| Learning: share their personal stories
Throughout my lifetime I have both witnessed the good time and bad. I am now 58 years old with 15 surviving children; altogether I have 35 grandchildren. I am very glad to say my first thirty years of life were most happy and rewarding. We, my parents, sisters and other brothers always, year after year, spent 11 months of the year in the country. At times life was hard but we always managed to pull through. We travelled into the country by canoe and as our family got bigger, we used two canoes. Ever since I was six I walked on my own two feet on those endless miles of portages we have encountered. And in my life time I have travelled thousands of miles on our land we Innu call "Nitassinan". Like I said, times were hard but the sense of accomplishment surpassed all feeling of tiredness. As seasons changed we changed our mode of travel from canoe to snowshoe and toboggan, pulling gear and children, trying to reach our final destination, our hunting territory. We moved on when my parents felt we should hunt in another area where animals were more plentiful.
Come spring we hunted the geese and ducks and fished. Innu survival in the country depended on the caribou, bear, beaver, rabbit and partridge. Later down the years I was married and had 13 children. My first 4 children were the ones that were very fortunate because they have learned to live off the land with us. But as the missionaries and governments moved in we were housed and our children were schooled to learn another society that was foreign to us and our children... Then the flooding at Michikamo happened. My , husband, my parents and my people lost many belongings and canoes. But to me today it really hurts me when I mention that our people's graves were also flooded over. All we Innu could do was bow down our heads in frustration while millions of dollars was flowing out of our land to the government. Next came that the caribou we have been dependent on for thousands of years were suddenly outlawed against us. Many hunters and my husband did not listen to these foreign laws. They kept on hunting caribou to feed their families. But the enforcers of laws kept on raiding camps, Innu homes, charging, arresting and finally jailing Innu hunters. We said to ourselves, "What is wrong with our lifestyle?" We did not understand. I guess (the governments) were trying to make us dependent on them. But today our children understand, and that's why we elders are fighting side by side with our children and grandchildren. I guess to this day no elder will die with a broken heart because we see our children trying to do away with the injustice that has been done to us elders, to themselves, to our grandchildren, our culture, our history and our land. The final blow to the Innu people came to me, the militarization of our land. Life as it is now in the country is very unbearable and when NATO comes, that will be the end of us Innu. We will not be able to live off the land the way our ancestors have for thousands of years. Without land and animals there's no such thing as being Innu. I guess next time you want to see us will be at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, once the governments get their way. - reprinted with
permission from the |
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