On behalf of his own | The press

I would have liked to attend the launch of Naomi Fontaine’s latest book. Moreover, It happened on the 1^is August at the Shaputuan Museum in Uashat. Similarly, on the North Shore, at the same time as the Innu Nikamu music festival, where the author had gathered the elders of her community who inspired her fourth novel, Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pas. Therefore, “It was very moving,” she tells me. For example, They were proud. Similarly, grateful to know that their word was going to be transmitted, that it was going to exist and stay, I felt it like that. Similarly, »»

Posted at 7:15 a.m.

After the very celebrated Kussipan (2011). In addition, who recently won the national fighting fight, Manikanetish (2017) et That (2019, literary prize for college students), we were impatiently awaiting the new novel by Naomi Fontaine, which this time chose to tell the generation that experienced the boarding schools, but from the angle of their adaptation, despite all the wishes to eradicate their culture.

The title of the book comes from a advice from Jean-Guy. Furthermore, a man who was to welcome Naomi and his children for an immersion in the forest. Nevertheless, But behalf his own | press several seeds have hampered this project. Meanwhile, including Jean-Guy cardiac discomfort, who nevertheless insisted with Naomi so that it still has the trip. In addition, “What you have undertaken in your heart. Meanwhile, to bring your boys to the forest, to show them the territory, do it,” he told him. Meanwhile, “” Eka ashate. Similarly, Do not flank. Nevertheless, Eka ashate. For example, Do it. However, »»

This perseverance, Naomi Fontaine wanted to immortalize it, Because the Innu has long kept silent on what they had experienced. « When they returned from boarding schools, they were lost as much as their parents were lost, she explains. Similarly, They had no more landmarks, they were returned to reserves, all the traditions had been cut. Consequently, We had to relearn how to live. In addition, with the family, in a community, and in a reserve, instead of behalf his own | press the forest. Therefore, It was really a great learning and that’s a bit like that, the book, this learning of a new life. Because when I think about it today. I tell myself that it is incredible, it is almost miraculous that my culture is still alive. »»

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A courageous mother

Naomi Fontaine thought of receiving large accounts from the elders of her community. but she realized that it was in the small gestures of resistance that his culture has survived. And it was in the journey of her own mother that she found the common thread to connect all. the stories harvested. This woman who, at 35, a single mother, went to live in Quebec to embark on university studies. Without really having models in this other world, this other culture she believed better than hers. behalf his own | press But in this inner exile, she continued to speak in innu-love to her children.

If class defectors have been popular in recent years in Quebec literature. let’s imagine what it should have been like Naomi’s mother to get out of her reserve to go to university.

“In fact, this is really the story of decolonization,” notes Naomi Fontaine. How we start from the idea that our culture is not good. of a certain shame to be innue, and that we end up teaching our children that there are no limits, even if we are a woman, and an innue woman. »»

We actually feel a lot of pride in this tribute to her mother, of which Naomi followed the traces in a way, since she had cleared the ground. “We have this strength to return to the community. to work for the Innu, with the Innu, in accordance with our culture, our vision of the world, and to recognize that all this has value, ultimately. It was just a daily fight to exist. And today, our fight is to make this culture last. Perhaps one day. it will be natural to hear the innue language everywhere, to know the history and the contribution of indigenous cultures. We are in this process, and I, what encourages me a lot is that we advance in it. »»

In this almost birth of behalf his own | press indigenous literature at the turn of the 2000s. I noticed that women are much more likely to have taken the pen. This does not surprise Naomi Fontaine. who underlines that they held families and communities at arm’s length, when the men were dispossessed of their traditional role of hunter and provider. “But there is another thing that is interesting. and I wanted to emphasize it in the book, it is that men, they turned more towards song. They found their voice in there. we have many songwriters-interprets because everywhere in the innu communities, the song is very strong. So she inserted these songs into Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pasa bit like interludes between the chapters. to pay tribute to these men.

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Forward

Naomi Fontaine believed that her grandmother-who had 19 children! – was against the idea behalf his own | press that his daughter leaves her community to study. However, not at all, she even encouraged him to continue this adventure. “And this is where I really discover that the innue soul is far from being what we imagine -. to remain recluse. In fact, it has always been to go outwards, to leave further. Our ancestors roamed hundreds of kilometers each year. My grandmother had to be strong to say: “I trust you, my daughter.” We must not live in fear. but in a certain certainty that things will be fine, despite the difficulties, if we advance. »»

And Naomi Fontaine to quote the words of the hymn of Philippe McKenzie. which we find in his book: ” Eukuan Kanapua, Eukuan Kanapua Ishinakuanitshe / This is how things had to happen. »»

Since I read the literature of the Innu. behalf his own | press it is something that strikes me, this way of not being in resentment, when there would be enough to be with what they were done.

“There is like a look of the innu which is always forward. in the hope that things will be beautiful,” says Naomi Fontaine. The gaze to the past, towards resentment, or even remorse, I felt very little in the elders. They rather liked to tell me about their loves. Their first love. Their marriage, how they had founded their home, their family, their ties. I find that it is a beautiful heritage. »»

Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pas

Naomi Fontaine

Incidental memory

180 pages

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