Losing the Trail
2:45 min. - Hunters can easily lose the caribou’s trail. In that case, they return to camp to consult the drummer.
Transcription
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur - It can easily happen that hunters lose the caribou's trail. In that case, they return to camp to consult the drummer.
In anticipation of their request, the elder takes out a bag containing the pieces of his drum, and sets it on the branches inside the tent. Then he waits.
The hunters then begin to assemble this thousand-year-old instrument. Through this gesture, they ask the drummer to use his drum to find the caribou. As soon as the skin, cord and small bones are in place, the elder begins his chant, the one in his dream that made him a drummer. By this act, he contacts his ally within the drum, and asks for its help in finding the caribou.
The elder then passes his drum to another drummer and leaves the tent. The second drummer demands that the hunters dance to his chant, in order to break the lost caribous' legs. Later, the first drummer returns and tells the hunters where to find the caribou. He knows this because his ally has come to tell him in a dream.
Drums - Mathieu Peters, Andrew Pocker
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Losing the Trail
2:45 min
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- akutakanu eshkanat
- we hang the antlers on a tree
- amipushu
- quiet water surface
- anasseu
- she makes a floor of fir branches
- atuaitsheu
- he shows something
- kapeu-kuashkutu atiku
- the caribou comes out of the water
- kashkuanapan
- misty morning
- kuashkutipeu atiku
- the caribou jumps into the water
- mamitsheshkaneu
- the caribou has big antlers
- mannateikanashku
- tree where the caribou rubbed its antlers
- massekuashkueiau
- swamp bordered by trees
- nekakatamu ukatshishapishteshim
- he puts sand in his frying pan
- nutapuenanu
- skim the bone broth
- pashkaipu
- even out the ground for the tent
- passikan
- rifle
- pimipitshuat
- they move around, pulling a toboggan
- pimishkau atiku
- the caribou is swimming
- pimuteshapan atiku
- a caribou has been here
- puitakaishkaitsheu
- he splits wood chips with an axe
- pushtashameu
- he puts on his snowshoes
- shakassineu pishimu
- the moon is full
- tashkaimiteu
- split wood
- tshitapuat
- they look at something
- utinikan-atiku
- caribou’s shoulder blade
- utitikumeu
- caribou’s tracks
- Fall
- Fall
- Fall
- Winter
- Spring
- Spring
- Spring
- Summer
- Summer
- Summer
- Summer
- Fall
- Fall
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.
1 Comment
Mes deux grands pères! Mathieu Peters et Étienne Bellefleur III ! Un joueur de tambour mak kutak un grand chasseur!