Waswanipi

"Jean-Yves Soucy's story and encounter with my Dad provides a charming glimpse into a changing world, for us all." Romeo Saganash It's 1963, Jean-Yves Soucy is 18 and dreams of being a fire warden scanning the boreal forest from a fire tower. But he ends up at an equipment depot between Val-d'Or and Chibougamau. To his delight, he is located near the Cree community of Wawanipi. With two Cree guides, including a man named William Saganash, he will be canoeing through the lakes and rivers of the region. On each encounter with the Crees, Jean-Yves expects to see a new world.
Instead, he meets a different civilization, as different from his own as Chinese civilization. Yet he knows nothing about it. He wrote Waswanipi because Romeo Saganash, son of William, insisted: "You have to write that, Jean-Yves. About your relationship with my father and the others, how you saw the village. You got to see the end of an era." Provides a Cree-English glossary. Jean-Yves Soucy (1945-2017) was an award-winning writer, publisher, journalist and scriptwriter, based in Montreal.
His previous work in English includes Family Secrets, The Controversial & Schocking Story of the Dionne Quintuplettes and A Summer Without Dawn. Romeo Saganash, born in 1961 on the shores of a lake in his parents' tent near Waswanipi, is a former Deputy Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Cree. He was MP for Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou from 2011-2019. Peter McCambridge is an award-winning Quebec City translator and Fiction Editor of QC Fiction. In the media "Waswanipi is both a breezy summertime read, a slim and lively book that can be devoured in an afternoon, and a story brimming with big ideas to be savoured slowly.
Soucy demonstrates great storytelling with an impressive memory for details and the translation is expertly handled by Peter McCambridge. It's a valuable resource from an anthropological perspective, helping both Cree readers to learn about a valuable part of their own history and outsiders 'to get to the heart of the Cree soul, ' as Soucy puts it." Patrick Quinn, The Nation (Cree Nation News) "Soucy's narrative vividly recalls a time when the traditional life - living off the land, hunting, fishing, gathering - was still possible for the Cree community ..
What makes Waswanipi compelling . is (his) astute observation and recollection.. Soucy's reflections are made more poignant and powerful by the inclusion of an epilogue by William's son, Romeo Saganash." Julie McGonegal, Quill & Quire "A book that feels like a movie." Mathieu Lavigne, Radio Ville-Marie "an appeal to generosity and openness. This beautifully written-and witty-story becomes particularly significant through the encounter of two cultures, the overcoming of ignorance or distrust that separates them." Nuit Blanche "like a summer gift, to be savoured, slowly." Yvon Paré Litterature du Québec