Music Is Like A Heartbeat

Music from the North

Adamie Philie. Bobby Himasaut. Noah Jaaka
May 25, 2011
Kangiqsujuaq

"Life in the village influences our music."

Adamie Philie, Inuit

Nunavik. Three young friends play music in the weight room of the Kangiqsujuaq arena. It’s the only place they’ve found where they won’t disturb the neighbours, but their passion is stronger than the lack of a permanent location. They have fun and express themselves through the songs they compose and those by the heavy metal bands they cover. Their music can be heard at proms, festivals and, thanks to community radio stations, throughout all of Nunavik, with the rich sounds of Inuktitut, the northern language that Adamie Philie, Bobby Himasaul and Joah Jaaka bring to life far beyond this weight room in Kangiqsujuaq.

Transcript

Inside. Sitting at the kitchen table, 3 young men.

Interviewer (off voice)

So, let’s talk about your music. You have a group?

Camera pans in close up over each of them.

Adamie

It’s been three years now and we made 10 songs and did about 12 concerts. One was out of town too and it was really awesome because we got paid $100 a song each. It was awesome.

Bobby

It was one of the best concert we had.

Adamie

It was a good experience too, there were other people too who were playing good music, good rappers too, Inuit. So we had a good concert back then and after that we were invited to make another concert, so we get more paid, it was like our job by playing music. It was cool.

Cross-fade to a wide angle where we see all three of them.

Interviewer (off voice)

Where do you play, where do you jam?

Noah

Mostly our alternative and rock.

Adamie

And we don’t have anywhere to go to practice because we make lots of noise.

Noah

That’s what our neighbours say and we can’t play at our shack because it’s too loud, so we have to turn down but the drums can’t turn down.

Laughs.

Adamie

There is no volume on drums.

Noah

We used to play at the arena, the weight lifting room, that’s where we practice right now. We plan to have another concert at Prom night in school.

Cross-fade to Bobby and Adamie.

Bobby

And we were on the radio, all over Nunavik.

Noah (off voice)

On the best days of concert, we were on the air of Nunavik.

Cross-fade to Noah.

Noah

We had to practice a lot, and learn new songs too because we played the same old songs.

Zoom out to Noah and Bobby.

Bobby

We also played cover songs

Noah

Like Hollywood, I’m dead, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, System of a Down, things like that.

Adamie (off voice)

And sometimes we would make up songs, just to make more money.

Laughs.

Camera pans towards Adamie.

Adamie

It works, it works.

Cross-fade to all three.

Adamie

Some of my lyrics talk about my love life and stuff and the opposite of love life too and you know when your write stuff it’s good to put your feelings out too; it feels good. That’s what I was doing too but at the same time they were rhyming. I could show you some lyrics but I don’t have it on me.

Noah

I have his lyrics at home.

Adamie

Really? OK.

Laughs.

Adamie

I made one in French, it was tough I made some in Inuktitut, it was too easy.

Laughs.

Interviewer (off voice)

French was tough but Inuktitut was easy?

Cross-fade to same camera plan.

Adamie:

Because in Inuktitut it’s really easy to rhyme stuff. You can end anything with the same symbol.

Interviewer (off voice) :

Do you think your life in the village influences your compositions and your way of making music?

Adamie:

I would say yes, but since I moved down south, I haven’t made music lately because I barely have friends, guys, like these two puppies…

Laughs.

Adamie:

When I’m down south I barely touch my guitar. But since I arrived here I feel like playing music more lately, just by seeing those two. But the songs, the lyrics, when we’re looking at it close, it really shows that it’s Inuk who’s writing those songs, it really shows that it’s not…

Noah:

A professional writing.

Adamie:

Yeah, you could say that.

Singing in a Choir

Bruno Kistabish. Tom Mapachee
June 28, 2011
Pikogan

"It's not about selling our culture, it's about sharing it!"

Tom Mapachee, Anishnabe

Music is a valuable tool for intercultural rapprochement. It creates opportunities for encounters and exchanges. It allows one to express the love they have for their language and culture and the desire to keep them alive and promote them. Friendships are born around a score, like here with the choir of Christ-Roi d'Amos parish, where Non-Natives and Indigenous are in sync. When shared, music opens the door to a new way of living together, based on harmony, mutual knowledge and recognition.

Transcript

Indoors.

Close-up on Tom.

Interviewer (voiceover)

Those of you here in Pikogan have worked hard to maintain good relations with Amos. If you hadn't taken the lead, the situation wouldn't have been the same.

Tom

Well, yes. We’re noticeable in Amos, when there are activities. Look, this coming Thursday night, it's almost Anishinabe night. We'll be there.

Interviewer (voiceover)

Yes, there will be Samian, and others.

Tom

And the dancers.

Bruno (voiceover)

And, we’re in the parade.

Tom

There will be people in costume parading around.

Bruno (voiceover)

The community radio station will be there. It broadcasts live from the parade.

