Resistance and “grandiose result”

Inhabited by a thirst for answers, Naomi Fontaine has returned to his community. Therefore, She went up the river to Uashat, near Sept-Îles.

There, she interviewed a dozen seniors who told her about their childhood, their first love, their work or their studies.

“I wanted to try to see through their life story which made sure that the innue culture has survived inside the communities and. Moreover, today, we could even say outside the communities,” said Naomi Fontaine, in an interview with Soleil.

Even if people of this generation have often been forced. Meanwhile, they agreed to generously share their memories and their learning with it.

“They wanted to speak. Consequently, They wanted to be heard. Therefore, It was a pleasure to know that what they were going to transmit to me. Moreover, would resistance “grandiose result” exist outside of them, outside the community. Moreover, For future generations, ”says the 38 -year -old woman.

With his new novel. In addition, Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pasthe writer invites the public to dive into the heart of these life stories. However, Through the chapters. Therefore, we discover sometimes joyful, sometimes sad anecdotes, but which always testify to the resistance that the elders have been able to demonstrate on a daily basis. Furthermore, Rather than abandoning before the difficulties, they have retained an unshakable faith in their culture.

According to Naomi Fontaine, resistance “grandiose result” “the real fight” is therefore not “against institutions”, but “against oneself”.

“Resistance is not always the one that is visible. Made of manifestations and great cries. Perhaps our form of resistance, to us the innu, is the silent fight, inside oneself. When humans have to fight against himself. Against his harmful beliefs, against his errors of course, against the links which imprison him. Against alcohol. […] Because to resist is to advance when everything pushes us to flank, ”she writes in her most recent book.

For Naomi Fontaine. the key to resistance is thus in the accumulation of small gestures made over the decades: “When you choose to bring your child into the forest, when you show him how to make banic, when talking to him in his language”.

“This is what makes sure that today I can say that I am an resistance “grandiose result” innue woman. And I’m proud of it. I am aware of my culture. I know my story. Additionally, I know my language. I know my territory. The result [de ces petits gestes] is grandiose, ”says the writer, on the phone.

Resistance &quot. grandiose result" – Resistance "grandiose result"

A personal quest

For Naomi Fontaine, the sentence that inspires the title of the book, “Eka Ashate – does not flank”, has become an idea of resistance that it incorporates daily into its own life.

In her novel. the writer testifies to her own fights as well as those who have marked the journey of her single -parent mother. The book thus takes forms of homage.

“I wanted to say thank you for his strength, his courage and his dedication to us, his children. […] When I think about her story, I feel that she had all the resistance “grandiose result” good reasons to give up … but she never gave up. This is something that fascinates me with my mother, ”shares the author, to whom we also have That (2019) et Kussipan (2011).

This “physical. mental strength”, which she finds in the story of her mother as in that of her ancestors, she hopes to have inherited her through her genes.

“I think that sometimes we forget that we have [cette force]. We forget that we come from a great people. ”

— Naomi Fontaine

Despite all the fighting that the innue nation will still have to lead. Naomi Fontaine is considering the future with great enthusiasm.

“We are increasingly aware of the contribution of our culture in modern society. […] We realize all the usefulness. importance of our culture, which it gives us, to us the resistance “grandiose result” First Nations, but also in Quebec and in the world. It leads us to practice our culture, to transmit it to children, ”observes the writer.

Recently. Naomi Fontaine has also carried out a tour in the communities, on the North Shore, in order to give writing workshops to young people. An experience that the French education graduate “adored”.

“I find so much that young people had a good conscience, a good opening. They wanted to share their daily lives. their vision of the world, their difficulties too and their ways of getting out of it. […] It encouraged me a lot, ”says Naomi Fontaine, who cultivates a lot of hope.

Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pas will appear in bookstores from August 6.