In the mid-2010’s, settler scholar Emanuelle Dufour became aware of a “silence” with regards to residential schools and ongoing colonialism, systemic racism, inadequate curricular material in schools, and sought out to find answers by meeting with community members, Elders, spokespeople, students, professionals, families, and many, many others. An artist at heart, the product of her findings became a “carnet de rencontres,” a notebook of coming-togethers, in which her fifty+ interlocutors are rendered “speaking,” quite literally, on and within the pages, while advocating for the importance of Indigenous cultural security within the education system. Their presence is undeniable, and their voices carry the narrative.
Originally published as C'est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays!, this translation creates a bridge, from one colonial language to another, that will enable conversations across and beyond spaces and languages. It aims to shed light on colonial mainstream narratives in Canada and, more precisely, in Québec, by considering the politics of linguistic hegemony and the double exiguity that Indigenous peoples often find themselves in, calling for a better understanding of how the province’s specific colonial history has had a profound and continued impact on its 11 Indigenous Nations. This book’s unusual (academically-speaking) form as a “carnet”, or diary, becomes an anthology of statements of witnessing, which, coupled with the illustrative narrative, bears its decolonizing mission. Quebec Was Born in My Country! ultimately is about foregrounding common and collective experiences, with the crucial goal of furthering education.

Sarah Henzi is a settler scholar and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Literatures in the Department of French and the Department of Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Her translation of An Antane Kapesh’s Je suis une maudite sauvagesse (1976) and Qu’as-tu fait de mon pays? (1979) was published in 2020 with Wilfrid Laurier University Press as I Am a Damn Savage; What Have You Done to My Country?

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Emanuelle Dufour lives in Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec. She holds a master's degree in Anthropology (Université de Montréal) and a PhD in Art Education (Concordia University). Her doctoral in research-(co)creation earned her the Governor General's Gold Medal and the COHDS Distinction Award in Oral History. She is a postdoctoral fellow (Université Laval), graphic facilitator and lecturer, and has worked with Indigenous Peoples for more than 12 years.

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