Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pas is the fourth novel by the author innu Naomi Fontaine. A work on the history of the Innu nation, but also on its culture and its strength. The launch of the book on Friday at the Shaputuan Museum was an opportunity to pay tribute to the elders of the community, some of them also contributed to the novel.
A text from Laurana Genest
Naomi Fontaine stresses that the innu nation has survived to what was perhaps insurmountable at the base
. For her, that’s what she nicknamed The great resistance of the First Nations
.
There’s nothing that can destroy my culture now.
It is in everyday life, within homes and families, that innue culture remains tenacious and strong, supports the author. This reality, as well as the story of Naomi Fontaine’s mother and that of the community of Uashat Mak Mani-Unam are at the heart of this novel.
Copies of the book were available in presale Friday at the Shaputuan Museum. Photo: Radio-Canada/Élia Rousseau
The novel, published by the Décrier publishing house, will be available in bookseller from August 4. It was an event that deeply touched me. There was too many emotions
notes the publisher at Mémoire d’Encrier, Rodney Saint-Éloi.
Intergenerational transmission
Transmitting to future generations is one of the vocations of the book, according to the author. Mother of two, Naomi Fontaine wants them to know that The great strength of the innu nation belongs to them
and that she Find inside them
.
The inheritance of the millennia portages, incessant work in the forest and survival
of the innu people find themselves inside each of the nation members, she believes.
A dozen elders from the Innu community were consulted for writing the book, including Raymond Jourdain. Photo: Radio-Canada/Simon Lavictoire
Naomi asked me if I could say a few words in relation to the development that we live in the community as such
explains Raymond Jourdain, one of the elders appearing in the pages of Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pas.
I found it important that we are talking about these things
he says. He concludes that It is a bit in the end that transmits culture [de la communauté]
.
The elders Antonio Fontaine, Sylvain Vollant, Raymond Jourdain, Charles Robertson, Dénis Michel and Marie-Marthe Fontaine (seated, from left to right) and Bastien Michel, Lise Michel (standing in the center) all told their stories to Naomi Fontaine (standing right). Photo: Radio-Canada/Shushan Bacon
The word that has been released
Beyond the whole drama of the residential schools, then the colonialism that we lived, I believe that we have received enormously from our grandparents and our parents
says Naomi Fontaine, who explains that Eka Asute – Ne Flanche pas is to pay tribute and thank what was transmitted to him from his elders.
It certainly affected us colonization, but it did not define us. There are other things that define us
observes the author. For her, the book is an opportunity to explore the story of Uashat Mak Mani-Unam, while recalling what kept the innue community welded and lively over the eras.
I would like the eyes of others to be taken on all the beauty and the greatness of my people and my culture.
With Elia Rousseau information
