{"id":752,"date":"2017-04-17T10:22:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T14:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/waban-aki-abenaquis\/09-ensemble\/"},"modified":"2017-09-10T06:07:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T10:07:20","slug":"09-ensemble","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/waban-aki-abenaquis\/09-ensemble\/","title":{"rendered":"09 &#8211; Ensemble"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BEING TOGETHER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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. <a class=\"lightbox_trigger\" href=\"#\" data-description=\"For the Abenaki, the values of mutual aid and sharing were so deeply embedded that there\u2019s no concept equivalent to \u201ccommunity spirit\u201d; I was unable to find one. There is merely the concept of \u201cliving as part of a community\u201d, which involves mutual aid and sharing. Without a community, the Abenaki could not have lived and survived.\">Community spirit<\/a> 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<p>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<p>In the past, we were <a class=\"lightbox_trigger\" href=\"#\" data-description=\"In order to express the concept of \u201cautonomy\u201d in the Abenaki language, I defined \u201cbeing helpless, we do not appear to be in need of help\u201d.\">autonomous beings<\/a>. 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<p><a class=\"lightbox_trigger\" href=\"#\" data-description=\"Families lived together to survive.\">Family ties<\/a> were the core of our nations, our foundation. Family was the tight circle in which our People grew.<\/p>\n<p>This was before reservations, before <a class=\"lightbox_trigger\" href=\"#\" data-description=\"For the concept of \u201cassimilation\u201d, I defined it as \u201cborrowing the thoughts of white people\u201d; it can be considered \u201cforeign thinking\u201d.\">Assimilation<\/a>, before residential schools. At one point, there was disengagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":996,"parent":735,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"temp-side-by-side-separate.php","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/752"}],"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=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/752\/revisions\/2163"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/735"}],"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=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voixmultiples.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}