Neecheemus

What if love and pleasure were also territories to be decolonized?

Neecheemus is a word in the Cree language meaning “my sweetheart.” With Neecheemus, artist and director Émilie Monnet brings together several Indigenous women artists for a free and daring exploration of love, eroticism and pleasure. Through intimate words, artistic gestures and spontaneous expressions, voices from different generations meet, respond to one another and share their visions of desire and intimacy.

Carried by the music of Anachnid and Frannie Holder, and the video projections of Caroline Monnet, this creation gives shape to a vibrant, sensual and unruly space where personal stories intersect with collective memories.

Rooted in the languages, histories and traditional knowledge of their communities, these understandings of love and sexuality open up perspectives that challenge dominant narratives. Far from representations that too often reduce Indigenous women to the impacts of colonization, Neecheemus makes room for desire, joy, freedom and reclaiming oneself. In a world still marked by sexual violence and power imbalances, the show makes love and eroticism spaces of resistance, healing and transformation.

Joyful, sensual and deeply free, Neecheemus invites us to shift our perspective, awaken our senses and reinvent our relationship with ourselves and others. A celebration of intimacy in all its forms, and an invitation to imagine new ways of loving together.

Neecheemus marks a much-anticipated return to Le Diamant for artist, director and playwright Émilie Monnet. It is the third creation she has presented here, following the remarkable runs of the productions Marguerite : le feu and Okinum. Also worth noting is the stage adaptation of Kukum, directed by Émilie Monnet and presented as part of the 2025 Festival Carrefour.