This paper has for subject the Atikamekw community of the Nitaskinan, the Atikamekw territory of the Mauricie region in the province of Quebec. I will first address my personal link with this territory, as a personal reflection on the relationship I have with this territory and the Atikamekw culture, followed by the story of Atikamekw people of the Nitaskinan, and finally what is the present situation for them. Although I am a born and raised Montrealer, I did not choose to address the Indigenous community of the metropolis. The territory that was chosen for this essay is the Nitaskinan, a gigantic Atikamekw ancestral territory. This land has a special meaning to me, as I work in a summer camp called Minogami, located right next to the …show more content…
entrance of the Mauricie National Park, near Shawinigan. I have been working at this camp for the past few years and I have to admit, it is my happy place. I have made so many friends, have experienced so many adventures, and grew so much working at Minogami. For all those reasons, I feel a special connection to this land. Moreover, as I’ll explain in details later, we do have a special relationship to the Atikamekw people of the region. Minogami is a camp focused on canoe-camping trips, for kids age 7 to 19 years old.
Not only does the camp offers classic camp activities such as rock climbing, hiking, arts and knowledge on natural science, it also uses canoe-camping trips as an excuse for personal development and growth. The expeditions range from 2 to 35 days on rivers and lakes, and it is surrounded by nature that the campers learn about themselves and overcome multiple challenges as they push their physical and mental limits. This close relationship to the land as a pedagogy tool has been historically part of the Atikamekw culture, as the Atikamekw Nehirowisiw (balance and union with nature) is a definition of their identity . As many institutions and camp in Canada, Indigenous heritage is appropriated and transformed, and can be seen in many aspects of most summer camps. At Minogami, camp life is cradled by Indigenous traditions, observed in the legends we tell, the song we sing and the vocabulary we use. Another example of Indigenous-based traditions we hold on to is giving feathers of different colors at the end of the stay to the campers, as a form of reward and acknowledgement of their achievement of different challenges. Moreover, many activities are traditional Indigenous ones, such as canoe and archery. It has been for a long time a great debate at the camp, how to act towards the Indigenous population of the Nitaskinan, and how to decolonize the camp. As I was never a young camper at Minogami …show more content…
and arrived as an adult there, it shocked me how cultural appropriation was a norm, and how little was the staff educated about Indigenous issues. Most of the present personnel has been a camper in their youth at Minogami, which means they have sentimental attachment to some traditions, legends and songs, even though they are racist and stereotype the local Indigenous population. I observed that some members of the personnel did not seem to acknowledge the racism and colonial legacy in those traditions, songs and legends, and quite a few had a sentimental value to it and refused to let it go. Some former camp counsellors have taken the matter in their own hands, through the DIALOG project of the INRS (Institut National de Recherche Scientifique) . Their work had for goal to help decolonize the camp, as well as educate the staff and the campers. We had some formations and trainings on the matter, and most of the personnel reacted very well, and they started to modify some legends and their vocabulary in order to stop the stereotyping and the cultural appropriation. Moreover, we used to have a ceremony where some counsellors would dress as Indigenous people (you read that right, they were playing Indian!) to give out the feathers I mentioned earlier. Since the DIALOG project, the playing Indian has been thrown in the trash where it belongs and from this time forth, some coureurs des bois are giving out the feathers. Moreover, we used to call “pow-wows” important discussions around a candle, but since then the term has been changed, as the word use was not suited for the action and was appropriating Indigenous language. A lot of work has been done with the campers as well to educate them on the past and present situations of Indigenous communities, and what influence did Indigenous culture had on the camp. In addition to the work done on the camp, a decolonizing process has been started for the canoe trips as well, as many expeditions were crossing reservations and Indigenous territories without trying to reach out for the local Indigenous population. This was absolutely absurd, since the trips were canoe-based, a traditional Indigenous activity. Since then, the groups making canoe-camping trips on the Broadback river finish their trips with a traditional supper with the Cree community of Wascaganish. Moreover, one of the trips that follow the Saint-Maurice River makes a stop in the