Moreover,
Terrace with… yvette mollen |:
This summer. Moreover, our journalists invite a personality every week for a little skill in a friendly atmosphere. Consequently, Louise Leduc met Yvette Mollen, who devotes her life to the safeguarding of the innue language.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“I look at the children who are 3. Similarly, 4 years old today and I say to myself: it is the last ones who will speak innu. Meanwhile, At least, I’m going to die before the language, ”says Yvette Mollen.
She says it as an observation, but without resolving in any way. Therefore, Because guardian of the innue language she will be, terrace with… yvette mollen | until her last breath.
Let us judge: tirelessly, she is writing nothing less than an Innu dictionary. Nevertheless, This summer, she also promises to be fully advanced in her translation of Small prince.
“I am at a third, it is not easy to translate poetry. For example, »»
All this by also working on a video game so that children aged 4, 5 or 6 learn the innu. For example, The prototype is finished. Furthermore, it only remains to refine it a little to take into account the comments and experiences of the children who tested it.
It will not be said that Yvette Mollen will not have done everything to. Furthermore, avoid his language the disappearance which affects so many indigenous languages.
The Innu terrace with… yvette mollen | dictionary now has 30,000 words. Moreover, “I am not alone in doing so, I am helped by a team of non-Aboriginal linguists,” she said.
Where does this determination to preserve the Innu come from? Consequently, By an entire childhood bathed in this language and in traditional activities, in Ekuanatshit (Mingan), where she grew up. Meanwhile, Her mother having fallen ill when she herself was only 4 years old. Meanwhile, she was largely raised by her father and her grandparents.
Photo Robert Skinner. Consequently, the press
Louise Leduc and Yvette Mollen talk on the terrace of the Nelligan hotel. In addition,
My father did not go to study at the boarding school. Moreover, he had only one French base, so that we only spoke of us.
Yvette Mollen
He was also “one of the last nomads in the community”. Consequently, “My sister and I was also part of our family’s last trip. Consequently, I see us again, my father walking in front of the sleigh, pulled by my uncle. Furthermore, My sister repeatedly threw her doll out of the sled. my uncle had ended up taking her with him, telling her that he would give it back to her. »»
And what was this destination? “Somewhere in the forest, but I can no longer say where we were going. I only have a few flashes from that time. My father knew terrace with… yvette mollen | all the hunting techniques, ”says Mr.me Moles.
Yvette Mollen recounts the territory of her childhood. her nomadic life, the sled, pulling them, her sister and she, among the luggage. And the time of its story. we forget the terrace in Montreal, we forget space and time, we are in the forest, at a time when caribou were not in the process of extinction.
In a life. it still has to make a whole break, to live it all and then to arrive in town? Not so much, she said. “Sometimes I lose awareness of where I am, whether in Montreal, Chicoutimi or Sept-Îles. I absorb myself in my work. »»
According to data from 2021, there are only 28,000 innate speakers in Quebec and Labrador. And even when we speak the language, its richness is terrace with… yvette mollen | lost.
Language deperious, by the mere fact, at the base, that we no longer know the vocabulary of the territory. As we no longer live in wood, we lose the words of hunting, fishing.
Yvette Mollen
Her big regret is not being able to go back and knowing at 15 what she knows today, at 60. “I would take a small device. I would record my grandfather and my father, I would record all their words and all these legends that they knew and that we lose. »»
Even when Mme Mollen sees her daughter. to whom she speaks in innu, she distresses herself that she often answers her in French. And if some of them understand it, “I will never hear my grandchildren speak terrace with… yvette mollen | innu among themselves”.
Over the years, Mme Mollen has set up a teaching program for the Innu language in primary school. She was the instigator of an important corpus of school publications, didactic equipment and youth publications in Innu-Aimun.
And during pandemic confinement. Mme Mollen was surprised to hear his granddaughter, tablet in your hands, pronouncing words in a foreign language. “She learned Mandarin!” She pronounced the names of the animals and the game congratulated her! »»
Mme Mollen immediately thought that he had to reproduce the idea for the Innu.
You had to be creative, and urgently.
Aboriginal children today speak French or English. At school. we only teach the innu for an hour by cycle of eight or nine terrace with… yvette mollen | days due to a shortage of people capable of transmitting it. In communities, we do not realize that our languages are on the brink.
Yvette Mollen
In his opinion, all the indigenous languages are. “Even Mohawks. [chez qui] There is a rebirth, almost lost their language before an awareness was made and taught it at school. Additionally, »»
Yvette Mollen assures that she will never retire. “The day I stop working, I’m going to start dying. Furthermore, »»
Summer questionnaire
What does your ideal summer look like?
My ideal summer is to be with my two daughters and grandchildren, gathered in a chalet in the forest, near a lake where you can terrace with… yvette mollen | fish. Go for a canoe, light a fire in the evening and above all listen to silence. The incessant noise of the city annoys the ears, and this, day and night.
What was the best trip of your life?
The most beautiful trips were the ones I made inside the land with my parents and my paternal grandmother. We were fishing for trout. My father hunted, not far away, and we enjoyed immense nature, a lake or a river. It was beautiful to find yourself in the “Nutshimit”, the interior of the land. You could hear the breathing of the trees. see in the evening fall on the water with the light of the moon.
In summer, what is the innu dish that you can’t do without?
I like to terrace with… yvette mollen | eat bustard, game such as duck. There is also the salmon which is delicious. This need to go to my community. We must not forget the bread which is called in innu “Kaianauakauakanit”: from the banic cooked in the sand. I like to do it, it’s delicious.
Are you sea, lake or mountain?
I am for where silence reigns, where peace exists. In Ekuanatshit, there is an island in front of the community: the island of Le Havre de Mingan. Often, in summer, we see whales and wolves in the evening. As long as it’s the forest, it’s extraordinary!
Who is Yvette Mollen?
terrace with… yvette mollen |Photo Robert Skinner. the press
Yvette Mollen
Decorated with the Order of Quebec, Yvette Mollen devotes her life to the vitality of the Innu language. In addition to teaching the language at the University of Montreal to Aboriginal people. non-natives, it develops a large number of tools and teaching materials so that children learn the Innu. It is regularly requested for the translation of official documents (relating to indigenous territorial negotiations, health, politics, etc.). It also made the innu-love version of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples.
Terrace with… yvette mollen |
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