towards the rising sun.

Biography

W8banaki originally from Odanak Ambassador and knowledge keeper Michel D. Nolett recounts the forest life of the W8banakiak, and speaks of their ways of moving and ensuring their survival in Southeastern Canada and on the East Coast of the United States. How did they use local plants for healing and nourishment? How did they transmit their knowledge to future generations? Forest life played and still plays a leading role for Indigenous peoples today. Hunting, widely practiced, and the gathering of plants for healing and food, though somewhat more marginal, both retain great importance. For elders, the use of plants remains an important resource for healing, even as modern medicine exerts strong pressure.

Approach

Permanently installed in the DesPrés meadow, it brings together thirteen traditional Abenaki medicinal plants arranged on its back in homage to the thirteen moons that punctuate the year. Rooted in Ndakina, ancestral Abenaki territory, the work celebrates the connections between plants, knowledge, and the land. Over the seasons, it will evolve as a place of memory, transmission, and encounter with the living world.