And the Story continues...

Camille Fouillard  is a freelance writer based in St. John's, Newfoundland, and has been working with the Innu for several years. Through this short but compelling glimpse into their story, we can begin to grasp the connections with our own. Merci Camille!

Camille – in 1995, you edited a book in partnership with the Davis Inlet Band Council and the Innu Nation: Gathering Voices; Finding Strength to Help Our Children. What did those voices tell you about women’s strength in a harsh environment?

The book was the result of the Davis Inlet People’s Inquiry, a community self-examination into a house fire that killed six children. I went on to work with one of the Inquiry’s Innu commissioners Nypmpha Byrne to produce a book of Innu women’s stories and writings, entitled It’s Like the Legend. Amongst many things, the voices we gathered told us that culture is key to healing and women are key to the survival of the culture. They have been less assimilated and have less invested in the structures of the dominant culture. This means, for example, that they can actually imagine throwing a judge out of the community to make a statement about how the justice system is not working in their community, and then make it happen, and later renegotiate his re-entry with openness from the system to try new ways.

Camille Fouillard (left) with colleague

What impact did it have on the women and their community to have these stories told and then see them in print?

I believe in the power of the story, that the process of sharing the story for the Innu has been key to reclaiming their place in this world. I have seen people turn their lives around after being given the opportunity to tell their story. My Innu colleague Nympha has talked about how the process of the Inquiry and compiling the anthology encouraged her to return to school, obtain her high school and two college diplomas and eventually train to become an addictions counselor. Women in Labrador Innu communities are much more active today than 25 years ago, both in formal and informal leadership positions. I do believe that the storytelling process of creating these books contributed to this development.

Jack Penashue, Social Health Director of the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation

How did listening to the stories of the Innu women impact you? How did it change your own story?

My time and work and friendships with the Innu have been a gift in my life.  I’ve learned so much in this relationship about myself and my humanity, my own suffering, about the sacredness of our planet, about joy and laughter, courage and resilience. I’ve learned about the racism in Canada, how we need to challenge our ‘us-and-them’ thinking. I’ve learned about how on this small and fragile planet, there is no room for ‘us and them.’ Whatever the politics, the geography, the culture, the gender, the context, there can no longer be a “them,” there is only an ever-evolving “us.” Do we have time to listen to what the Innu and their culture have to tell us about how to care for our planet?

How important is it, do you think, to tell these stories to a larger audience? What does the larger society have to gain?

I love these books because they give us a glimpse into individual lives of the Innu. This is what Nympha and I wrote in our introduction to the women’s book: We hope this book will serve as a bridge between the Innu and the outside world. As the readers travel through these stories, they will sit close with Innu women. Perhaps they can imagine themselves perched comfortably on a bed of aromatic fir boughs, with a fire crackling from a small sheet-metal stove as soft moonlight shines through the canvas of the Innu tent. Or perhaps readers can invite these Innu women into their own homes to offer them a cup of strong tea. We hope readers will connect with the humanity of these stories. The door will be open for the reader to enter the world of the Innu. Readers can join the women in a place where experiences of love, pain, fear, laughter, sorrow, joy and hope cut across our differences.

What are you working on right now with this community?

I am editing another book, a memoir by George Gregoire, an Innu man from Natuashish. George’s story traces the amazing trajectory of a man, born in the wilds of Labrador before the Innu were settled in communities, yet who somehow managed to get enough education to write this book. The writing is brutally honest, candid, and poignant, cynical, funny, nostalgic. It reveals George in all his complexities. It gives us the personal story along with very articulate views of the bigger picture.  It provides the reader with an intimate glimpse into an Innu life, impossible to grasp from the stereotypical and sensational media stories that bombard us about the Innu.

I’ve also just finished working on a community health needs assessment with an Innu team from Sheshatshiu and I’ve been trying to wrestle my own book of fiction to the ground.


Photos provided by Camille Fouillard