Kuei ! Do you know what this means? ka mishta-metuanut ? I’ll give you a hint: Joyce Dominique, who we’re going to introduce to you, is a commentator! Did you find it? Yes, it’s the translation of “Olympic Games” in Innu-aimun, the language spoken by the Innu, our Indigenous friends who live mainly in eastern Quebec. In fact, ka mishta-metuanut means “the big games”.
Joyce Dominique is from the Innu community of Pessamit, on the Côte-Nord. She was the first commentator hired to describe Olympic events in her language, online on the Tou.tv platform. She has thus realized her dream, she who has been commentating on sports in different indigenous communities for more than 25 years!
“When I was approached to be a commentator for the Games, I thought someone was playing a bad joke on me. Several times I asked if it was a joke. And I said that if it wasn’t true, it was really mean of you to do this to me, who has had this dream for so many years!”
Not just for her!
Joyce told us that this was not just her chance to make her dream come true. It was an opportunity for her to bring her language to life and keep it alive. With tears in her eyes, she confided that the Innu language is not mastered by everyone in her community. And that it is essential that it remains alive, that it is heard so that the Innu can preserve their roots, their culture. And that it is also important to make it evolve.
For example, Joyce had to comment on the skateboarding events. But there are words that are hard to find in Innu-aimun to describe the figures or actions of the skateboarders. She asked an elder in her community, Paul-Arthur McKenzie, how to describe the action of kicking a piece of wood to make it rise and catch it. He told her: tshakatukushkueu. So she used this term to describe the action of athletes when they lift their board to hold it in the air.
Do you want to hear what an Olympic event description looks like?
“I didn’t think I’d go this far!”
Joyce never thought that playing volleyball as a student, commentating on amateur hockey games and canoe races, and hosting on local radio would one day lead her to the Olympics. She went through some tough times that took her away from sports. She eventually came back and fulfilled a dream. And she has a message for you: “Keep going. Anything you do, no matter how small or insignificant, can lead you somewhere beautiful!”
By Eve Tessier-Bouchard
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