The book Good morning ! Kwe!, by Caroline Montpetit, is above all the story of encounters. With personalities from the eleven Aboriginal nations of Quebec, their culture and their language, the backbone of their identity. The daily cultural journalist The duty brought together his series of articles written in 2017 devoted to indigenous idioms to reveal their richness, their fragility, but also their incredible resilience through the ages.
The challenge is colossal and daily for the communities. The members of the First Nations are trying to preserve their ancestral languages — some of which are spoken by a handful of individuals — in a context of globalization and standardization. According to recent official data from Statistics Canada, the number of people who speak an indigenous language is inexorably declining and has fallen from 251,000 speakers in 2016 to 243,000 in 2021. In order to raise awareness, UNESCO has proclaimed the years 2022- 2032 “International Decade of Indigenous Languages”.
Despite the unfavorable context, it is in Quebec that we find the most living Aboriginal languages in the country, underlines the work. Each of the book’s chapters therefore corresponds to a local language: from Atikamekw to Algonquin (anichinabémowin) via Cree, Naskapi (Iyuw Iyimuun), Abenaki, Micmac, Maliseet (Wolastoqey), Wendat, Mohawk (kanien’keha), Inuktitut and finally Innu (innu-aimun). So many languages from oral traditions that tell a singular and irreplaceable vision of the world.
Caroline Montpetit gives voice to the speakers through encounters that are often fascinating, sometimes touching. There are heartbreaking stories, including the one told by David Kistabish, former Chief of the Abitibiwinni First Nation Council, about residential schools for Indians and their devastating impact on the transmission of the Anishinabemowin language.
The journalist thus paints a portrait of the Aboriginal nations by briefly returning to their linguistic history with very different destinies. On the one hand, Cree and Inuktitut still resist. The same goes for Atikamekw, since almost all the members, young or less young, of the communities of Wemotaci, Opitciwan and Manawan speak their mother tongue, which makes it the most dynamic language.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Innu is losing ground with a youth that is less and less connected to its traditions. There are also those who try to preserve the language of their ancestors, for example Maliseet, which has not been spoken in Quebec for generations. Less than a hundred people, often elderly, still use it in New Brunswick and in the state of Maine, in the United States.
The book puts languages at the forefront through preservation initiatives that go a fortiori through education. Passing the words on to younger generations is not just a matter of learning. It is above all the reflection of a recovery in hand of an identity marked by policies of acculturation and assimilation.