Singing in our Ancestors’ Language

Cléophée Lachapelle. Mylène Trudeau. Charlotte Gauthier-Nolett
October 27, 2018
Odanak

"It moves me."

Cléophée Lachapelle, Waban-Aki

Singing. That’s what the members of the Aw8sissak Akik troop from Odanak are doing. Most of them are women. They sing to make the voices of their ancestors and the compositions of the people in their community heard, to gather, to celebrate or to remember. They sing to make the Wabanaki language resonate, to make it loved and to trigger the desire to learn it. They sing to express their pride in belonging to this nation and to keep their culture alive. They sing because it's important and because they love it.