Ahead of National Indigenous Languages Day, March 31, Innu artists presented Tuesday morning to the media called to the TD Studio a brief, filed the day before before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which presents their arguments in favor of the establishment of a minimum quota of 5% of Aboriginal music on the airwaves of commercial radio stations in Canada.
Beyond the need to promote the musical creation of the First Nations, it is a question of making a concrete gesture, namely ensuring a place on the radio waves for the work of First Nations musicians, to safeguard the Aboriginal languages, “and I dare to believe that our position will be understood,” declared in an interview with the Duty Mathieu Mckenzie, co-founder of the Makusham music record company, who presented the memoir alongside his father, singer-songwriter Florent Vollant.
The two Innu musicians were supported yesterday by Mike Mckenzie, Chief of Innu Takuaikan Uashat mak Mani-utenam, and Ghislain Picard, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, who promised that the Assembly would vote “in the next weeks” a motion supporting the establishment of an Indigenous music quota. Invited to speak during the press conference, singer-songwriter Émile Bilodeau offered his unconditional support for this initiative with a brief, passionate and emotional speech during which he drew a parallel between the survival of French in America of the North and that of the 11 native languages in Quebec, threatened with extinction.
Make noise
The filing of this memoir is part of a major media campaign leading, on March 31, to the launch of the first two albums produced by the young independent record company Makusham Musique, founded by Mathieu Mckenzie and its director, Nelly Jourdain. The label, based in Maliotenam, was born from the work of professionalizing First Nations musicians that began with the creation of Studio Makusham in 1997, directed by Florent Vollant (Kashtin) and Kim Fontaine.
Before the creation of Makusham music, Aboriginal artists launched projects “just like that, without doing press relations or radio tracking of the songs; with the label, we give ourselves the means to do press relations and better supervise the artists”, rejoices Mathieu Mckenzie. “We’re going to hear a little more about us”, starting with veteran Pascal Ottawa (Pako), Atikamekw folk singer-songwriter, who will launch the album on Friday Nanto.
The young co-founder of the Innu record company, who benefited from the mentorship of Steve Jolin (Disques 7th Ciel) to learn the trade of manager and album producer, will take the stage of the Lion d’Or on Friday with his rock trio with folk and pop tones Maten to present the new songs ofUtenatean Innu word meaning “the big city” in French.
“We chose this title to say that, when we go to utenat, when we go to Montreal, to Quebec, to the big city centers, where there is noise, explains Mathieu, we go there in particular to be educated — the universities are in the big cities —, but we are always glad to be back home, with us. It’s noisy, it goes fast, utenat, but we are good when we come back, in the territory where our ancestors also grew up. »
Once the recording of the album was completed at Studio Makusham, the members of Maten undertook to translate their texts into French. The general theme of the album was then revealed to them: “That’s when we understood that the lyrics of our songs are very much about hope. There are ups and downs in life, but we go for it — we talk about the dreams of young people, our culture, our language which is in decline. We talk a lot about that, our identity, our pride, our message is strong. »
On Friday at the Lion d’Or, singer-songwriter Shauit will also launch his new album, Natukun — “remedy”, in Innu, “because many songs talk about healing, hope, progress and well-being”, specifies the musician. “And as I say, it’s also to put some balm on our wounds,” he adds, referring to this period of healing that the First Nations are going through.
The excellent album in which the folklorist Yves Lambert collaborates will surprise his fans: revealed as a reggae singer, here he is putting his clear voice on folk and traditional music. A return to basics, he justifies: “It’s a folk album, but with native trad and Quebec trad, to show basically that, even if we are different, we also like the same things a lot. I like to say “Long live the difference between cultures and peoples”, but that’s the fun to show what unites us, and folk music is one of them. Some Indigenous nations have even adopted trad Quebec music as their traditional music,” says Shauit, promising in the same breath an upcoming album with reggae, dancehall and afrobeat sounds.