Wolastoqey leaders featured in new short documentary

A new short documentary titled, Telling Our Story: The Wolastoqiyik Vision, explores the modern Wolastoqey identity.

Gleaned from a four-part series totalling four hours, this short documentary is a compilation of the Wolastoqey testimonials recorded by Abenaki director Kim O’Bomsawin.

O’Bomsawin’s team took five years to complete the series, imagined by Reginald Vollant, an Innu producer.

The short documentary features Lisa Perley-Dutcher, founder of Kehkimin, a non-profit Wolastoqey language immersion school in Sitansisk (Saint Mary’s First Nation), located on the Wolastoq.

From Tobique First Nation, Perley-Dutcher says: “we used to get strapped when we spoke our language in the day school.”  When asked by her son to name some language speakers, Perley-Dutcher could only name 33 of the possible 60 said to be still able to speak.

Perley-Dutcher’s son, Jeremy Dutcher is also featured in the documentary. Dutcher is an award-winning singer. In the documentary, Dutcher states: “we have to do everything we can do save our language.”

Dutcher uses ancestral recordings of songs in his music. His first record, titled Skicinuwihkuk, was sung in the Wolastoqey language.

Wolastoq Grand Chief Ron Tremblay also appears in the documentary, explaining the wampum he was gifted when he became Grand Chief.

Tremblay reminded viewers that in 1782 —before the creation of so-called Canada— there were early residential schools where Indigenous students became slaves. Proof of this was found in Sussex, New Brunswick with the Sussex Vale Indian Day School.

French-speaking Wolastoqey peoples from Cacouna, Quebec, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, are also featured in the documentary, expanding the territory beyond the borders of New Brunswick.

Filmed in Cacouna, Ginette Kakakos Aubin, born in Montreal, reveals: “my grandfather spoke the language but didn’t transmit it to his children (…) when I come here I feel it so much”. As an off-reserve Indigenous person, Kakakos Aubin cries on film about the loss that she feels at not having been able to know her culture.

One of the strengths of the documentary is to provide a mix of younger and older people, as well as francophone and anglophones. This shows that Wolastoqey culture is vibrant. The film’s cinematography presents stunning views of the Wolastoqey territory.

The full-length documentary series was commissioned by CBC to discuss questions of identity around the country. The other Indigenous groups featured are the Abenaki, Anishinaabe, Atikamekw, Cree of Eeyou Istchee, Innu, Inuit, Mi’gmaq, Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk), Naskapi, and Wendat.

Sophie M. Lavoie is a member of the NB Media Co-op’s editorial board.