Materials
2:47 min. - The drum is made from birch harvested in winter: the wood is easier to split. We also use a young caribou hide. Because of its thinness, it gives the drum the desired sound. Please note that some scenes may contain images that may offend the sensibilities of visitors.
Transcription
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur - Several steps must be taken before a skin can be put on a drum. I'll wait to get home before finishing the drum. My wife Adélaïde will soften the skin with heat. She'll place it close to a fire and heat it three times on each side. Then we'll immerse it in water.
We use the skin from a small caribou for the sound of the drum, since it's a thin skin. Because the caribou's brain is used to tan the skin, Adélaïde will boil it and add a bit of tallow to the water. We begin by plunging the skin into this water, starting at the head. As soon as it's immersed, it softens immediately. Then we dry it all day after thoroughly stretching it.
If it's to be used for a drum, we plunge the dry skin into the water a second time, then stretch it on the hoop of the drum. We use birch harvested in winter to make the drum: The wood is easier to split.
Sometimes you have to look for a very long time before finding the right piece, because the wood must be perfect, very straight, with no knots, so the four pieces of the drum will fit together and interlock.
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Materials
2:47 min
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- kanikamusht
- singer
- kanimishiht
- dancers
- mukutatsheu
- he handles the crooked knife
- pashaitsheuat
- they square off a tree to make something
- shitapitakanu teueikan
- they dress the drum
- teueikaniapi
- caribou hide for the drum
- tshitaimatsheu
- he sets the tone
- tshitaimuakanuat
- the drum is played to make them dance
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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