Film Night - The Two Worlds of the Innu

bristol | miscellaneous | event notice Tuesday January 13, 2009 16:31 by Nick Thomas - The Pierian Centre info at pieriancentre dot com The Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA 0117 924 4512

Two leading experts on the Innu are coming to Bristol’s Pierian Centre to lay bare the predicament of the indigenous people of Labrador. James Wilson’s film and Colin Samson’s illustrated talk will explain why the situation has been called “Canada’s Tibet”. This rare chance to find out how the modern world treats tribal people is at 7.30pm on Sunday 25th January.

Transmission or Incomprehension (by Serge Jauvin - Survival)

The Innu are virtually unknown to the outside world – and shouldn’t be confused with their Arctic neighbours, the Inuit. They live in one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth – the vast sub-Arctic peninsula of Labrador-Quebec – but they suffer the highest suicide rate of people anywhere. Their land is being commandeered for military bases and iron ore mines, and the migratory way of life they’ve followed for thousands of years is being halted. And this is not sepia-tinted history – this has all happened in the last 50 years. The Innu have never signed their land away to anyone – and yet Canada claims an absolute authority over their territory and their lives.

James Wilson’s BBC film The Two Worlds of the Innu is an intimate portrait of 2 Innu families, caught between the shamanistic hunting life of their ancestors and the desolate world of the government’s resettlement villages. They’ve gained virtually nothing, and they’ve risked social and cultural disintegration. “The consequences are tragic,” says James, “the loss of self-reliance and a sense of well-being, the despoliation of their land, and the destruction of the knowledge and values that have allowed them to live on it sustainably for countless generations.”

Colin Samson will follow James’ 1994 film with an illustrated talk bringing events up to date. He will detail the Innu’s fight to maintain their land-based way of life through hunting, education and even community archaeology. He will also examine the continuing obstacles of land claims, resource extraction, the demands of Euro-Canadian society, and the legacy that past traumas inflict on the Innu of today. “My first commitment”, says Colin, “is to the desires expressed by countless Innu that their integrity as a people be recognized and respected.”

Colin first visited the Innu with James Wilson in 1994, and has been a frequent visitor to their settlements and hunting camps since then. His book on their forced assimilation, A Way of Life that Does Not Exist: Canada and the Extinguishment of the Innu ¬won the Pierre Savard Award in 2006. Colin is Director of the Humanities programme at the University of Essex. James is the author of four novels for Faber, plays for stage & radio, and an award-winning history of Native Americans, The Earth Shall Weep. He lives in Bristol.

The Innu evening is Sunday 25th January at the Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA. The Bar opens at 7pm; and the screening starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £4.50 (concs available), and booking is recommended on 0117 924 4512 or info@pieriancentre.com.