The first time Jean-Luc Kanapé saw a herd of woodland caribou, he promised to be their voice. They are today more threatened than ever by logging. His commitment to the protection of these animals, an entire ecosystem and an important part of Innu culture is at the heart of the beautiful documentary Atiku.
Woodland caribou now live in large enclosures set up in the natural environment by the Quebec government to ensure their protection. The species is in fact in dangerous decline in several regions. “It makes me think of our history,” says Jean-Luc Kanapé gently, at the start of the documentary. Atikuguardian of the territoryof which he is the main character.
The Innu, like other First Nations communities, were also locked into an enclosure: the reserves established by the federal government. The effect was devastating for their way of life, their culture and their languages. Seeing the woodland caribou put in “prison” does nothing to reassure him.
The former hunter, whom directors Guillaume Langlois and Nicolas Lévesque followed to Pipmuacan, ancestral territory of the Innu of Pessamit, a community to which Jean-Luc Kanapé belongs, believes that we should “find more intelligent solutions” than locking up the caribou to protect them. Like stop cutting down so many trees in old-growth forests that serve as shelter and larder for these deer.
The Quebec government has repeatedly postponed its “Caribou Strategy”, initially promised for 2019. Meanwhile, the threat to this animal is intensifying. Acres of trees continue to be cut down in its natural frequentation areas. Nonsense in the eyes of someone who calls himself a “guardian of the territory”.
See the forest differently
Jean-Luc Kanapé does not see an economic resource to exploit when he looks at a forest. He sees a complex and fragile ecosystem, which he takes care to show and explain to the documentarians’ camera. Here, the caribou nursery. There, their pantry, that is to say places rich in lichens which only grow in old forests and which we will not see again soon in those regenerated after commercial felling.
IMAGE FROM THE FILM
There is a lot of talk about transmission in the documentary by Guillaume Langlois and Nicolas Lévesque.
By following his trail in the forest paths or on snowshoes, we learn to see the forest through his eyes. To understand a little better that the reforestation strategy has its limits. That the damage done to the environment not only destroys caribou habitat, it also encourages the movement of its predators. Wolves are indeed becoming more and more numerous in Pipmuacan, notes Jean-Luc Kanapé.
We also understand that by seeking to protect this territory, which the Innu call Nitassinan, it is also humans that it seeks to protect. His own, of course, whose survival and culture have been linked to a good understanding and good management of the resources offered by nature, but also all others, since we all depend on the environment in which we live.
Guillaume Langlois and Nicolas Lévesque address complex and fundamental questions in this film yet imbued with calm and beauty. With finesse and delicacy, they not only force us to wonder what we are doing to the caribou and the Quebec forest, but also what we will leave to those who come after us.
Premiering Wednesday at 8 p.m., at the Cinémathèque québécoise, as part of the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, and Saturday at 10:30 p.m., at ICI Télé, as part of the show Doc humanity