April 5, 2019
Mennonite Central Committee has closed down their Labrador program. I went for the closing program held March 30. As the program was to be only two hours, I thought I would do some visiting of old friends and introduce myself to new ones.
My first stop was St. John’s. I wanted to see Camille Fouillard who has been instrumental in getting Nutaui’s Cap published. She lives in one of the picturesque row houses in the Newfoundland capital. I can’t thank her enough for all the work she has done. Meeting me at the hotel, she took me down to Tors Cove to meet Marnie Parsons at her house and print shop. Marnie has several vintage printing presses where she prints books with limited number of copies on special paper. I hadn’t seen Camille for thirty years, so there was a great deal of news to catch up on the trip to and from Tors Cove. Many of leaders I spent time with in Sheshatshiu have passed on including Daniel Ashini, Ben Michel, and Greg Penashue, Camille is still very much associated with Sheshatshiu as she works as the curriculum developer for the two Innu schools.
The next day I took the flight to Happy Valley/Goose Bay. Much has changed in the thirty years I have been absent and it was difficult to recognize many of the places I used to roam. Gone were the jet fighters who practiced low- level flights except for two old relics on display at the airport. The air forces of NATO had found new ways to bomb enemies with drones and the need for a tactical fighter and weapons training centre disappeared. Moreover record amounts of snow (more than 530 cm) hid many of the landmarks. I didn’t even recognize the house, we had lived in for the final years of our stay.
The highlight of Friday, was meeting Nanass for the first time. What a remarkable woman! I met her at the Sheshatshiu school. She confirmed for me the major events of the story, her fishing with her father, being overflown many times, and joining every protest.
On Saturday I met with Nanas’ mother, Leila Andrew. Leila was the social worker fired along with the MCC social worker for not following Newfoundland policies of deducting benefits from Innu households having more than one family inside a home. The government assumed the extra people living in the homes paid rent and thus benefits should be deducted. This was another case of the government not understanding Innu culture.
We also met Lem and Darla Seaward, old MCC friends, Manimat Andrew who told me the Nanas story thirty years ago, Elizabeth Penashue who was one of the leaders of the protests and spent a good deal of time in prison, Peter Penashue who was also was one of the leaders and his wife Elizabeth who is the illustrator of Nutaui’s Cap. It was a special time. A special thank you goes to Rick Cober Bauman MCC Executive Director, who showed me around Sheshatshiu. When Rick asked Elder Elizabeth Penashue if she remembered me, she smiled and said, “Big Protest Man.” It made my day.
The photo above shows the house we lived in amidst the snow. I’m glad I didn’t have to shovel.