{"id":1105,"date":"2017-07-25T05:02:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T09:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/?page_id=1105\/"},"modified":"2017-09-21T05:38:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T09:38:52","slug":"09-together","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/english\/09-together\/","title":{"rendered":"09 – Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEING TOGETHER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the creation of the bands, there were family clans. To live together in clans, there needed to be a leader, clan mothers, a hierarchical system, because to survive, we had to be together. Community spirit was not an incidental value; it was a focus of our concerns. Like mutual aid, between young and old. Like sharing, between rich and poor. Like hard work, during times of famine. If the ancestors could share with us their life story, they would without a doubt tell us that they didn\u2019t have a choice, that this was how it was. Each role, established for survival. Man was the provider, the hunter, the protector. He drew from everyday labors, daily pride and contentment.<\/p>\n

Following the hunters were the clan mothers. Women of authority. They educated, organized, baked bread and fed their family. With men gone for long periods of time, they ensured the survival of their own, took charge in quarrels, enforced justice. All day long and even during the night, they made sure that all went well. These grandmothers, 100 years old; these mothers, barely pubescent.<\/p>\n

When I was young my father was often away, he would leave for perhaps 1 or 2 weeks and even when he was guiding during the summer he would leave for most of the summer. It was my mother who was in charge of education. We lived in Parent in the woods, in a tent. During the winter, we had a small log cabin but I faced winters in tents. At night, we took turns going to sleep at my grandmothers, especially during winter because she had a nice warm feather blanket. When you’re a dozen siblings, your turn doesn\u2019t come often. My grandmother had her own camp, a small tent with a wood stove. I don\u2019t know why, she has remained with her two youngest sons. The others had moved to other hunting grounds. My grandmother worked every day, she worked hard. She cut her own wood. She did her own little hunting. During the summer, every family went to their own territory for small game hunting, fishing, blueberries, wild fruits. This is how we nourished ourselves. It was a good time. It was our life.<\/p>\n

Mariette Niquay, Atikamek Nehirowisiw<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the past, we were autonomous beings. Women gave birth in tents. Families were self-sufficient. Meat, abundant at times. Autonomy was based on knowledge acquired in past centuries. Free to think, free to act, survival was the sole priority.<\/p>\n

Family ties were the core of our nations, our foundation. Family was the tight circle in which our People grew.<\/p>\n

The newborns\u2019 ceremony has always been practiced by the Atikamekw. We show the child the four directions of the world, to thank the light that it has been given when conceived. During the ceremony, the child is held by each family member and each one speaks to it so as to share the responsibility of the child.
\nIt thus becomes a child of the community.<\/p>\n

Roger Eshaquan, Atikamek Nehirowisiw<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was before reservations, before assimilation, before residential schools. At one point, there was disengagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEING TOGETHER Before the creation of the bands, there were family clans. To live together in clans, there needed to be a leader, clan mothers,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":996,"parent":1087,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"temp-single-player.php","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1966,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105\/revisions\/1966"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}