Horizontal panoramic towards the right, till Bruno.

We’re noticeable. And that's what we want, exposure. Because in Richard Desjardins' film, “Le peuple invisible” (The Invisible People), it’s alright, but it’s 2012. We have to be noticed and get some exposure.

Crossfade transition. Tight close-up on Tom.

Tom

I think that the more we do things with the people around us, the more we’ll be able to get the support of these people; they understand our claims of such things.

Crossfade. Wide shot where Tom and Bruno can both be seen. They’re sitting at a table in a conference room.

Just a quick side note; I’m part of the King Christ's choir at church, and I taught them to sing in Algonquin, the hymns we sang here. They learned it in no time, and they find it really fun! The church is full and now they sing in Algonquin.

Laughter.

Interviewer (voiceover)

Deep down, it must be good for everyone.

Tom

Exactly. And they’ve asked me to bring more songs. I said, “"Holy! That’s great because I offered it to them; for fun, there's certainly a way to sing...” They said, “Write it down so we can read it.” So I adapted the words so they could. And they sing exactly the same, just like our parents, our grandparents sang in church, except that these are white people singing.

Laughter.

Interviewer (voiceover)

It's beautiful. It's nice.

Bruno

They sing in Algonquin, yes. I went there. During Christmas time. They had sung....

Tom

Christmas carols.

Horizontal panoramic towards the left and zoom on Tom.

I have always tried to do as much as possible, not sell the culture, but share the culture. We learned French [...]

Tom brings his left hand towards his chest and touches the clip-on microphone.

Why shouldn’t we show things to white people who have an interest?

To inform them so that they may better understand us, so that they may know us. And when they hear about the claims, they’ll say...We have the support of many people. They’ll understand better.

Innu Nikamu – A Festival — A Movie

October 10, 2017
Mani-Utenam

"Innu Nikamu uses a peaceful message: song."

Kevin Bacon Hervieux, Innu

For Indigenous communities, festivals like huge loudspeakers that showcase the creative energy of First Nations and Inuit people. They provide a stage and a platform for young artists and the people who inspired them. They play a unique role in the reappropriation of Indigenous cultures and languages and finding the rhythm of an identity actively asserting itself and looking to express itself. They build bridges across rivers of indifference and prejudice and bring families and nations together for festive and unforgettable moments shared with people from all walks of life that are hungry for discovery. This is illustrated by Innu director Kevin Bacon Hervieux in his film Innu Nikamu: Singing the Resistance.

play_video

Transcript of an article published in the Culture booklet, section B8 of the newspaper Le Devoir, on Tuesday, October 10, 2017.

“Innu Nikamu”, the history behind an exceptional festival in Maliotenam by Caroline Montpetit

The narrative framework of Kevin Bacon Hervieux's documentary “Innu Nikamu”, expresses real facts. Furthermore, it discerns an impressive symbolic significance. The film recounts the history of the Innu Nikamu Festival, which has celebrated the culture of First Nations for 34 years in the Innu reserve of Maliotenam, on the North Shore. Since the beginning, this festival has taken place on the ruins of the Maliotenam residential school, built in 1952 and destroyed in 1970, after having housed thousands of children.

Until 2011, only the former shoemaker's shop remained, where the festival had established its offices. “After a while, we wondered why certain people never came to the festival,” says Kevin Bacon Hervieux, who’s also one of the organizers of the event. Shortly after the revelations of abuse committed at the residential school and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the festival team learned that many abuses had been committed in this very shoemaking facility during the residential school years. In 2011, the community burnt the building with tobacco, which has a sacred value in Innu culture. “People felt relieved”, says Kevin Bacon Hervieux.

The Innu Nikamu Festival stems from Florent Vollant’s collaboration with a few artists, who had gathered to perform on a small stage in Maliotenam. The gathering steadily took root in Indigenous community. Today, it welcomes renowned non-Indigenous artists, such as Simple Plan and, at an earlier stage, Blue Rodeo. The documentary explains how artists gradually returned to singing in Innu, while many had given up using their mother tongue. It was the singer Philippe McKenzie, introduced in the film, who paved the way for this trend which gave rise to the group Kashtin, which was a great success in the 1980s.

In an interview in the film, Florent Vollant also states that the growth of Kashtin's popularity was interrupted because radio stations boycotted the group during the Oka crisis in the summer of 1990. Even though the group had been going strong, it never recovered afterwards.

Since the beginning, the Innu Nikamu Festival has also had the distinction of being an alcohol-free festival, which sometimes complicates funding. One of the organizers explains in the documentary how he organized an illegal bingo night to raise financing, before being brought to court. The judge ultimately fined the festival $250, which he offered to pay out of his own pocket!

“Florent Vollant was very adamant that this festival be alcohol-free,” said Kevin Bacon Hervieux during the interview. The 25-year-old director also believes that if there had been alcohol, hence too much alcohol, the event would no longer be held today.

Music from the North

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