Adobe Systems
Natives in Quebec literature
Petr Kyloušek
Université Masaryk, Institut de Langues et Littératures Romanes
1

Define footer – presentation title / department
2
Denys Delâge's Le pays renversé. Amérindiens et Européens en Amérique du Nord-Est - 1600-1664
illustrates the devastating influence of European capital during Dutch, French, English and Swedish
colonization.
Øthe European market disrupted the circuits of trade and exchange between tribes
ØChristianity tore apart the unity of aboriginal communities, particularly among the Wendat (Huron)
nation
Øepidemics and inter-tribal conflicts due to the European presence considerably reduced the native
population
Ø
Øin half a century a vast territory, as far as the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, became
depopulated, a civilizational space disintegrated
Øthis made it all the easier for European settlers to penetrate
Øinequality and disparity were to Europe's advantage
Øhowever, North-East America escaped the intensity of genocide and slavery experienced by other
regions of the New World.

Define footer – presentation title / department
3
Several factors undoubtedly helped to moderate the situation
Ø
Øthe need for, and later the habit of, negotiated relations
Øsmall number of settlers and merchants on the one hand, and climatic conditions on the other,
hampered European superiority
Øagricultural activities of the French settlers complemented the hunting and fishing activities of
the Native tribes, as in the case of the Quebec region, where the French took the place of the
extinct Stadacona Iroquoians in trade with the Innu and Algonquin
Øin the 17th century, certain Amerindian tribes - Abenakis, remnants of the Huron-Wendat, but also
Iroquois - settled as farmers near the settlers
Øseveral activities brought Europeans and First Nations together and demanded collaboration,
notably the fur trade, on a continental scale and for more than two centuries
Øalliances, rivalries and wars - between the French, English, Dutch and their Amerindian partners
or allies - were forged and broken around this trade. Trade and war entail the need for negotiation
and a certain respect for others. It wasn't until the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814 and the Peace
of Ghent that the importance of Native tribes as military and political allies came to an end.

Define footer – presentation title / department
4
Changes in the 19th century
Øfur trade collapsed as continental hunting areas were exhausted
ØEuropean industry turned to Canadian timber and the territory's agricultural potential
Øwoods and soil occupied by the Amerindians became the focus of economic interests
Ødeterioration in the situation of the First Nations in the 19th century
Ø
ØAlthough the Indian Act of 1876 was designed, beside other things, to protect the cultural
identity of the Amerindians, it also regulated segregation by establishing Indian reserves, where
tribes were placed under the tutelage of the federal government and thus deprived of legal
personhood.
ØThe Act also defined the rules governing Indian status, which was transmitted through paternal
lineage only, and excluded those who settled for more than five years outside the reserve - in
other words, a potential elite.
Ø
ØIn fact, its aim was a gradual assimilation, supported by the Indian Schools Act of 1894, which
allowed Amerindian children to be placed in residential schools, far from their parents and tribal
environment, in order to acculturate them.

Define footer – presentation title / department
5
In New France and Canada, the coexistence of settlers and Amerindian ethnic groups was conditioned
by the demographic factor.
 When Samuel Champlain died on December 25, 1635, Quebec City had no more than 300 settlers. In
1660, the colony's French population was less than 3,000, a number that Colbert's efforts raised to
nearly 10,000 by 1681.
Some tribes formed confederations - such as the Huron or Iroquois - numbering between 20 and 30,000
people. Iroquoian languages were spoken by almost 100,000 individuals. Several tribes - Micmac,
Innu, Abenaki, Cree - shared the St. Lawrence valley, numbering 25,000. It was only at the end of
the 17th century that the demographic balance shifted to the disadvantage of the natives, who
numbered just 7,000 at the time of the Conquest, compared with 70,000 French-Canadians.

Define footer – presentation title / department
6
Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, kresba, umění, oblečení Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
Marie de l'Incarnation, abess of the ursilines, had to learn Innu, Algonquin, Wendat and Iroquois.
In 1640, a year after her arrival, she commented on the situation: "[...] this end of the world
where one is wild all year round, if not when the ships have arrived that we take back our French
language [...]." By 1664, she had already noted that the number of Amerindians in her circle had
dwindled to one-twentieth, and that French girls now outnumbered the young women welcomed to the
convent.
However, it is estimated that as late as 1700, one out of every two colonists had had contact with
the culture of an Amerindian tribe in his or her youth.

