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Documentary Encounters in the Hochelaga Archipelago is a research‑creation project that explores the Hochelaga Archipelago as a relational system of islands, waterways, and currents. Few Montrealers think of Tioh:tiáke/Montréal as an island – part of an archipelago but the Hochelaga Archipelago comprises over 300 islands/islets and is surrounded by the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa Rivers. By adopting a watershed‑scale perspective, the aim of the project is to shed light on how industrial, colonial, and ecological forces have shaped inter-connected systems of waste and to use the archipelago imaginary as a prompt to initiate collective responses to ongoing environmental challenges.

This interdisciplinary project is led by Elizabeth Miller, Kristy Snell, and Kregg Hetherington—who draw on participatory approaches from documentary, ethnography, land-based pedagogies, and Indigenous journalism. Building on existing archipelagic theories, the project pilots an archipelagic documentary praxis that integrates decolonial and co-creative methods to engage with inter-connected environmental challenges. We intend to  foreground the interactions and the inter-relation between and among the islands and islanders. By learning from and creating with the Archipelago our intention is to shed light on our relational entanglements as well as our proposed alternatives.

Grounded in the layered and often contested histories of Tioh:tiáke/Montréal and surrounding islands, the project acknowledges the archipelago as Indigenous land shaped by ongoing colonial and industrial infrastructures.

Islands, both as places and concepts, have been explored  across a wide array of disciplines and have inspired theorizing on relational entanglements as well as inspiration for alternatives. ( Pugh and Chandler, 2021).
The project is funded by an Insight Grant, The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Featured Interviews

Credits and References

Credits for short documentaries

Julia Lehmann – drone cinematography, camera

Mathias Francois  – drone cinematography, camera

Deborah Vanslet – camera, editing

Liz Miller – camera, editing

Vincent Donze – camera

References

Chandler D, Pugh J (2021). “Anthropocene islands: there are only islands after the end of the world.” Dialogues in Human Geography.

Dagenais, M. (2017). Montreal, City of Water: An Environmental History (P. Feldstein, Trans.). UBC Press.

Hetherington, Kregg. “Composite Ethnography: Collective Encounters with Emergent Objects in the Anthropocene.” Ethnography, June 20, 2025.

Hetherington, Kregg, Editor (2019). Infrastructure, Environment and Life in the Anthropocene. Durhan, Duke University Press.

High, Steven (2013). “Beyond Aesthetics: Visibility and Invisibility in the Aftermath of Deindustrialization.” International Labor and Working-Class History 84: 140–53.

Pugh J, and Chandler D (2021). Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds. London: University of Westminster Press.

Snell, Kristy (2025). Budding journalists from Kahnawà:ke share stories from their community. Retrieved September 6, 2025 from https://www.cbc.ca/player. Canada.

Liboiron, M. (2021). Pollution Is Colonialism. Duke University Press.Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power. MIT Press

Miller, Elizabeth & Edward Little, and Steven C. High (2017). Going Public: The Art of Participatory Practice. Vancouver: UCP Press.

Stephens, Michelle & Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel (Eds) (2020). Contemporary Archipelagic Thinking: Toward New Comparative Methodology and Disciplinary Formations, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

Styres, S. D. (2011). Land as first teacher: a philosophical journeying. Reflective Practice, 12(6), 717–731.

Watts, V. (2013). Indigenous place-thought & agency amongst humans and non-humans (First Woman and Sky Woman go on a European world tour!). Decolonization: Indigeneity,Education & Society, 2(1), 20–34.