Waswanipi

Waswanipi

“Une facette unique de la diversité humaine” – Jean-Yves Soucy

Published by Baraka Books on September 16, 2021

Baraka Books vient de lancer la version anglaise de Waswanipi de Jean-Yves Soucy (1945-2017) avec une postface de Romeo Saganash. Lors du lancement en ligne du livre anglais le 15 septembre, Carole Massé, veuve de Jean-Yves, a offert le texte suivant sur l’importance du séjour à la communauté de Waswanipi en 1963. Voici le texte. Vous pouvez lire le texte anglais ici.

Une facette unique de la diversité humaine

Mon nom est Carole Massé, j’étais l’épouse de Jean-Yves Soucy décédé en octobre 2017. Je veux remercier ici M. Jean Bernier des éditions Boréal d’avoir publié la version originale de Waswanipi. Je veux aussi remercier M. Robin Philpot d’avoir publié la traduction anglaise de l’œuvre dans sa maison d’édition Baraka Books.

Jean-Yves m’a souvent dit que son expérience de garde-feu en 1963, à l’âge de dix-huit ans, l’avait profondément marqué, à cause des découvertes qu’il avait faites cet été-là. Or, il les raconte lui-même dans Waswanipi.

Sa première découverte est celle non seulement d’un monde nouveau, celui des Cris, mais d’une civilisation différente de la sienne, qu’il aime d’emblée. Les mots que l’écrivain utilise pour narrer sa rencontre avec ses deux guides cris, William Saganash et Tommy Gull, sont sans équivoque : joie, rires partagés, connivence. Jean-Yves est curieux, respectueux et il veut tout apprendre. Il leur pose nombre de questions, entre autres sur leur conception du temps, du monde, de la place de l’homme dans l’univers, de même que sur la langue crie. Ses guides lui donnent des réponses inattendues, originales qui le font réfléchir et penser d’une manière nouvelle. Visitant régulièrement le village cri, s’imprégnant de la culture crie, Jean-Yves se sent comme chez lui, écrit-il, en famille. Il perçoit sa propre personne et les Cris comme égaux, parents. Sa première découverte est donc celle d’un peuple différent du sien et pourtant proche de lui, et pour lequel il ressent une profonde amitié.

Sa deuxième découverte a lieu vers la fin de l’été, à l’occasion d’une noce. C’est Jean-Yves et son collègue de travail qui vont acheter de la bière pour la fête, parce que la loi interdit aux «Indiens» d’acheter de l’alcool. Après la noce, il voit les hommes du village ramasser des bouteilles et des capsules au sol, et les immerger ensuite dans le lac. Ils agissent ainsi pour ne pas être pris en faute par des agents de la GRC. À propos de cette scène, Jean-Yves écrit: «Cela me fait mal, y voyant la marque d’une profonde injustice.» À ce moment-là, il prend vraiment conscience que «les Cris, comme les autres peuples premiers, sont des citoyens de seconde zone», écrit-il encore. Et son cri de révolte devant ce fait, il le traduit par des dénonciations des mauvais traitements que les Blancs leur infligent.

Découvrir un autre peuple, le respecter et l’aimer, puis découvrir la flagrante injustice dont il est l’objet, sont ce qui a marqué Jean-Yves adolescent, un Jean-Yves pour qui la justice sociale et l’égalité entre tous les êtres humains seront des préoccupations majeures dans sa vie d’adulte. Et malgré le fait que le monde changeait pour les Autochtones et que ces changements apporteraient des bouleversements à leur mode de vie, Jean-Yves a toujours gardé espoir qu’ils les surmonteraient et atteindraient un jour à cette justice et à cette égalité.

En 2013, en vacances à Baie-Trinité, Jean-Yves croise par hasard une famille innue (deux parents avec quatre enfants) et il s’entretient avec elle. Lorsqu’ils se séparent, il a ces mots sereins et confiants, qui terminent son récit :

«… sous mes yeux, je vois qu’ils réussissent à se réinventer, à se créer de nouveaux repères dans un monde qui a complètement changé pour eux. Et ils le font sans renier ce qu’ils sont : une facette unique de la diversité humaine.»

Je veux remercier ici M. Roméo Saganash de sa présentation du livre Waswanipi et de sa lecture des extraits de Jean-Yves Soucy. Je veux le remercier aussi de sa très belle postface et des extraits qu’il nous a lus.

Carole Massé

14 septembre 2021

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“A Unique Facet of Human Diversity” Jean-Yves Soucy

Published by Baraka Books on September 16, 2021

Baraka Books recently launched  Waswanipi by Jean-Yves Soucy (1945-2017) with an Afterword by Romeo Saganash. At the online launch on September 15, Carole Massé, Jean-Yves’ widow, read the following text in French about the importance of Jean-Yves’ stay in the Cree community of Waswanipi in 1963. You can read the original French text here.

“A unique facet of human diversity”

My name is Carole Massé and I was Jean-Yves Soucy’s wife. Jean-Yves passed away in October 2017. I would like to thank Mr. Jean Bernier of Les éditions Boréal for publishing the original book entitled Waswanipi. I would also like to thank Robin Philpot of Baraka Books for publishing the English translation of the book.

Jean-Yves often told me that his experience as a fire warden in 1963 at the age of 18 had touched him profoundly because of what he encountered that summer. That is the essence of the story he told in Waswanipi.

