This book is the result of several years’ work that began with my first doctoral reflections in 2005–6 at the Institute for Development Studies in Geneva, continued during my PhD studies at the University of Essex (2007–12) and rounded off at Laurentian University in Sudbury (2014–19). This book could not have come to fruition without the love of my family who supported, encouraged, trusted and defended me, from beginning to end – especially my life partner, comrade and colleague, Nawel Hamidi – a person with a heart of gold who has always encouraged me to stand up, hold my head high and tell it as it is, especially in the face of injustice and the worst outrages. This book is yours also.
To my boys Pishimnapeo (Shams), Maikan (Ushen) and Lounès, this book asked a lot of you in absence and silence, too much perhaps. But your dad wrote it with the conviction that it would nourish the little Essipiunnuat that you are and will become. Your Innu heritage is a treasure, never doubt it. To my exceptional parents, Réal and Claude-Andrée, you have been consistently generous, protective and good counsel from the beginning, providing unwavering support. Be assured of my complete gratitude. Thank you to my brother Dario who has always been there to support and accompany me on our ancestral territories to refresh and keep the vision clear, on the calm seas and during storms. The camaraderie and humour of my cousins and hunting partners, Pascal, Anton, Fred, Martin, Yannick and Christian, helped me greatly in my daily life in Essipit, thank you. Thanks to my aunts, uncles and extended family, including my brothers-in-law and comrades Riad and Fares. We are a wonderful family. Many sacrifices on the part of our relatives were necessary before it was possible for me to give birth to this book, in what proved to be a somewhat difficult labour. I am indebted and deeply grateful to you. This work is also yours.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude and love to the Essipiunnuat, from all generations, and especially to those who lived through the Salmon War and agreed to share their stories and thoughts. You have taught me and transformed me by your affection, your stories and your wisdom. In all humility, I have done everything in my power to be faithful to your spirit and your words. Thank you to the Elders who guided me, informed me, and helped me avoid the pitfalls and dangers of researching my own community, especially when the subject was the traumatic conflict and issues of memory and forgetfulness touching the very heart of internal colonialism. Your sound advice, always consistent with the expression of truth for the purposes of healing and justice, has made all the difference in this book. Investigating our own cruelties is sometimes difficult or even dangerous but you have given me the conviction that to be honest and to say things as they are has a higher value than the benefits of remaining silent on what must be voiced. I have learned that by following your advice, we arrive at the end of the road with some scratches, but lighter of heart. Thank you for the courage of your words and for your patience with a young researcher who sometimes lacked experience. This book is above all a tribute to the Essipiunnuat warriors, especially those who have since left us for the great land and whose portraits in this book are testimony to the legacy of our ancestors – this book is dedicated to you. I am thinking of warriors such as my nimushum Paul Ross Jr (Ti-Paul), Jean-Noël Ross, my uncle Marcel Ross, our cousin Serge Moreau, Uncle André Ross (Pet), André (Ti-Nours) Ross, Uncle Romeo and Uncle Arthur. Tshinashkumitnau.
Thank you to everyone for your stories. Whether you work for the band council or criticise it, support or oppose modern treaties, thank you for your courage speaking out. I have learned as much from those who encouraged me to pursue the search for truth as from those who have done everything in their power (some Essipiunnuat and some not) to prevent this book from seeing the light of day. By their love, the first gave me the resolve, the inspiration and the conviction to pursue publication. Thanks to them, future generations will know how far their ancestors were prepared to go in order to defend their heritage and ancestral sovereignty. By their relentless efforts, the second group offered me invaluable insight into the production of forgetfulness and ignorance, how the deep forces of psychological colonialism impact upon our relationship with the past (truth) and the Earth (life). It is where the opposing current is strongest that the salmon finds a way to bounce back and return a little closer to where it was born. Every obstacle, every dam erected on the way, became a source of crucial information to the last. The second group also taught me how to guide future researchers in looking at their own communities, and how to put the love of truth, honesty and bravery above the short-term interests of pleasing the authorities.