Atikamekw reservation of Wemotaci, as an agreement was made between the camp and the reservation authorities. These are some examples of the work that has been done in the camp ever since I started working there, but there is still a long way to go. In my personal experience, it is extremely frustrating to debate with someone that has emotional attachment to racist traditions (“it’s just a song! “ is a sentence that get under my skin so quickly). From what I have experienced and noticed, there is a gigantic lack of education in the province of Quebec towards Indigenous issues. Some of the people I debated with did not seem to recognize the ordinary everyday racism seen at the camp, nor did not seem to understand the gravity of the perpetuation of stereotypes and wrongful stories. Although I am venting on the matter, Minogami has done so much work since by I first started working, the staff got educated towards native issues and I believe things will continue to progress as more awareness is raised. Following my personal reflection on the relationship with my summer job and the Atikamekw territory it is based on, we shall understand who are the Atikamekw of the Nitaskinan, whose culture we’re appropriating and their navigation routes we’re using. Historically, the Atikamekw people were nomads or semi-nomads, and they used to hunt and fish the local animals, as well as cultivating the maple sugar. The Atikamekw nation has 6 seasons in the year, linked to the hunting or fishing period. They are part of the larger anishnabe (Algonquin) family. The Nitaskinan, meaning ‘our land’ in Atikamekw, is an ancestral territory of 80 000 km2, and has been unitarily declared sovereign nation by the Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw since September 8, 2014 . The Nitaskinan is constituted of three different bands, Manawan, Opitciwan and Wemotaci. Each of the different bands has its own reserve of the same name. Although the Atikamekw people have been living in the Nitaskinan for thousands of years, few written information exist about their past.
Most of the current information we have on Atikamekw’s history is based on religious papers from the French missionaries and reports from the wood industry and the Hudson’s Bay Company’s . Historically, the Atikamekw people have been known to participate in the trade fur with the French colonizers, as many fur trade centers of the Hudson Bay Company were on Atikamekw territory. The Atikamekw people used to be a majority in the Nitaskinan, until the 1870s when a mass of French Canadian lumberjacks moved up North. This mass immigration from colonizers came late after the Europeans discovered Quebec, as the dense wood and harsh winter stop them from going North . The Nitaskinan historically was lust for by the wood industry, but the present situation is similar . The residential schools in the Nitaskinan started to appear in the 1930s and the last one of the area closed in
1975. Nowadays, the Atikamekw situation is not far different from any Indigenous community suffering from European colonialism. In 2012, some Atikamekw have blocked some roads as pressure means against the forest industry. The blocked sections were crossing Atikamekw territory and were used for wood transportation. As of 2012, the Atikamekw nation has been in negotiation for more 30 years with the Canadian government . The Indigenous population of the Nitaskinan is asking for its sovereignty over their land to be recognized as a self-governing community, as well as being heard when it comes to the extraction and use of natural resources of their ancestral territory. Moreover, another part of the actual negotiation with the Canadian government is the funding of their community by Ottawa . The present Atikamekw population still lives accordingly to their ancestry’s beliefs, but with a contemporary twist. The main activities of Atikamekw life can be separated three categories: kapeciwin, life on the territory, tipahiskan, management of the territory and atoskewin, taking samples of the local fauna and flora . To conclude, we can observe that the Indigenous population of the Nitaskinan still has a long way to go to get free from settler’s domination, as colonial legacies and narratives are still very much present, like at my camp, but also coming from different institutions, notably the Canadian government.
Our name is derived by Vetromile from the Pānnawānbskek, 'it forks on the white rocks,' or Penobscot, 'it flows on rocks’. My tribe connected to the Abnaki confederacy (q. v.), closely related in language and customs to the Norridgewock. They are sometimes included in the most numerous tribe of the Abnaki confederacy, and for a time more influential than the Norridgewock. My tribe has occupied the country on both sides of Penobscot bay and river, and claimed the entire basin of Penobscot river. Our summer resort was near the sea, but during the winter and spring we inhabited lands near the falls, where we still reside today, My tribes principal modern village being called Oldtown, on Indian island, a few miles above Bangor, in Penobscot county.
