Under the Shaputuan

Teachers

8:18 min. - Presentation of members of the Institut, who pass on their knowledge to a group of Montreal secondary school students.

Transcription

Evelyne St-Onge - Shaputuan means to go through. And we can make the shaputuan as long as we like and install one stove or two, three...
Under the Shaputuan (Québécois-Native Gathering)
Ben Mckenzie - I'm going to sing my father's song, for you, the young people.
My day started in the dark of morning and continued till the dark of night
The forest is my diploma.
In the old days, when the shaman sang, accompanied by his drum, he saw everything.
Nowadays we no longer hunt like we used to. Hello.
Hello... We're from the Innu Nation. And we're here to show you just a tiny part of our way of life. We're here to learn, to understand you, and also to help you understand us. We also want you to get to know us. And this is to improve Québécois-Native relations. That's why we're here. The Innu Nation, our nation, goes from Tadoussac to the North Shore, Newfoundland and Schefferville. That's the Innu nation. Chicago, the city of Chicago, is a word in my language, meaning "chica", meaning skunk. And it's in the state of Illinois, meaning "illinu", meaning "innu" which means a human being. We are the Innu Nation and that means we are human beings, and you are also Innu, we are all Innu, we are all human beings. And we identify ourselves as the Innu Nation. This one is part of the family, and we're going to call on him. He's a drummer. And the drum is a sacred object. And it's only the... you must dream three times before you can play the drum. And I know that he's a drummer. We call on him and we tell him: "Go see where the caribou is." He picks up his drum and he plays, he drums and looks for the caribou on the skin of his drum. And he'll tell the group where the caribou is.
The young girl is single. You can tell because she wears her hat to the side. Once she's been with the caribou hunter, she'll place the point of her hat towards the inside.
When we add a feather, that means we have a mission to accomplish, peace, or healing. A feather is given to you. You must never ask for a feather. You receive a feather. And your life must be as light as a feather. If you do what you're told, your life will be as light as the feather. You accomplish your mission and that is a symbol.
Ben Mckenzie - As they did in the past, I'm telling you about my life experience, my experience of 60 years. I didn't get it from books, but in my mind. The elders know about the past and Whites think we live as we did in the past.
Paul-Émile Dominique - What did I say?... I heard the noise that just went by, the car. It hurts my ears, that's what I said. We learned from history books, like you. When I learned what happened 400 years ago, boy, I wasn't proud of my ancestors. Massacred. Why, I didn't know. But when I found out it was to protect our land, protect the country against invaders, then I understood. And yet it's moving, right? It's moving. It disobeyed me, the Creator. I'm going to ask you something. Close your eyes, close them tight, tight, tight. All eyes closed, closed, closed. Close your eyes. One, two, three. What have we created? Right there? Light, eh! (chanting) Then we... go to sleep... Listen to my creation. Ta-dah, ta-dah. That's the heart. Breath. That's oxygen, eh? A caribou. You'll eat a caribou, you'll be right behind it, because you're a hunter. Understand? Listen... In the future, the stars will learn that the earth is round, eh? There will be a line called equator that will have four, spring, summer, fall, winter, four seasons. I'm going over to the other side. To remind you that I, the Creator, gave you the four seasons; spring, summer, winter and fall. Look, here, see? The moon's craters, the full moon, eh! We call it the Sea of Tranquility. That's true, isn't it? There's a sea on the moon that we call the Sea of Tranquility. You know that. Ah, what beautiful hands you have!


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