It was through her contact with the Maoris of New Zealand that Emanuelle Dufour realized the extent of her ignorance regarding the First Nations of Quebec. On her return, she undertakes a long journey to meet indigenous realities and begin a dialogue that is more necessary than ever. What does the silence about residential schools in history textbooks and the clichés about “Indians” in popular culture reveal? How was the Oka Crisis experienced by Indigenous people? Told from her own experience but also that of many Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, this polyphonic work explores the legacies of our colonial unconscious and brings to light stories that have remained in the shadows for too long.
“It’s Quebec that was born in my country!” Anna Mapachee tells us, in order to reverse the mirror of our colonial history. If systemic racism still shapes the indigenous condition, this notebook of meetings also testifies to the work undertaken by the communities to reclaim their languages, their ancestral knowledge and their identities, among others at the Kiuna Institution of Odanak, "a school made for the rest of us.”
And you, are you ready to explore your part of the story?
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La vérité, c’est que je suis Québécoise, que ma famille habite leur territoire traditionnel depuis plus de 200 ans et, pourtant, je ne connais pratiquement rien d’eux et je n’en connais aucun. La vérité, c’est que j’ai honte de moi. Honte de nous. - Emanuelle Dufour