Marquise Lepage’s documentary, Martha of the North (2009) provides an insight to the 1953 forced relocation of the Inuit from Northern Quebec to the High Arctic. It does an exceptional job at explaining how the Inuit’s lives were affected and molded at a holistic perspective. Martha of the North (2009) can be explained through the concept of holism and its limitations. The concept of holism can explain the effects that the relocations has had on the Inuit people. Although the Inuit’s behaviour can be analyzed through the concept there are aspects of their experience that holism does not account for. The documentary follows the life of one of the first Inuit to be relocated, a woman named Martha, along with her family and the people in her community.
The French offered protection from neighboring enemies while the Indigenous people offered resources such as fur trade, and education of European settlers on how to use the land. In creating this mutual alliance, the differences between the two cultures of people led to a natural formation of gender and power relationships. To better understand the meaning of these gender and power relationships, we can look at Joan Scott’s definition. Scotts states that “Gender is a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes and gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power (SCOTT, 1067).” By incorporating these two ideas from Scott, we can better understand the different perceptions of social relationships between the French and the Indigenous people and how the misunderstood conflicts created a hierarchy and struggle for
Fleras, Augie. “Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Repairing the Relationship.” Chapter 7 of Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. 6th ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2010. 162-210. Print.
Whilst including a plethora of academic sources and government documents, Barman also draws extensively from sources of indigenous voice, such as conversations between August Jack Khatsalano and Major Matthews. This allows for the expression of indigenous agency, and reveals how they reacted to a chronology of systematic displacement. This first-hand approach is appropriate in supporting Barman’s thesis, which says that Indigenous peoples are the most adversely affected by urbanization in a variety of ways.
... middle of paper ... ... Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina. Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) (2013).
A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations.
Steckley, J., & Cummins, B. D. (2008). Full circle: Canada's First Nations (2nd ed.). Toronto:
James M. McClurken writes the first section, which deals with the Ottawa people. McClurken tells about the Ottawa peoples’ relationship with the environment they lived in and how they adapted to change when contacted by Europeans. One thing I found interesting about the Ottawa is their beliefs. The Ottawa believed in respect for the individual. Their leaders represented the people much like our elected officials represent us when a decision is needed for the whole of the country. They are in tune with nature and consider the earth and animals part of their family, addressing them with “father,” “mother,” “brother,” “sister.” The Ottawa’s also amazed me at their ability to believe in the supernatural, the spirits that told what sickness a person has and the healing power of the firewalkers is a leap of faith. I am always amazed that people survived without Advil and Tums, and they didn’t just survived they thrived! The Ottawa were great traders, in fact they traded all over northern Michigan. A surprising fact I read in the section was of the fleecing of the Indian...
MacDougall, Brenda. One of the Family: Metis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010.
Bastien, B. (2011). Blackfoot ways of knowing: The worldview of the siksikaitsitapi. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press.
When a native author Greg Sams said that the reservations are just “red ghettos”, the author David disagree with that. He thinks there must be something else beyond that point. After his grandfather died, he somehow changed his mind. Because he could not think anything e...
In our day and age where our youth are becoming more aware of the history of the country and the people who inhabit it, the culture of Native Americans has become more accessible and sparks an interest in many people young and old. Recent events, like the Dakota Access Pipeline, grab the attention of people, both protesters and supporters, as the Sioux tribe and their allies refuse to stay quiet and fight to protect their land and their water. Many Native people are unashamed of their heritage, proud of their culture and their ancestors. There is pride in being Native, and their connection with their culture may be just as important today as it was in the 1800’s and before, proving that the boarding school’s ultimate goal of complete Native assimilation to western culture has
LaDuke, Winona. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. Print.
The influence of the fur trade, religious missions, disease, language and acculturation changed the First Nations’ pre-colonial existence. Treaties that were signed with Aboriginal people acted as an attempt to make way for land settlement; and it was with the first Indian Act that the distinction was made between “Status” and “non-Status” Aboriginal people” (JUS-3360 module 3.2, (The Newcomers, 1997)).