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The Centre culturel canadien invites you to discover four leading Indigenous voices in Francophone Canadian literature: Innu poet and multidisciplinary artist Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, Atikamekw author Marcel Pititkwew, Wendat poet and novelist Jean Sioui, and Uashteskun, a Pekuakamiulnuatsh author.
The Centre culturel canadien invites you to discover four leading Indigenous voices in Francophone Canadian literature: Innu poet and multidisciplinary artist Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, Atikamekw author Marcel Pititkwew, Wendat poet and novelist Jean Sioui, and Uashteskun, a Pekuakamiulnuatsh author. Presented in partnership with the publishers Prise de parole (Ontario), Hannenorak (Québec), and Dépaysage (France), this event also offers an opportunity to reflect on the contexts in which contemporary Indigenous literature is created and circulated. Natasha Kanapé Fontaine Manifeste Assi – published by Dépaysage Assi, the Earth, is calling us. The poet hears it: she beats out the rhythm, gathers everyone together, and opens the circle. A voice rises from the land, carries the mothers, the sisters, the missing women, and breathes across the papers of the law until they reach the liberating fire. We move forward with a drum in our hearts, alongside the wolves, the dreamed-of bison, and the rivers whispering our names. The poet hears them: she fights with laughter, heals as she walks, and loves through resistance. And she offers us the most beautiful of manifestos: to rise again, to live, to become a people once more. A work that is both poetic and political. A profoundly embodied voice that questions the land, language, memory, and how we inhabit the world. Marcel Pititkwew – Atcakoc, le pardon – published by Dépaysage In this story at the crossroads of folktale, testimony, and spiritual journey, Marcel Pitikwew recounts the healing path of Tcikapec, a man devastated by alcohol, residential-school violence, and shame. Guided by Atcakoc, a spirit child, he begins rebuilding his life through ceremonies, memory, forgiveness, and reconciliation with his people. Written in simple yet deeply resonant language, this rare work gives Indigenous spirituality a direct place and shows, without being didactic, how a shattered life can rediscover a path of love, truth, and transmission. Jean Sioui Yändata’. L’éternité au bout de ma rue – published by Dépaysage “I grew up with my memories. Happy memories. My Indigenous father. My white mother. Herbal Tea Grandma. The uncle who loved gin and the other who loved women. The priest and the witches, who were two kind ladies. The genealogy of the Sioui, Gros-Louis, Picard, Vincent, Laveau, Lainé, Savard, Romain, Bastien families. The Pauls growing old with invented names that the world can pronounce. And then all those who simply came into our home. The happy fantasy of an earlier time. A past that shaped me. A world of traditions. A world that was handed down to me and that I leave as a legacy.” In fragments, like opening a box of memories, Jean Sioui reconstructs an intimate territory, Yändata’, made up of faces, gestures, legends, and tragedies, where tenderness never clouds clear-sightedness. Moving between comedy and tragedy, he affirms one simple truth: we may be shaken and wounded, but with the help of our loved ones, we learn to remain standing. Uashteskun L’Amie de mon père – published by Dépaysage 2022. Maria, 14, is certain of one thing: her father hates her. Forced to spend the summer in Pimitshuan, she feels suffocated by his silences and prohibitions. Above all, there is the place he avoids at all costs—which, of course, she rushes to visit: the memorial. A white cross. Fifty-three names. And an inscription: “In memory of the victims of the Sainte-Anne church fire, July 26, 1982.” A sensitive and accessible young adult novel that explores family ties, transmission, and the construction of identity with subtlety. The discussion is moderated by Marie Jouvin, a journalist at Lire Magazine, and followed by a book sale and signing session in partnership with the librairie du Québec in Paris.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Ville de Paris