Preparations
5:06 min. - A meeting between children from the Mani-utenam primary school and Montreal’s Arc-en-ciel school. This student exchange occurred in 1993.
Transcription
Alie Lavoie Gray - I didn't know anything about Indians. But I had heard so much, both good and bad that I thought I knew them a little. But I'm not sure it was the right way.
My name is Alie, I'm 10 years old, I live in Montréal on the Plateau Mont-Royal. I go to school every morning, like all children. My school is called Arc-en-Ciel. It's an alternative school.
Oops, I'm late.
Every morning we have a little meeting in class. My teacher's name is Sylvie Collucci. This morning we're talking about our project, Ashtam.
We offered an exchange programme to a class from a Montagnais school. They'll come to Montréal for a week, and we'll spend a week at their school.
Tony St-Onge - My name is Tony. I'm 9 years old. I live in a village called Mani-utenam, near Sept-Îles. There are only Innu here. This is my school, it's called Tshishteshinu. We go to school in our language, in Innu. In the past, children learned only in French...
This is Céline Bellefleur, my teacher. Some people call us Indians... We call ourselves Innu.
Alie Lavoie Gray - Native crisis made us realize that we live on the same land as the Innu and we don't know them at all. We thought that having an exchange programme with them would allow us to get to know them a bit.
This project was also important for our parents. They said it was time for our two peoples to come together. So there were lots of meetings! Paperwork, budgets, meetings, discussions. And cigarettes. It was a huge thing to organize.
Céline and Sylvie were on the phone all the time.
Tony St-Onge - We sent each other letters, video tapes... Crafts projects, all kind of things.. To start learning a bit about each other.
Teacher - "I'm looking forward to seeing you." "And visiting your home." "What is your house like?" "I'm including my picture in the card." "Do you have a swimming pool?" "We'll see each other on May 26..." We received your book.
Alie Lavoie Gray - Luc-André, a Montagnais, came to visit us. He told us about caribou hunting, camps, weddings, and how the Innu live.
Bibitte came to teach us some Montagnais words.
We also had to raise money for the project. We made backpacks and sold them. It was really complicated.
During that time... they had bake sales, collected all the pennies in the village... and held bingos. They really, really like bingo there.
-
Preparations
5:06 min
-
-
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.
Be the first to comment!