Canad’AIR – Season 2, Episode 6
Josephine Bacon, the poetess of the Innu soul
October 28th, 2021
“Mamu uitsheututau aimun tshetshi
pimutataiaku,
pimipanu aimun anite etaiaku,
mititatauat tshimushuminanat tshetshi eka
unishiniaku,
aimitutau tshetshi minuinniuiaku.
Come with me to make words walk,
words travel here where we are,
let’s follow the trails of the ancestors so we don’t go
astray,
let’s talk.”
Let’s talk! What a pleasure it is to fulfill the wishes of the famous Innu poet Joséphine Bacon and to welcome her onboard Canad’AIR, the podcast that flies you from Canada to France: embark on a journey to Innu land, with an exceptional guide!
Joséphine Bacon was born in the woods in 1947, in an Innu community. The Innu, traditionally nomadic, are part of the First Nations of Canada, from the Eastern part of the Québec Peninsula and the Labrador region. Their language is called “Innu-Aimun”. And in their language, Innu means… “Human”.
Until the age of 5, Joséphine Bacon lived with her family. Then she was forced to attend to a Residential school, cut off from her family, her people and her culture. She left at the age of 19. She moved to Québec City, then Ottawa, then Montréal.
Since then, Joséphine has been living in the city, but her mind and soul remain in the tundra. Thanks to her work as a translator with the Elders of her people, Joséphine Bacon has rediscovered the richness of her language and culture. She gave herself the mission to collect and transmit this precious oral knowledge.
Through her poetry, as luminous as her eyes, she takes us to the middle of the Nutshimit, offers us the peace of the Tundra and exposes the Innu soul…
Ready for take-off? Let’s go!
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