Define footer – presentation title / department
7
The situation in Canada in the 17th century was described in detail by the Récollets and Jesuits,
who published their collective reports - Relations (1632-1673) - every year in Paris. Their
descriptions of Native culture mixed contempt with admiration. The sense of superiority of the
holders of Scripture - in the literal and religious sense - does not preclude high regard for a
civilization based on orality and the culture of the spoken word. The Jesuit Paul le Jeune
appreciated the rhetoric of the Amerindian chiefs - "a rhetoric as fine and refined as could come
from the escholle of Aristotle, or Cicero". His colleague Barthélémy Vimont left an admiring
account of the staging of an Iroquois messenger's oratorical performance.
Obsah obrázku socha, text, venku, voják Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku text, Lidská
tvář, muž, portrét Popis byl vytvořen automaticky

uAmbivalence characterizing the image of Native
uThe Good or Noble Savage, who lives far from corruption in the bosom of Nature, is contrasted with
the Barbarian, the Cannibal who must be civilized. This ambivalence reflects certain imperatives of
European identity thinking. Either the need to assert superiority prevails, in which case the image
of the other emerges as negative, or the other serves as a mirror to question and even cast doubt
on one's own civilizational values.
Define footer – presentation title / department
> Obsah obrázku text, kniha, papír, Pergamen Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
8

uLouis-Armand de Lom d’Arce, baron de Lahontan (1666 - ?1715)
uNouveaux Voyages de Mr. baron de Lahontan dans l’Amérique septentrionale (1703)
u10 reprints up to 1741, translations into English, German, Dutch and Italian
uAdario
Obsah obrázku text Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
Define footer – presentation title / department
9

> Obsah obrázku portrét, Lidská tvář, obraz, Autoportrét Popis byl vytvořen automaticky > Obsah
obrázku text, kniha, inkoust, Písmo Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uLahontan introduces the idea of the good savage and natural life, modulated by the rationalist
scepticism and relativism of the Age of Enlightenment. Lahontan's interest in the other and the
concept of the state of nature revives certain aspects of earlier theological reflection.
u
uThe discovery of the New World raised the question of the religion of savages, in particular
whether their religion is part of biblical history and whether savages are concerned with Original
Sin and the Fall. Assuming that the Indians are outside universal history, i.e. below Good and
Evil, and not concerned by the Fall, they are approaching the state of nature: hence the idea that
will be followed up by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
u
Define footer – presentation title / department
10

Obsah obrázku text, černobílá, kniha, inkoust Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uThe opposite hypothesis would mean that Indians share the universal religious sentiment, however
distorted, and that it is therefore possible to discover rudiments of the true faith and points in
common with European culture. For this reason, some Jesuits paid attention to mythological
representations and stories. In his Relation, Jean de Brébeuf describes the Huron ritual of the
Feast of the Dead, and notes the story of the soul's journey to the land of death, which bears some
resemblance to the myth of Orpheus. This approach was taken up again in the 18th century by another
Jesuit, Joseph-François Lafitau (Moeurs des sauvages américains, 1724), considered the founder of
ethnology.
Define footer – presentation title / department
Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, Lidské vousy, portrét, vousy Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
11

Define footer – presentation title / department
12
Autentificating Native characters
•Marc Lescarbot : Théâtre de Neptune (1606)
•Jesuit theatre in the 17th century
•Antoine Gérin-Lajoie: Le Jeune Latour (1844; Garakonthié, Wampun)
•Louis-Honoré Fréchette: Papineau (1880; sauvage Michel)
•Jacques Ferron: Les Grands Soleils (1958; Sauvageau) et La Tête du roi (1963; Taque)
•« Orphée Indien »: Jacques Ferron dans Le Ciel de Québec (1969) et Leonard Cohen dans Beautiful
Losers (1966).

uThe Théâtre de Neptune, an imitation of royal entries, stages the homage paid by Neptune, his
Tritons and the inhabitants of the New World to vice-governor Poutrincourt on his return from
expedition, distributes 78 verses out of 238 between four characters representing the savages. The
text contains five Micmac lexemes.
u
u
Define footer – presentation title / department
Obsah obrázku skica, kresba, Umělecký tisk, ilustrace Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
13

