Innu-White History
2:24 min. - Commemoration of the Great Alliance at Grande-Bergeronne, on Quebec’s north shore.
Transcription
The Great Alliance, Baie-Sainte-Catherine (Québec) Spring 2003
Paul-Émile Dominique - Me, speak your tongue.
Sylvie Vincent - There is a fundamental narrative in Innu oral tradition, if not a foundation story, in that it recounts an event that changed the course of history. This narrative is not a myth, a tale or a legend. It relates a historical fact. It relates the arrival of the French on Innu land. It relates an agreement made between the French and the Innu, and it tells about the events that followed this agreement.
Actor - It says: Are we united? The round, braided one symbolizes the unity of peoples. We want to live together. Soon, others will come.
Sylvie Vincent - This story is not necessarily idyllic. Cheating, dispossession, war, children carried away. When two different peoples live through the same historic time together, it's not rare, it's even normal that they don't tell it the same way. Whether we are Innu or not, we all know the Euro-Québécois' account of the dawn of New France. This narrative, including Champlain's arrival on Innu land and his alliance with the Innu chief at the time, is one episode of that story.
Paul-Émile Dominique - Let's go eat together. That's the story, my friends. Now I'm speaking French for you. Let's go eat. Thank you very much!
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Innu-White History
2:24 min
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Nametau innu: Memory and knowledge of Nitassinan, a website dedicated to the Innu nation in which elders pass on their skills and knowledge to younger generations.
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