Allan Saganash
June 17, 2011
Waswanipi

"They don't use them because they don't understand them."

Allan Saganash, Eeyou

When he was chief, Allan Saganash's grandfather saw Non-Natives—prospectors—people he had never met before, who drove the animals away. Even then, he spoke of the importance of protecting the territory. So, Allan Saganash works with maps. Some are kept secret and belong to the families. They indicate access to trails, moose, bear dens and fishing areas. Others are used in consultation meetings with the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs for forest planning. They focus on the traplines and territories where families live, hunt and fish. Only a few companies use them.

Extreme close-up of documents on a desk. A resolution of the Cree Council of Waswanipi regarding protected territories. Hands turn the pages, revealing a map.

Allan Saganash

So, when you talk about, uh, did you get it? When you talk about, uh, protecting, the protection, the importance of the territory and its usage, we have to, uh, to do a mapping process where we identify areas that we use, how the importance of it in order to let the companies know, the forestry development people know that these important areas, they come up…

Still in an extreme close-up, Alan Saganash unfolds another map and hides elements of legends that are confidential.

They come up with family names, OK? It’s OK? This is confidential, that’s why I’m hiding this. This is, this is one trap line for example. I use my family’s trap line because I’m not allowed to use the other ones. I got the OK from my brother to use it for the informations. What you see here, everything is numbered, where the access trails are, where the moose areas, bear dens, the fishing areas and they’re all numbered and they, the data basis here, what they are. For instance, number one, it’s a permanent campsite, OK?

Close-up of the legend. A grid details the numbered elements.

And it describes each area, how it is.

Fade to black. Following scene. Extreme close-up of Allan Saganash’s hands, showing elements on the map. Icons of tents, moose, bears, and snowmobile trails are visible.

These are Cree camps; do you see the Cree camps here? The burial sites, OK? And all the names here. It’s, it’s very, it’s very, uh, it’s a lot of information, condensed, but the companies never see this, never see what this is, because of confidentiality. A lot of people say, I’ll do, I’ll show you where my good spawning areas are, or moose or bear dens, but you don’t want everybody to know, you know? So we had to come up with another map, it’s called a forest planning support map. OK?

Allan Saganash unfolds another map. The camera continues to show a close-up of the desk where the maps are piled up. The new map also shows snowmobile trails, but no icons are shown.

This forest planning support map gives you an idea of what these are, but these are very distinct points, these are not, they’re like, uh, global. They’re global, you see. For instance, these areas here, they don’t tell you what it is, you don’t see the bear dens, you don’t see the moose areas, they are global, like this, you don’t what this, if you… Look, you don’t know what it is, but if you look at this map, you will know what it is, by this. OK? They’re like global. This is what, uh, what, uh, the companies use but only on the condition that they don’t give this information to anybody else, so we have to sign an agreement, you use it only for your forestry planning, you can’t pass it to a third party, and they keep it. So each company has this map.

The camera moves to the right to show a close-up of the signed confidentiality clauses to the right of the map, under the legend.

Interviewer

Do they respect?

Allan Saganash

What?

Interviewer

Do they respect?

Allan Saganash

No, and I was coming to that, they don’t use it because they don’t understand it.

The camera remains in extreme close-up mode, showing the logos in the lower right corner of the map, and returns to the hands of Allan Saganash at the centre of the map, where there is a grid.

What’s so difficult about telling you that this is a very important area, and you come back and do your forestry planning, and your planning there says well, it’s important, so I’m going to have a different method of planning here, it’s a sensitive area, so you say I’ll do some, uh, mosaic cutting where I can leave some, uh, residual forest, things like that, they don’t do it. A lot of them don’t, some of them do. It’s, it’s, uh, it did cost a lot of money to do this because you’re talking about 62 trap lines, and I had to hire some people to pinpoint the importance of the trap lines, the important use of the territory and it’s all documented here.

Extreme close-up of Allan Saganash’s face.

And even this, they have this, they know where the all the areas are. We use this map to our argument, to extend buffers on water bodies. We tell them, “The water bodies are the most important part of the trap lines for the Cree people, because that is where they live, that’s where they hunt, they fish and trap, OK?”

Zoom out and back to a close-up of the map.

And yet they don’t seem to understand that. Their activities are fishing, in the water, yes, but for a Cree, it goes much further than that.

The camera exits its close-up of Allan Saganash. He is wearing a red shirt. Behind him is a bookshelf filled with numbered binders.

Like I said, in the past, in my father’s generation, and his grandfather, there is very little development on the territory, and yet they were still talking about protecting the area. My grandfather was a chief at that time, 75 years ago, he talks about the importance of the territory and what should be done.

Tite McKenzie
March 4, 2011
Matimekush-Lac John

"Winter is white, but summer is red!"

Tite McKenzie, Innu

Indigenous peoples have occupied the territory for millennia; companies come and go. They leave behind disused installations that are clearly visible, and many invisible materials. They put up DANGER signs but don’t say from what dangers, current and future, you should protect yourself from. Tite McKenzie witnessed the closure of a mine and the town it created: Shefferville. He saw the population leave while he stayed. He knows that in the territory, there is the land, the one his ancestors walked on, free of DANGER signs.

Tite McKenzie is at the wheel of a moving car. The camera has been installed on the passenger side, at a low angle. Trees and snow-covered territory can be seen flying be through the window.

Interviewer

Once again, the question: uh, in '83, when the... the mines closed, how did it happen?

Tite McKenzie

If I’m not mistaken, it closed in '82. Yes, it closed in '82. But, what happened... Of course, the radio stations... the TV stations came here to film, uh, how people were taking it. But they took more footage in the white community than in the Indigenous community. How the whites were taking it. Well, I watched the documentary, the people who were crying, they didn't know where to go, they had lost their jobs.

Interviewer

And as for the Innu, they didn't come ask you how you felt and what...?

Tite McKenzie

No. We didn't cry. And we were waiting, waiting to see what would happen. You could see everyone leaving.

Interviewer

The village, the city... Schefferville, how long before it was cleared out. Of white people, I mean. They left rather quickly….they left, uh...

Tite McKenzie

It cleared out in maybe... 2 or 3 years, maybe. Not many people, non-Indigenous people, stayed. Maybe 150 people. The remaining 1500 or so Indigenous people who stayed were Naskapi and Montagnais. It didn't much… It had an effect regarding work, but it gave them a chance to hunt. For instance, the caribou could get closer to the village. It was their hope to stay. As long as they could hunt... that encouraged them to stay. Thirty years. It remained this way for 30 years. And each year was the same. Now that there’s the Northern Plan, people will come back. How long will they remain? I don't know.

Fade out.

Tite McKenzie stands to the right of a yellow diamond-shaped road sign with the word Danger written in Naskapi syllabics, French/English and Innu (Kushtakuan). In the distance, snow-covered mine holes, some rocks and several trees are visible. Electric wires run through the screen from left to right.

Tite McKenzie

You see that Danger sign? And what’s behind that sign? Danger. And what’s behind the Danger? Our lands! Our lands still exist without any danger for us. That's why I told you that behind the sign, there was still something there.

Tite McKenzie turns away from the camera and looks at the sign.