Define footer – presentation title / department
14
As for the Jesuit plays, it is attested that the roles of the Huron savage, the Huron prisoner, the
Algonquin, the Nez-Percé and the Northern stranger were played by young schoolchildren who learned
to recite the lines in native languages. From the outset, the inclusion of the other is linked to
instrumentalization. Its image is constructed in such a way as to satisfy the values attributed to
it. Words that don't belong to him are put into his mouth as his own, and in his language. Such an
inclusion of the imaginary Amerindian means, at the same time, the exclusion of the real
Amerindian.
In the competition between oral culture and writing, it is the authority and fixation of the text
that prevails over orality. Added to this is the authority of colonial power over the colonized

Define footer – presentation title / department
15
Autentificating Native characters
•Antoine Gérin-Lajoie: Le Jeune Latour (1844; Garakonthié, Wampun)
•Louis-Honoré Fréchette: Papineau (1880; sauvage Michel)
•Jacques Ferron: Les Grands Soleils (1958; Sauvageau) et La Tête du roi (1963; Taque)
•« Orphée Indien »: Jacques Ferron dans Le Ciel de Québec (1969) et Leonard Cohen dans Beautiful
Losers (1966).
Jacques Ferron has proposed another way of including the Amerindian - métissage. However, Ferron's
awareness of a composite, plural identity does not imply the possibility of giving the other his or
her voice, of establishing him or her, in his or her own right, in a subjectal position.

Obsah obrázku text, Obal knihy, plakát, román Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uYves Thériault systematically envisaged the Native identity. Several of his many novels and
stories build their plots by confronting different civilizational and inter-ethnic conditions. The
author frequently exploits Inuit and Amerindian themes. The best-known is certainly the Inuit
trilogy Agaguk, roman esquimau (1958), Tayaout, fils d'Agaguk (1969) and Agoak, l'héritage d'Agaguk
(1975).
u
uAshini (1960) is one of the first major texts in French-Canadian literature to attempt a change of
perspective by imagining the point of view of the other, the Non-Québécois. Could this be the
result of the Innu ancestry mentioned in the author's biographies? In any case, this fact must be
seen in the broader context of the exploration of otherness, a constant in Theriaultian
inspiration.
Define footer – presentation title / department
16

Define footer – presentation title / department
17
The character-narrator – Ashini is an old Innu hunter - the world is narrated and seen through his
eyes, and the axiology is structured on the basis of his value judgments. Of course, the paradox of
this narrative orchestration is worth noting. Ashini is written in French, for a French-Canadian
audience. In other words, the other expresses himself not in Innu-aimun, but in a language that is
not his own, but which, from his point of view, is precisely that of the other. Yet, through the
artifice of writing, it must nonetheless appear strange and foreign, like a different kind of
French - Innu-aimun in French. Thériault's stylistic subterfuge consists in accentuating the
illusion of orality. The text is composed of short, juxtaposed sequences, interspersed with blank
spaces between paragraphs. The syntax is simple, paratactic. Dislocations ("that one, I knew his
name"), anaphoric or epiphoric repetitions and ellipses underline the spoken character.
Ashini (Innu for "rock") has no family left: his two sons and wife are dead, his daughter has left
for the city. So he decides to devote his life to his people. He wants to negotiate with the Great
White Chief of Ottawa to obtain a territory that would be a country where his people could regain
an independent, free life. No matter how many messages Ashini sends, written in his own blood on
birch bark, the Grand Chief from Ottawa doesn't come up at the meeting place. He has lost face in
Ashini's eyes and, to humiliate him and force him to act, he commits suicide. The sacrifice is
pointless, as the Innus in the reservation don't react. Seen from the outside, following the shift
in focus, the sacrifice is devalued: "Ashini, Montagnais, 63 years old, commits suicide in a moment
of insanity".