Over the years I have received many teachings from my Innu brothers and sisters from Natuashish, Sheshashit, Pakuashipit, Unamen Shipu, Natashkuan, Ekuanitshit, Ushat Mak Mani Utenam, Pessamit and Mashteuiatsh, and from other First Peoples, including our brothers and sisters Wendat and Atikamekw Nehirowisiw. I would like to heartily thank Elder and Professor Malcolm Saulis for his teachings on our medicines, our ceremonies and the moral and spiritual qualities required to be a good person and a circle keeper. These profound teachings have nourished and guided me. I am indebted to all the writers and thinkers of the First Peoples, such as the late An Antane Kapesh and William Commanda, Charles Coocoo, Leroy Little Bear, Georges Sioui, Shanipiap Sioui-Mackenzie, Joséphine Bacon, Évelyne St-Onge, Élie Mestokosho and great allies and transmitters of knowledge who were generous with me, such as Rémi Savard, José Mailhot, Sylvie Vincent and Paul Charest, and not to forget the great researcher and mentor Sylvie Poirier. I am especially grateful to my Innu brothers and sisters from Matimekush-Lac John who welcomed me in the years 2004–6 and supported me in my healing and cultural empowerment process. Thank you to Elder Utshemau Thaddé André, to the thinker and big brother Essemeu Mackenzie and his family and to my friend Donnat Jean-Pierre, for hospitality and kindness. Thanks also to Elder Alexandre Mackenzie, who advised me to pay more attention to the history of my own community as early as 2004 and to the late François Penashue Aster, whose stories I had the privilege of hearing.
I would like to thank my Anishnabeg brothers and sisters who welcomed us with kindness, hospitality and humanity to their fabulous and fertile ancestral territories during our stay in Sagamok (Sudbury). Thank you to my friends and colleagues, researcher and educator Darrel Manitowabi, leader Sheila Cote-Meek, the great linguist and thinker Mary Ann Corbiere and the historian and educator Dominic Beaudry. Thank you to the Linklater-Wong brothers, Josh and Ryan, for their deep friendship and to my spiritual brother Ian Desjardins and his family for medicine and ceremonies. Thank you as well to my colleagues in the department of sociology (Simon, Rachid, Parveen, Lynne, Anas, Marianne) of Laurentian for their patience with a director who is far too busy. Nawel, the children and I are also very grateful to you, the Neegan family of Constance Lake FN, for sharing with us generously your beautiful ancestral territories over the past five years so that we could spend time out in the forest and feel at home despite our exile.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to my mentor and friend Colin Samson who has been a supporter from the very beginning, first of all during my doctorate at the University of Essex, and then in the process of writing the book. As soon as I heard him at the United Nations in 2005 denouncing the extinction policies and the ongoing genocide, I knew that this man was a great ally of our people. He is faithful to his convictions and to his relationships with us. He and Nicola welcomed me as a family member every time I went to England. Tshinashkumitin also to the Innu diplomat and lawyer Armand McKenzie for introducing me to Colin and advising me to pursue a doctorate, as well as to Utshemau and Elder Ovide Mercredi for encouraging me in 2004 to go to the UK to understand the root causes of colonialism in Canada. Thank you to Jeremy Krikler, whose contribution to my thesis committee was beneficial and decisive; he taught me to recognise my own limitations and to overcome them. His keen intelligence, his very rich South African experience and his benevolence have helped me tremendously. Thank you to the great scholar Paul Thompson, whose work, affection and mentorship inspired me enormously. Thank you to my great friend Karen Worcman for all that her work and achievements have contributed both to my research, and to the First Peoples, from the Amazonia to the shore of the Esh Shipu River. Thank you also to Isabelle Schulte-Tenkhoff for her generous advice in Geneva at the beginning of my doctorate. Thanks also to Elder Jacques Kurtness whose experience as an Indigenous university professor in the academic world helped and guided me, and thanks to my friends Gaetane Gascon, Bonnie Campbell and Herman Dworschak for their continuing support. Thanks to my friend and mentor Val Napoleon of the University of Victoria for her presence and constant encouragement. Thank you to my friend Hadley Friedland, who does so much for the First Peoples, for our conversations and encouragement, and to my friends Marie-Ève Sylvestre, Darryl Leroux, Julie Burelle, Mike Paul and Christian Tremblay for their unwavering camaraderie and constant intellectual reinforcement. Thank you to my great mentor Timothy Stanley for his kindness and wise counsel. Thank you to Ghislain Otis for having involved me in his SSHRC research project which gave me tools to go further in my research and to create new links, among others with our Kanak brothers and sisters.
Thank you to Damien Short at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, who believed in the book project from the start and secured its publication. Thank you (and my apologies) to my excellent and patient publishers Emily Morrell and Kerry Whitston at the University of London Press and to Sophie Gillespie and Valerie Hall for their amazing editing. My thanks to those who read earlier drafts of the book, including the fabulous editor and artist Nicola Gray, my Anishnabe sister Deanna Theriault and my friend Howard Waserman, who had to deal with my English at the beginning, poor them. Thanks to all of you for your patience, your constant kindness and your hard work in helping to polish my writing without ever changing its meaning.
Pierrot Ross Tremblay
Ottawa, 4 October 2019