Trilingual musical looks at colonial-era miscommunication

Language and miscommunication are at the centre of a new trilingual musical that takes place nearly 400 years ago during the early era of European colonization in North America.

Vancouver-based artist Corey Payette, who wrote Children of God, an emotional musical about Canada's residential school system, has teamed with fellow writer Julie McIsaac to bring the story of the Les Filles du Roi, told from an Indigenous perspective, to the stage.

The title refers to the term given to young French women (King's Daughters) who were sent to Canada by the French government to help populate the new world.

"It is a story that isn't often told from the Indigenous people in the territory," Payette told CBC's Sheryl MacKay.

"I think it's something that has been a challenge to research. A lot of the perspectives we hear is from the dominant while male perspective."

Les Filles du Roi is set in 1665 in New France, in Montreal, and is told from the perspective of a young Mohawk brother and sister. One day, they see a ship arriving filled with women, or filles du roi.

"What we know is that many of those filles du roi married Indigenous people," Payette said. "It was a means of survival. The settlers didn't know how to survive."

"It goes through an entire year of the lives of these characters, through all the seasons, and just looks at what we've lost from that worldview of the Indigenous people in that territory."

Payette and McIsaac travelled to Akwesasne and Kahnawake, Mohawk territories in eastern Canada and the U.S, to do research and learn about the language and history of those areas. They worked with the Native North American Travelling College to help with translations and gain a deeper understanding of the Mohawk language in order to tell the story more accurately.

In doing so, McIsaac discovered her ancestors were among the filles du roi , making the project more personal than intended.

Though the musical is presented in three languages, Payette said the audience doesn't need to speak English, French and Mohawk to be able to understand what is going on — there will be subtitles.

"So much of the story is about miscommunication," he said.

"Even if an audience [member] just wants to watch it and experience it without those subtitles, you may have a really interesting and unique experience in the not knowing, because that aligns with those characters."

Les Filles du Roi runs May 15 to 27 at the York Theatre in Vancouver.

With files from CBC's North by Northwest