Define footer – presentation title / department
18
Ashini's identity seems to correspond to the spirit of the Quiet Revolution period, which
simultaneously accentuates defensive and emancipatory national models, while paving the way for the
gradual integration of the other's difference into a new conception of Quebecitude.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the situation shifted in favor of greater sensitivity to otherness,
including that of the First Nations. Marie-Renée Charest's play Meurtre sur la rivière Moisie
(1986), whose plot was inspired by a news article - the death of two young Amerindians - aroused
such emotion that the police were ordered to reopen the investigation of theis racist crime. A
number of Quebec authors work on Amerindian themes, drawing on myths and tales. Marc Doré, for
example, rewrote Kamikwahushit (1977) for the stage, an Amerindian tale that bears witness to a
curious syncretism with the European fairy tale.

> Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, osoba, oblečení, žena Popis byl vytvořen automaticky > Obsah obrázku
Lidská tvář, osoba, oblečení, Módní doplňky Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uThe 1970s also saw the emergence of authors of Native origin. Unlike non-Natives, they had the
advantage of being able to present their point of view on identity directly, without going through
the detour of making oneself aware of the other.
u
uMagela (Max) One-Onti Gros-Louis (1931-2020), boxer and chief of the Wendat village of
Wendake-Ancienne-Lorette, who recorded his autobiographical story Le Premier des Hurons (1971) in
collaboration with Marcel Bellier.
u
uInnu writer An Antane Kapesh (1926-2004) wrote her memoirs first in Innu-Aimun, before completing
them with the French version Eukuan nin matshimanitu innu-iskueu/Je suis une maudite sauvagesse
(1976). She recounted the myths and tales of her people in Qu'as-tu fait de mon pays? (1979).
u
Define footer – presentation title / department
19

> Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, snímek obrazovky, osoba, oblečení Popis byl vytvořen automaticky >
Obsah obrázku osoba, Brada, Lidská tvář, krk Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uThe identity issue is implicated in the historiographic and ethnographic work of Huron-Wendat
Georges Emery Sioui:. Pour une autohistoire amérindienne. Essai sur les fondements d'une morale
amérindienne (1989) consists in the change of perspective: historical facts are considered from the
Amerindian point of view. Wendats. Une civilisation méconnue (1994).
u
uBernard Assiniwi's work is varied. After collecting and presenting Algonquin myths, tales and
fables in Anish-Nah-Bé et Sagana (1971 and 1972), he became a historian with Histoire des Indiens
du Haut et du Bas Canada (1974), a novelist with L'Odawa Pontiac. L'Amour et la guerre (1994) and
Saga des Béothuks (1997), and playwright with Il n'y a plus d'Indiens (1983).
Define footer – presentation title / department
20

uIn theater, the international breakthrough of the Ondinnok company, founded in 1985 by Yves Sioui
Durand, author of ritual mythological dramas Le Porteur des peines du monde (1985), Aiskenandahate.
Le voyage au pays des morts (1988), Iwouskéa et Tawiskaron (1999), a historical-mythological
transpositions La Conquête de Mexico (1991) and Kmùkamch l'Asieindien (2002).
u
uYves Sioui Durand's art is syncretic: it contaminates myth and history, ritual Amerindian theater
with the European dramatic tradition; the mix of languages (Mohawk, Innu, Nahuatl, French, English,
Spanish) indicates his broad conception of Amerindianness. According to the playwright, it's not so
much a question of "reconstituting ancient Amerindian ritual theater as reinventing it in a
contemporary form". His experimentation is part of the contemporary Quebec theater movement, as
demonstrated by his reworking of Shakespeare's Hamlet - Le Malécite (2004; in collaboration with
Jean-Frédéric Messier).
Define footer – presentation title / department
> Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, osoba, Čelo, vrásky Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
21

Obsah obrázku text Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uMaurizio Gatti, in Être écrivain amérindien au Québec (2006), aptly sums up the key questions
facing all Amerindian writers and their identity. What is Native literature? Who can or should be
considered an Native writer? What constitutes the Native tradition? In what language should we
write? No answer is satisfactory or definitive. Indeed, neither ethnic origin nor physical
appearance is a reliable defining criterion, since interbreeding is sometimes so extensive that
certain ethnic groups - such as the Huron-Wendat - are physically indistinguishable from the
surrounding population.
Define footer – presentation title / department
22

