I read Michel Jean’s excellent novel, which highlights the drama that the Innu community of Pointe-Bleue experienced during the development of the exploitation of resources in the Lac-Saint-Jean region (river Péribonka) and which radically changed the lives of this population forever.
Their nomadic way of life, which was in complete harmony with the passing seasons, with migrations to regions suitable for hunting for food and trapping for supplies of rare articles which they did not produce themselves. same, was abruptly interrupted. Adaptation was nearly impossible for most.
How not to make the analogy between this disturbing episode that these people lived through and us-
themselves, who have to adapt as much as possible to the climate changes that are already upsetting our lives, even if we refuse to believe it?
As for those peoples who have seen their territories invaded by development (and by the overly dominant white man), we see our points of reference vanish in relation to the seasons that we no longer recognize. How are we going to react to all the changes in our entrenched lifestyle habits?
There are limits to resilience. We will have to continue to feed ourselves despite the climatic disturbances, with the abrupt contrasts between drought and floods. The challenges will be very numerous, from all points of view (climate and social migration).
We ignored the people who lived on these lands in the name of development. Are we also going to ignore reality by thinking of creating more wealth with our already overexploited resources? […]
To see in video