Teaching Indigenous Literatures in French and in Translation

Indigenous literatures written in French are slowly, but surely, gaining attention among scholars, teachers, and students. Across Anglo-Canada, works in translation are now being studied and taught, and brought into conversation with works written in English. In Québec, the latter are being translated into French, thus making it easier for educators not only to include Indigenous content in their syllabi, but also to understand better the specific and contextual epistemologies from which these texts arise. However, compared to the study of Indigenous literatures across the rest of Canada, an awareness and recognition of the importance of this corpus as distinct by postsecondary and academic institutions is still at a fledging stage in Québec. As a result, many students come to graduate studies without having ever encountered or read an Indigenous text.

In this article, I want to discuss how I have sought to integrate Indigenous texts into all of my classes over a number of years; how, first, without works in translation, creating bilingual syllabi and presentations became necessary, as was the conception of terminology, that still often left much to be desired, from one colonial language to the other—for instance, the word kinship, as used by Cherokee scholar Daniel Heath Justice, or embodiment, as used by Anishinaabe writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. From a theoretical perspective, how do we approach Indigenous texts, when the critical tools used in Francophone institutions are still largely anchored in traditional, Eurocentric literary analysis? How do we integrate critical race studies, settler colonial studies, or decolonial approaches into our pedagogies, when the institutions for which we work still shelve Indigenous literary texts in the anthropology section?¹ How do we teach thinkers like Womack, Ortiz, or Justice—who have not yet been translated—and apply their teachings on linguistic and cultural nationalism to the Francophone context, a context that—especially in Québec—is itself fraught with similar tensions? And how might these teachings be applied—or how might they inform—our readings of Indigenous texts written in French?

1. introductory position

As a settler scholar, at the start of every class, I begin with a territorial acknowledgment, followed by these words: "Territorial acknowledgments continue to have the power to disrupt and discomfit settler colonialism; but, according to Métis activist Chelsea Vowel, if one fails to situate oneself, one risks forms of complacency. So, I would like to situate myself, as a guest on this land, and as someone whose work seeks to contribute towards being a better guest, and building better relations, within a context of settler colonialism." Teaching in French means that terms such as 'settler,' 'settler colonialism,' and 'guest' need to be carefully unpacked—terms that we use within the Anglophone critical world relatively easily. To start, the term 'settler' in French is colon, as in the case of 'first or early settler.' From a contemporary perspective, however, it is somewhat derogatory: as a québécisme, it means une personne peu raffinée, a rather unrefined, uneducated person. I thus explain the term as rooting from the verb 'to settle' or s'établir (to set up residence). I give the example of my colleague and friend Sam McKegney, whose article "Strategies for Ethical Engagement" has been translated into French, and whose family has been settled for several generations in Ontario. In my case, my family never settled—when I was seven, my parents decided to return to Europe.² I returned in 2004 to Montreal, but neither there nor here (Vancouver), do I feel settled; these are spaces, rather, that I live in, inhabit, and to an extent, occupy. Which brings me to explain how while I introduce myself in English as a 'settler scholar,' in French I prefer the term chercheure occupante.³ This, in turn, works well with the French translation of 'settler colonialism': colonialisme d'occupation. From there, I draw upon another mentor, the late Renate Eigenbrod who, in Travelling Knowledges, writes about being "a facilitator for the discussion of [Indigenous] literatures" (8), albeit from "a positionality of non-authority" (143); much like the evolving nature of the field...