Define footer – presentation title / department
23
ØMany authors, such as Robert Lalonde - half Mohawk, half French-Canadian - don't see Amerindian
descent as a reason to consider themselves Amerindian writers, even if their Amerindian experience
is present in their work. The mixed-race origin is the reason why some others - Bernard Assiniwi or
Michel Noël - are not recognized by Native communities.
Ø
ØExclusion also affects certain intellectuals of Native origin who did not accept living on
reserves and who, now urbanized, reconcile their Amerindian identity with modernity. The very
notion of Amerindianness is an abstraction that covers enormous differences in lifestyle, language
and interests.
Ø
ØThe Wendat, farmers, craftsmen and traders settled around Quebec City, have very little in common
with the Cree tribes, some of whom are still attached to their tundra hunting ways.
Ø
ØThe linguistic situation is no less complex. It's not just a question of choosing between
French/English and one of the Amerindian languages, but also of communication between the
Amerindian communities themselves, and between Amerindians and non-Amerindians. Communication and
cummunicability have an impact on the book market and publishing.

Define footer – presentation title / department
24
Huron-Wendat Jean Sioui:
I had a beautiful tree in front of my house
I meditated in the shade of its branches
a sudden strong wind blew it down

I missed it for a long time

Today I remember
I remember it
looking at the new shoots
right where he was
My people are the same
I know they will survive
(I had a beautiful tree)
In these times
we are given
artificial rights under reserve

In our time
we possessed
natural rights without reserve
(In those days)

Define footer – presentation title / department
25
Myra Cree: My Dreamed country
My dreamed country begins, obviously,
the day after a final referendum,
once the "verduct rendi
as the ineffable Jean Chrétien puts it.

Autonomy is achieved,
we have our own Parliament,
there are now three visions of this country.
In Quebec, we're buddy-buddy with the French-speaking community
who have taken up the study of Aboriginal languages.
Our reserves, about which we used to say so much,
have become summer camps
and our chiefs, equally divided between men and women
equally divided between men and women.
In Kanesatake, where I live,
there's birch and pine for everyone.
The golf course is gone
and everyone, white and redskin (I dream in color)
can enjoy this enchanting site as they once did.
Our young people no longer drink or take drugs,
school enrolment has taken a prodigious leap forward.
Everything is going so well in our families
(there's no longer any trace of violence)
that the Quebec Native Women's Association
has become a literary circle.
Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex
has just been translated into Mohawk;
Elizabeth Badinter's XY of masculine identity,
should be translated into Montagnais for the Salon du livre
to be held in Kanawake,
and Duras's L'Amant, in Iniktikut (that's going to defrost in the igloos).
[...] I pinch myself to believe it, probably too hard,
because that's when I woke up.
With my best wishes,
that next year,
if we are not more,
we may be less.
Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, osoba, oblečení, úsměv Popis byl vytvořen automaticky

Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, osoba, náhrdelník, úsměv Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uWendat Éléonore Sioui
u
In a glass
Of white wine
Put two or three drops
Of Indian blood
Add an ounce of pollution
Brew European style
And you've got a second-class blend
Then ferment the elixir residue
Which will give you a third-class
Whose dilution becomes
Native American
Contaminated in its authenticity.
Make big plans, aim high in hope and work
Do not make little plan as it gives no magic stir (Autochtonicity)
Define footer – presentation title / department
26

Define footer – presentation title / department
27
Diom Romeo Saganash:
 My only guide tonight
The spirits dancing in the boreal sky
And the subdued light of the full moon.
Ni-wanshin, ni-madoune
I'm lost, I'm crying.
Tèou-higan kiè ni-bètèn
I've always heard echoes of drums crying out
These echoes that chase me
Come from the north, from the forest,
Nouchimich,
my father's homeland.
Other rhythms and melodies reach me
From elsewhere
And draw me too
To the east, to the other side of the endless sea, to my destiny
My mother's homeland.
I am mixed, I am half-breed
I weep.
Are we doomed,
We people of red and white blood
To wander?
Neither pale nor copper-faced
I am heir to cultures thousands of years old
At the same time
Hundred-year-old problems.
[...] "Dandè è touté-in?
Jè gon wè ji-madouin?"
Where are you going?
Why are you crying? Moush ni-mayim-goun
Majish ni-shingadi-goun
Wèn-ni, Mahiganou? Wèn-ni Bèj-witamou.
My screaming sisters call me Majish
The ugly one
My Quebecois sisters accuse me
De blanche manquée
Tell me, Mahiganou, who am I?
Because I don't like myself.

