Artists, they are not encumbered by borders, and their gaze can extend much beyond the horizon. By closing their eyes, they can see into the past, when the Aboriginals of Quebec occupied the interior, before they were confined to reserves.
There, they will perhaps meet the Canayan, this ancestor of Quebecers, “this committed coureur des bois”, whose engagement ended with the trade contract, then leaving him to trapping at leisure on the territory. “He was a free man, if not the first free man of the territory, literally”, writes Pierre Bastien in his essay Amérikoises lyrics.
“This free man is a bit like us, the landless, he gave birth to us, from a relatively recent identity point of view and culturally speaking; from Miron to Leclerc, via Aquin and Guèvremont, this stateless character multiplies his indistinct echoes in our poems, our novels and our songs, ”he adds.
It was alongside poets and thinkers that the filmmaker Pierre Bastien began this process. At the call of his friend Louis Hamelin, who signs the preface to the book, Bastien participated in a meeting of writers organized around the La Romaine dam project, in 2009, in the wake of the book Aimititau, let’s talk!, which brings together authors from Quebec and the First Nations, published in 2008 by Mémoire Encrier editions.
“My poetry won’t stop the bulldozers, that’s for sure! », Said the Innu poet Joséphine Bacon, who took part in the meeting. In fact, the bulldozers have passed. And the Romaine River hydroelectric complex, which has aroused strong opposition, particularly among the First Nations, is now complete.
But the Amerikan words persist. After making a first film of it, Pierre Bastien continued his reflection, and Amérikoises lyrics is anchored both in his latest film and in the script of the next one on the subject, Territories, alliances and other crossbreeding, which is due out in January.
In an interview, Pierre Bastien explains that this whole project was born out of a quest for identity. “English Canadians had their definition of a Canadian 20 or 25 years ago, and we were left out in that,” he says. Consequently, he is also interested in the very great “identity backlash” experienced by Aboriginals.
“I thought we had to refocus our positions,” he said. For him, it was about rediscovering “the true ‘Canada’, which is a Canada of alliance between the First Nations and Canadians, ultimately the descendants of the French”.
“It’s native land, but it’s ours too. We, not in the Quebec sense of the term, we in the sense, of us and the First Nations, we occupants of the territory. “
Because the identity he seeks is not locked into a political concept. “I’m not a politician, I can’t go into this. These are questions for constitutional scholars. Me, my territorial experience, it is through the skin. She is by the sand, she is by the water. She is through the other, through his gaze, through his laughter. My experience is at the level of the human, not at the level of the laws. I can’t get on with the laws because I don’t know about it. It is not my domain. I am not a constitutionalist. “
The identity that he finds there is Métis, and testifies to centuries of cohabitation with the Aboriginals who weigh more heavily than one thinks in the Quebecois baggage.
Concretely, Pierre Bastien talks about his meeting with the Innu poet and activist Rita Mestokosho, who has since become a good friend. “The first time I arrived at her place, I understood that we were not at my place, but at their place. Home, in the sense of “don’t think you’re home everywhere”. When you arrive and it is the host who says to you “here is the river, here is this or that”, it is the host who shows it to you. You are at his place. This story, it is not yet recognized as such. And Pierre Bastien likes to quote Jean Morisset who says that “oppressed peoples are condemned to creation”.
Braided together
“Serge Simon, former great chief of the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, said when speaking of the nations which inhabit the territory:” We are all braided together “”, writes in his essay Pierre Bastien.
The poet and doctor Jean Désy speaks of “Métisserie” to name this shared occupation.
“We are not nations side by side,” continues Pierre Bastien. In an interview, he refers to a wampum held by the late Anichinabe spiritual leader William Commanda. “There were three figures holding hands on the wampum. They represented the First Nations, the French in quotes and the English in quotes. I think what I’m trying to do with this book is to retrace a little the journey we have taken to give us a basis for discussions that are healthy, and not discussions where we are lost in a kind of melting pot Canadian like Trudeau, where nobody is nothing, but where everyone speaks English, where everyone is ghettoized. “
The author is well supported to carry out his quest. His book and the upcoming film are supported by the words of Jean Morisset, Jean Désy, Rita Mestokosho, Joséphine Bacon and Yves Sioui Durand, among others.