THE LAUGHING PEOPLE A Tribute to My Innu Friends

BOUCHARD Serge, LEVESQUE Marie-Christine, LUND Craig

ISBN 10: 0228008123 / ISBN 13: 9780228008125

Published by McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021. 9780228008125, 2021

About this Item

1st edn. 8vo. Original silver lettered black cloth (Fine), dustwrapper (Fine). Pp. xix + 212 (no inscriptions).

Seller Inventory # 161043

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE LAUGHING PEOPLE A Tribute to My Innu Friends
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021. 9780228008125
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228008123
• ISBN 13: 9780228008125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Modern History

About this title

Synopsis

The Laughing People, translated from the award-winning Le peuple rieur, conveys the richness and resilience of the Innu while reminding us of the forces – old and new – that threaten their community. This memoir and tribute tells the tale of the very long journey of a very small nation, recounting both its joie de vivre and its crosses borne. Readers follow Serge Bouchard, a young anthropologist in the 1970s, as he arrives in Ekuanitshit (Mingan, Quebec) and comes to know its residents. His observations and questions document a community weathering yet another season of change – skidoos replace dogsleds and forests are bulldozed for prefabricated housing – while nonetheless defying external pressures to assimilate or disappear altogether. Returning to these texts fifty years later, Bouchard moves beyond platitudes of strength and dives into wide-scale injustices to present the sacrifices and beauty of the Innu people on individual terms. Whether recounting the impact of the residential school system on Georges Mestokosho, the wave of Innu activism inspired by An Antane Kapesh, or the uncelebrated work of women like Nishapet Enim, The Laughing People presents an opportunity for readers to be part of the preservation and proliferation of these important stories.

About the Author

Serge Bouchard (1948-2021), a renowned broadcaster with Radio-Canada and a prolific French-language author, received the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction for Les yeux tristes de mon camion and the Prix Victor-Barbeau from the Académie des lettres du Québec for Le peuple rieur. Marie-Christine Lévesque (1958–2020), Serge Bouchard's partner, was an editor and regular contributor to his books.