Define footer – presentation title / department
28
[...] No, you're not half of one and half of the other
You're one AND the other
A white woman with a screaming soul
A Crie with a white soul
You decide what to do with it." (Mahiganou)

Obsah obrázku text, Lidská tvář, muž, osoba Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
uMichel Jean (1960 Alma)
uMichel Jean hails from the Mashteuiatsh community in the Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec.
An anchor, host, investigative reporter and writer, he holds a master's degree in history from the
Université du Québec à Montréal and has been working in journalism since 1985.
uA radio host and journalist in Sorel and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Michel Jean has also worked as a
parliamentary reporter at the Legislative Assembly for Radio-Canada Television in Regina,
Saskatchewan, and as a journalist for Radio-Canada in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.
Define footer – presentation title / department
29

Define footer – presentation title / department
30
His experience as a reporter inspired his first book, Envoyé spécial (2008), as well as some of his
other novels. His Innu origins are explored in Elle et nous (2012), through the story of her
grandmother Jeannette Siméon. In Le vent en parle encore (2013), the author deals with residential
schools and raises awareness of Aboriginal issues. His novel Kukum (2019) won the Prix littéraire
France-Québec in 2020 and was a finalist for the Prix Jacques-Lacarrière. In October 2021, he
published his eighth novel, Tiohtiá:ke, which tackles the issue of urban Aboriginal homelessness.
Active on the literary scene, he co-edited the short story collection Pourquoi cours-tu comme ça?
(2014). He is also the editor of Amun (Stanké, 2016), which features ten First Nations authors and
will be republished in France, as well as Wapke (2021).

uNaomi Fontaine (1987 Uashat)
uBorn in an Innu community near Sept-Îles, Naomi Fontaine is a French teacher who graduated at
Université Laval in Quebec City. During her studies, her talent for writing was noticed by François
Bon, a professor of creative writing, who encouraged her to put her voice forward.
uShe then began entering creative writing competitions, including the Canadian Aboriginal Writing
and Art Competition, and writing texts that would give rise to her work Kuessipan (2011). She then
pursued her literary career as part of the Première ovation program at the Institut canadien de
Québec, under the mentorship of Jean Désy, a physician and friend of Innu intellectuals.
Define footer – presentation title / department
> Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, osoba, úsměv, oblečení Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
31

Define footer – presentation title / department
32
It was then that she returned to Uashat and began her career teaching teenagers in her community.
Her second novel, Manikanetish (2017), was inspired by this. In 2019, she publishes Shuni : ce que
tu dois savoir, a message to her white friend explaining the issues of exclusion that the Innu feel
and that majority society fails to see.
Naomi Fontaine seeks to deconstruct stereotypes of Innu communities by giving an important place,
through her writing, to their power and their history.

Define footer – presentation title / department
33
Julie D. Kurtness (Chicoutimi 1981)
J.D Kurtness is the daughter of a Québécoise mother and an Innu father from Mashteuiatsh. In 2017,
she published her first novel, De vengeance, for which she won the Voix Autochtones award in the
"Pre-eminent book in prose by an emerging Aboriginal writer" category, the Découverte award from
the Salon du livre du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and the Coup de cœur award from Les amis du polar. De
vengeance follows a female serial killer who takes on all "the violent, the thieves, the polluters,
the profiteers and the hypocrites". This first book is recognized for its "corrosive humor" and
"rare punch". His second novel, Aquariums, "a polyphonic anticipation novel whose plot revolves
around a nasty, destructive virus", will be published in 2019. He is a finalist for the Voix
autochtones awards in the "Preeminent Book in Prose" category.
Obsah obrázku text Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku zeď, osoba, interiér, oblečení
Popis byl vytvořen automaticky

