Five films to discover the many faces of Québec, explore its heritage, and spark conversations — created for newcomers! Available free of charge!
Synopsis
A conversation between a mother and her daughter; memories of passing from the hut to the house.
A word from Tënk
This film is part of our Welcome Films program, which offers newcomers a window into Québec’s past and present. Available to watch for free!
“Certainly, this film would have moved me differently when I first arrived than it does today. Back then, I might have found it… folkloric! Today, I find it deeply meaningful, and it moves me a great deal. It’s important to watch this film because it truly contributes to a better understanding of what Quebec is. It speaks to us about history, it speaks to us about the present. It speaks to us about identity and different cultures. It is a cultural gesture by a people seeking to reaffirm themselves on their own territory, to reconnect with their culture, and to reclaim their ability to pass on knowledge.”
Céline Lafontaine
French, living in Quebec since 2014
If you want to go further
- Have you had the chance to talk with your parents about their past?
- What do you know about the history of your ancestors?
- Did your country of origin experience a very rapid modernization?
- Before coming to Quebec, did you know that there were eleven Indigenous nations in addition to the Francophone and Anglophone communities?
- Does the film make you want to learn more about Indigenous nations?
Points for reflection
Inniun ueshkat mak anutshish gives us access to little-known chapters of Quebec’s history — crucial fragments that should be shared with newcomers to help them develop a more complete understanding of the society they are joining. Through a simple, understated, and intimate work, the film makes it possible to address a darker side of our past: colonization and the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples.
The film makes the impacts of sedentarization on a people visible and understandable on a human scale. In a single generation, life was completely transformed. Through a conversation between a mother and her daughter, a few family archives, and the superimposition of ultra-modern everyday objects onto the fabric of the tent of the past, the immense rupture between a traditional way of life and contemporary life is conveyed to us.
While the documentary opens a window onto the history of the First Nations of Quebec, it also creates space to reflect on the diverse realities of newcomers, who may themselves come from Indigenous communities, from formerly colonized countries, or from places with complex histories involving their own First Peoples. All countries have dark chapters in their national histories, and it is important to be able to engage in conversations around these collective traumas in order to move beyond them.
Inniun ueshkat mak anutshish also speaks to beautiful and inspiring things: it sheds light on a process of cultural reclamation; it tells the story of a proud and dignified people who succeed in passing on their memory; it speaks of mother-daughter bonds nurtured through a serene and profound conversation; it speaks of resilience and strength.
