An Antane Kapesh
An Antane Kapesh is one of the first Innu authors. She was born in 1923 on the territory of her ancestors. For the first twenty years of her life, she lived a traditional nomadic lifestyle. In 1953, the recent creation of the Mani-Utenam reserve led to the displacement and forced sedentarism of her family, who found themselves uprooted from their territory.
An Antane Kapesh has dedicated her life to protecting the territory, its culture and language. Her first book, Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushkueu/Je suis une maudite Sauvagesse, was published in 1976 by Éditions Leméac. In it, she denounces the effects of colonization and asserts her pride in belonging to the Innu culture.
The book was first published in 1976. Out of print and never reprinted, it was under the impetus of Innu writer Naomi Fontaine that An Antane Kapesh’s words were given a second lease of life, she sensing that behind this no-longer-existing book lay “the refusal to hear”. Published by Mémoire d’encrier in 2019, this book symbolizes “the precious gift we give to History”.
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