Define footer – presentation title / department
34
Her short story "Les saucisses" appeared in the collection Wapke, edited by Michel Jean. In 2022,
she published the novella Bienvenue, Alyson with Editions Hannenorak, in 2023 an dystopic La Vallée
de l’Étrange (The Uncanny Valley).
Natasha Kanapé Fontaine (1991 Baie-Comeau)
She grew up with her grandparents in Pessamit and had to move to Baie-Comeau with her parents at
the age of 4-5. This was a great challenge for Natasha, as when she arrived in kindergarten she
spoke only Innu-aimun. However, as a teenager around the age of 16, she became aware that she spoke
only French at school and at home. Even noticing that her parents spoke French to each other, the
young teenager at the time decided, out of a sense of urgency about her identity, to reconnect with
her roots through art, among other means. It was Richard Desjardins' documentary, Le peuple
invisible, that sounded the alarm. It was through art that she was able to release and express the
anger she felt about her identity.
Obsah obrázku oblečení, osoba, Lidská tvář, text Popis byl vytvořen automaticky

Define footer – presentation title / department
35
Natasha Kanapé Fontaine is a great activist for aboriginal rights, and campaigns against the
discrimination and racism she herself has experienced in her schooling and personal life. She is
also a representative of the pan-Canadian Idle No More aboriginal movement, with whom she has had
the opportunity to travel throughout Quebec, Canada and other parts of the world as a poet-slammer
and lecturer: "The message she carries is that of the meeting of peoples and cultures, of respect,
exchange and dialogue, in the name of dignity and humanity". Its aim is to bring people of
different origins together, and to create a dialogue that will enable greater openness to
differences and the cultivation of respect. She offers a voice to the voiceless through her various
public appearances, but also through her poetry. One of these is her poem Cri, included in her
collection N'entre pas dans mon âme avec tes chaussures (2012). This collection is followed by
others: Manifeste Assi (2014), Bleuets et abricots (2016) and Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre (2018). She
is also a novelist: Nauetakuan: un silence pour un bruit (2021) traces the quest for identity of
the narrator, an academic and urban intellectual who goes back to the mythical sources of her
community to come to terms with the rifts in history that have struck her family.

Define footer – presentation title / department
36
Cooperation between Native and non-Naitive Quebec authors
Laure Morali: Aimititau ! Parlons-nous ! (2008)
Jean Désy et Rita Mestokosho: Uashtessiu / Lumière d’automne (2010)
Joséphine Bacon et José Acquelin: Nous sommes tous des sauvages (2011)
Louis Hamelin prefaces Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, the latter prefaces Jean Bédard
Éric Plamondon (Taqawan) - Alanis O’Bomsawin

Define footer – presentation title / department
37
« Indiens blanc »
Pierre Esprit Radisson, Nicolas Jérémie
La faim nous força à tuer nos prisonniers, qui étaient une charge en mangeant notre nourriture, par
manque de laquelle nous mangeâmes leur chair. Ainsi par ce moyen, nous fûmes libérés de ce tracas.
(Fraïssé, 2008 : 49)
Lorsqu’ils sont tout à fait pressés par la faim, le père et la mère tuent leurs enfants pour les
manger ; ensuite le plus fort des deux mangent l’autre ; ce qui arrive fort souvent. J’en ai vu un
qui, après avoir dévoré sa femme et les enfants qu’il avait, disait n’avoir été attendri qu’au
dernier qu’il avait mangé, parce qu’il l’aimait plus que les autres, et qu’en ouvrant la tête pour
en manger la cervelle, il s’était senti touché du naturel qu’un père doit avoir pour ses enfants,
et qu’il n’avait pas eu la force de lui casser les os pour en sucer la moëlle. (Jérémie, 1994 :
231-232)
Obsah obrázku text, bílá, špinavé Popis byl vytvořen automaticky

Define footer – presentation title / department
38
Obsah obrázku zeď, osoba, interiér, oblečení Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku text
Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku text, kniha Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah
obrázku osoba, oblečení, žena Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku text Popis byl vytvořen
automaticky Obsah obrázku osoba, exteriér, strom, deštník Popis byl vytvořen automaticky

Merci de votre attention
> Obsah obrázku obloha, exteriér, osoba, země Popis byl vytvořen automaticky > Obsah obrázku text,
pózování, exteriér, osoba > Obsah obrázku text, plazi, exteriér, krokodýli Popis byl vytvořen
automaticky
Define footer – presentation title / department
39