(Montreal) The works of First Nations authors will be featured this month in several libraries and bookstores in Quebec during the “In June, I read indigenous” event. The growing initiative demonstrates the growing place occupied by indigenous literature, according to the campaign spokesperson.
“We are really at an extraordinary moment where Indigenous literature is really at its most vibrant, and there are lots of people who are there to welcome it too,” says author and artist Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, in an interview.
She says she recently reflected on her 12-year literary life, as she published her first book Don’t Walk Into My Soul with Your Shoes on in 2012.
More than 10 years later, she is pleased to see an initiative like “In June, I Read Native,” which is in its fourth iteration, having great success. This year, 75 bookstores and 165 libraries are participating in the initiative across different regions of Quebec.
Ms. Kanapé Fontaine also noted, when consulting the initiative’s notebook, which offers several literary suggestions, that she was not aware of all the new works written by indigenous authors, showing the growing number of First Nations publications.
“Usually I’m very aware of what’s coming out and what’s being done. And then I was surprised by the fact that there were so many things happening now that it was normal that I could no longer go with the flow,” she says.
The author also welcomed the fact that books by Indigenous authors now take “a very large place” in Quebec bookstores.
“It seems that I would never have imagined, 12 years ago, so much enthusiasm in wanting to celebrate First Nations literature, but also, really in making sure to educate the readership even more. If there are people who still know very little about indigenous people, booksellers are having a field day,” she explains.
If initiatives like “In June, I read indigenous” and the First Nations Book Fair contribute to educating the population about indigenous literature, the place of these works has not yet been established in schools. , underlines Marie-Éve Bradette, assistant professor in the Department of Literature, Theater and Cinema at Laval University and holder of the Chair in Teaching Leadership on Indigenous Literatures in Quebec.
Even if the works of First Nations authors are increasingly present in schools at all levels of education, their teaching is not yet compulsory, explains Ms. Bradette.
“In terms of literature, there is not yet an obligation to include works of indigenous literature in the program. So, there are more and more of them, because teachers are really starting to know this literature, and through their personal desire to include it in their lessons,” explains the professor.
What tips does she give to teachers who would like to include Indigenous literature in their teaching?
“The thing I always say is dare to do it. I often hear from people who don’t dare to do it because people don’t know how to do it,” she says.
“Teachers are often afraid of making missteps when it comes to teaching indigenous content, and indeed, we will make mistakes when teaching these texts. But we must adopt a posture of listening, of respect, of reciprocity also with the texts, and to let ourselves be carried away by what the texts also convey as knowledge, as specific cultural anchors too,” she adds.
Ms. Bradette also invites teachers to think about their position when teaching.
“To see from what space we express ourselves, do we read, do we share this culture, to really highlight the knowledge produced by literature and not necessarily impose our visions of the world which can be colonial, Western, when we are non-native teachers, as I am myself,” she explains.
As for readers, Ms. Bradette invites them to discover this literature “in the plurality of its forms.”
“Readers today can enter this corpus of text in many ways, and find what they are looking for. Whether we are interested in dystopian fiction, or a novel with a more identity-based anchor, there is all that in indigenous literature currently,” says the professor.
“It’s a world that we discover, and sometimes the first book we read won’t necessarily represent all of that world. For me, it’s about inviting people to discover not just one author, but several authors at once,” she says.
The author also emphasizes that indigenous literature focuses as much on the past and the present as on the future.
“It’s an imaginary that has existed in this territory for millennia, it was already there and there are several authors who do this work of making the voices of their ancestors, the voices of their ancestral culture, resonate through their literature,” she explains.
“And there are some who don’t do that at all, who really do a lot in the present, in the contemporary, [others] who also imagine the future of the First Peoples in the next few years or in 100 years, 200 years old. That’s the power of fiction too, it’s imagining and creating new stories from what inspires us. »