From the Innu Indian people, An Antane Kapesh (1926 – 2004) writes about the history and culture of his people, and advocates for indigenous rights. She is the first Indigenous woman to publish books in French.
A life in the forest
An Antane Kapesh was born on March 26, 1926 in the forest near Kuujjuaq, northern Quebec. A member of the Innu Indian people, originally from northern Canada, she lives a traditional existence of bustard and caribou hunting, salmon fishing, fur trapping. Not attending the school of the settlers, she was educated by her family and in particular her father, a caribou hunter.
Married in 1943, An Antane Kapesh gave birth to nine children, whom she raised in Innu traditions until the 1950s. The creation of reserves, notably that of Maliotenam, near Sept-Îles in 1953, dispossessed the Innu peoples their territories and disrupts lifestyles. Injustices and growing social problems are affecting the Innu:dispossession, forced displacements, sedentarization, acculturation, but also drug addiction and suicides.
I'm a bloody savage
Chief of the Innu band of Matimekosh, near Schefferville, from 1965 to 1976, An Antane Kapesh decided to take up the pen to defend her people and denounce the injustices of which they were victims. Learning to write in Innu, she published in 1976 the autobiographical essay in 1976 entitled:Eukuan Nin Matshimanitu Innu-Iskueu, also published in French under the title Je Suis une Maudite Sauvagesse.
An Antane Kapesh writes the history of his people there, denounces the prejudices he has suffered, defends his culture and refuses assimilation.
"In my book, there is no white speech. When I thought of writing to defend myself and to defend the culture of my children, I first thought carefully, because I knew that it is not part of my culture to write. »
"I'm a bloody savage. I am very proud when, today, I hear myself being called Savagesse. When I hear the white man pronounce this word, I understand that he constantly repeats to me that I am a real Indian and that I was the first to have lived in the Bois. Now, everything that lives in the wood is the best life. May the white man always call me a savage. »
What have you done to my country?
Three years later, An Antane Kapesh published a second book, What did you do with my country? . By contrasting a child with the Polichinelles, she recounts in this novel the stages of dispossession and acculturation suffered by the Amerindians during the arrival of European settlers. At first, the child welcomes the settlers and helps them to settle in, with confidence, as guests. But the settlers impose their way of life on him, mistreat him, throw him in prison.
“Then the child stopped talking. He was very angry when he realized the importance of the things he had lost. It had lost its entire territory, all aspects of its culture and even its language. And he knew then that in the future, and until his death, he would have to continue, willy-nilly, to fool around with the Polichinelles and to play at their polichinelles. »
Through this story, An Antane Kapesh reveals as much the individual destiny of an Amerindian faced with the dispossession of his territory and his culture, as that of the collective of the Innu people. Subsequently, the story will be adapted for the theater and performed in Montreal.
Activist to the end
"I want to write, write to defend my culture, so that the Innu who will be born know that their people have already lived other than on a reserve"
Known for her tenacity, An Antane Kapesh dedicated herself until the end of her life to the defense of her people, her culture, her language. To ensure that the traditional Innu way of life is passed on and does not disappear, she teaches the language and writes children's books. His work and his struggle will inspire subsequent generations of Innu writers, such as Joséphine Bacon and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine.
An Antane Kapesh died in November 2004 in Sept-Îles, at the age of 78.