The first encounter was not only with a new world for him, that of the Cree, but of a civilization that was different from his and that he immediately liked. The words the writer used to tell the story of his meeting with his two Cree guides, William Saganash and Tommy Gull, leave no room for doubt: it was joyful, with shared laughs and a deep bond. Jean-Yves is curious, respectful, and he is yearning to learn. Everything. His questions touch on his guides’ conception of time, the world we live in, the place humans occupy in the universe, and on the Cree language. William and Tommy provide unexpected and original answers that make him reflect and think in a new way. During his frequent visits to the Cree village, Jean-Yves bathes in Cree Culture and feels at home, he writes. Like being with family. He sees himself and the Cree as equals, as family. His first encounter is therefore with a people that is different from his own people and yet close to him and for whom he feels a solid friendship.

His second encounter occurs towards the end of the summer during a wedding. Jean-Yves and his fellow worker go and buy beer for the celebration, because the law prohibits “Indians” from buy alcohol. After the wedding, he sees the men from the village picking up the bottles and bottle caps on the ground and hiding them in the bottom of the lake. They have to hide the evidence so as not to be caught by RCMP officers. Jean-Yves describes the scene in the book: “It hurts me to see the scars of a profound injustice.” That was the moment when he fully realizes that “the Crees, like other First Peoples, are second-class citizens.” His cry of revolt following this event takes the form of denunciations of the terrible treatment White people have inflicted on them.

His encounter with another people, respecting and liking them, and followed by his discovery of the flagrant injustice to which they are subjected are what marked the teen-aged Jean-Yves, he who throughout his adult life would embrace principles of social justice and equality of all human beings. Despite the fact the world was changing for the Indigenous peoples, changes that would disturb their way of life, Jean-Yves always kept up the hope that they would overcome these changes and obtain justice and equality some time in the future.

In 2013, during holidays at Baie-Trinité, Jean-Yves happened to meet an Innu family (two parents with four children) and he had a long talk with them. When they left each other, he had the following serene and confident words that conclude his story:

“before my very eyes, I can see they’re managing to reinvent them- selves, to lay down new markers in a world that has completely changed on them. And they’re doing that without turning their backs on what they are: a unique facet of human diversity.”

I would now like to thank Romeo Saganash for his presentation of Waswanipi and for the reading of excerpts from Jean-Yves Soucy. I would also like to thank him for the beautiful Afterword and for the excerpts he read.

 

14 September 2021

 

 

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International Online Book Launches, Fall 2021 – Baraka Books & QC Fiction

Published by Baraka Books on July 16, 2021

Baraka Books and QC Fiction will hold launches for six remarkable books in Fall 2021.

Weekly online international book launches will be held in September and October. Everybody is welcome. To register please write to Blossom Thom at liteventrsvp@gmail.com. You will then receive the necessary information. All times are EDT.

Wed. Sept. 8, 7 pm:  Maker, A Novel by Jim Upton. Maker is one of those rare birds known as working-class fiction, a genre we see so few of these days. Yet the subject concerns millions of people. In addition, the main character is a woman in a modern unionized setting.  (Pub date, Sept. 1)
Jim Upton and author/editor Elise Moser will discuss Maker and also working-class literature in our time.

 

Wed. Sept. 15, 7 pm: Waswanipi by the late Jean-Yves Soucy, Afterword by Romeo Saganash (translated by Peter McCambridge). Jean-Yves Soucy wrote this book upon the insistance of Romeo Saganash, former Deputy Grand Chief of the Crees of Quebec. It is a beautiful account of an era (1963) that soon came to an end.  (Pub date, Sept. 1)
Romeo Saganash will present the book and read from his afterword, followed by a Q&A.

 

Wed. Sept. 22, 7 pm: To See Out the Night by David Clerson, translated by Katia Grubisic (QC Fiction). The jury of the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal (2019) described this collection as “A powerful world where the fantastic meets the organic in compelling fashion.” (Pub date, Sept. 1)
Author David Clerson will discuss To See Out the Night with translator Katia Grubisic, followed by a reading.

Wed. Sept. 29, 7 pm: Bigotry on Broadway An Anthology Edited by Ishmael Reed and Carla Blank. In this hard-hitting anthology, the editors have invited an accomplished group of writers from different backgrounds to comment on the long-standing bigotry on Broadway. (Pub date, Sept. 1)
Ishmael Reed and Carla Blank will present Bigotry on Broadway and discuss it with contributors.

 

Wed. Oct. 6, 7 pm: Montreal and the Bomb by Gilles Sabourin, translated by Katherine Hastings. This is the amazing but little-known story of secret nuclear research during World War II that was conducted in parallel (and in competition) with the Manhattan Project. The original French book just won the 2021 Hubert Reeves Award for Science Communicators. The book is the result of 15 yeas of research by a nuclear engineer. It reads like a novel. (Pub date, Oct. 1)
Gilles Sabourin will discuss the inside story of nuclear research in Montreal during World War II. A Q&A will follow.

 

Date TBA: Mussolini Also Did A Lot of Good, The Spread of Historical Amnesia by Francesco Filippi (translated from the Italian by John Irving). This 2019 Italian bestseller was La Reppublica’s “Book of the Month,” described as “an antidote to all the nonsense still circulating about fascism … Filippi is almost surgical in the way he reestablishes the context.” (Pub date, Oct. 1)
Format and participants to be announced.

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