During the 2020 municipal elections, my sweetheart and I, about to acquire a new property in Natashquan, listened to the results from our apartment in Montreal. We were proud to see our future sanctuary for young retirees make national headlines thanks to the election of a mayor, Henri Wapistan, from the neighbouring Innu community.
Without knowing at the time all the ins and outs of this historic vote, we saw in this result a signal of rapprochement between two communities that history as well as more recent events seemed to put back to back.
Almost three years later, here we are, settled in our village at the end of the road. The enchantment is still very much present, even if the initial naivety has given way to a reality that the idealists of the metropolis that we were are completely unaware of. I am only just beginning to grasp the problems that the two communities face. I would not dare to venture to even sketch a summary of them. The relationships, I would even dare to say the links between the Aboriginals and the non-Aboriginals in the country of Jack Monoloy have almost two centuries of history.
I can only speak from my own short personal experience. First of all, in Natashquan/Nutashkuan there are no Whites and Innu. There are individuals with diverse origins and personalities who have very diverse relationships. I meet residents of the Nutashkuan reserve every day, if only at the village grocery store, at the post office or by chance during a conversation at the L’Échouerie café-bistro.
In some cases, we know each other by our first names and greet each other warmly and ask how we are. In others, the unease is palpable. We barely look at each other. There is definitely a generational aspect to this. The oldest, whether Acadians or Innu, have a shared history that is much more “tightly woven” by the isolation of the past, the harsh climate and the solidarity of people who live with little. If French is well mastered by all the Innu, there was a time not so long ago when many inhabitants of Natashquan knew the Innu language. Even today, mixed unions are distinguished by their banality.
Among the younger people, it’s something else. This local history is largely ignored in favor of a national racialist discourse that seems to have caused a certain rupture in the social fabric of our two peoples. Among the younger Innu, this idea is developing that we, the Whites, live on their lands, of which they have been dispossessed.
Even though the facts are indisputable, the people here and today are not responsible for it. They are, for the most part, descendants of Acadians who were once deported. They feel as if they are living under the threat of a second deportation, even if only metaphorically.
In recent years, residents of the Pointe-Parent neighbourhood, located closer to Nutashkuan, which is being forced to expand by the population explosion, have been evicted, with the complicity of governments. The manner in which all this was done—home invasions and vandalism—has left its mark on families, who have fortunately managed to relocate to Natashquan in many cases. When these families return today to visit their former hamlet, they find nothing but destruction and desolation around the homes of their childhood. All that for that, one would like to say.
It is in this context that the 2020 elections in Natashquan arrive. I have never had the opportunity to meet Mayor Wapistan since, even though I live not far from city hall. This probably has to do with the fact that he is almost completely absent. If I believe the minutes of council meetings, he almost never attends.
Recently, several villagers have been involved in an exciting municipal project to create a community garden that is the envy of all of Minganie. However, it was municipal officials and a few volunteers who undertook, designed and carried out this project. I do not know if the mayor even knows of the existence of this garden, which was inaugurated without his presence.
Yet in recent years we have really needed a dialogue to be established between the two communities, to prevent things from degenerating further. The climate is still generally peaceful, but there is reason to be worried. Each, it seems to me, with its particular challenges, would have something to gain from pooling its resources and its ideals.
The election of Mayor Wapistan was nothing more than a huge missed opportunity. In an interview with the newspaper The Porter and relayed in the pages of Dutyhe may well announce good intentions for rapprochement, but the reality is that he has preferred, for almost three years, to remain absent.