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naskapi Two Wolverine Stories Introduction by Julie Brittain and Marguerite MacKenzie The two stories we have selected to contribute to this anthology—‘‘Wolverine and the Ducks’’ and ‘‘Wolverine and the Geese’’—are from the Naskapi community of Kawawachikamach, which is near Schefferville in northern Quebec, Canada.1 Both stories belong to a genre of Algonquian oral literature referred to (in Naskapi ) as âtiyûhkin (traditional tale) and take as their main character the trickster figure, Wolverine.2 Kwâhkwâchâw, as he is known in Naskapi, is the quintessential Native North American trickster figure—scandalous, sneaky, disruptive, amusing, quick to humiliate or be humiliated, and not infrequently on the lookout for a good plan to get some unsuspecting creature into his cooking pot. He is also ruthless, as these two stories attest. ‘‘Wolverine and the Ducks’’ and ‘‘Wolverine and the Geese’’ were narrated at a single sitting, in the same order as they appear here, by the late Naskapi elder and renowned storyteller John Peastitute. They were recorded in the summer of 1967 by students working with the Laboratoire d’anthropologie amérindienne, under the supervision of anthropologist Rémi Savard. Five of Peastitute’s Kwâhkwâchâw stories were recorded that year. The following summer, in 1968, Savard and his students recorded Peastitute’s ‘‘non-trickster’’ âtiyûhkina and his historical narratives (tipâchimuna).3 A total of forty-six stories were recorded over these two summer periods. Although the presence of the anthropologists may have been the catalyst for the telling of these stories, the sounds of audience participation con- firm that they were authentic performances in the sense that they were performed before a live audience. At various points in the stories, the narrator steps outside his narrativeworld to provide his audiencewith additional pieces of information.4 In 1994 the Laboratoire d’anthropologie amérindienne made the tapes available to the Naskapi community for transcription, translation, and publication.5 While publication of the collection in Naskapi is a high priority for the Naskapi people, they are also keen to see the stories published in translation so that nonNaskapi speakers can read them. Thus, the stories will be published in Naskapi and in (English and French) translation. Preparation of the texts for publication is one of the many ongoing language-related responsibilities of the Naskapi Grammar , Lexicon and Translation (nglt) project, which is based at Kawawachika- 122 naskapi mach.6 Alma Chemaganish, Silas Nabinicaboo, and Philip Einish work for the nglt project.They carried out the transcription and preliminary English translations of both the stories we present here, under the supervision of Bill Jancewicz.7 The work of transcription and translation is time consuming and painstaking, and the driving force behind the productivity of the staff of the nglt project is their commitment to preserving their language and culture.8 John Peastitute’s 1967 narrative performances of ‘‘Wolverine and the Ducks’’ and ‘‘Wolverine and the Geese’’ have been published previously in fairly free translation —in English (Desbarats 1969) and in French (Savard 1971).The translations we present here are the first to be based on meticulous analysis of the Naskapi text. We have also endeavored to reproduce the elegance and style of John Peastitute ’s language as well as the skill with which hevaries the pace and the tone of his voice in the telling of the stories. Wolverine comes across as a decidedly sinister character when you hear John Peastitute play the part. We employ the formatting conventions introduced by Anthony C. Woodbury and Leo Moses in their translation of ‘‘Mary Kokrak: Five Brothers and Their Younger Sister’’ (in Swann 1994, 15–36).9 Distinct typefaces correspond to the narrator’s various tones of voice, and pauses are represented in the manner indicated in the following table: Line break Pause averaging slightly less than one second. Line space Long pause within sentence or drop to low pitch to mark end of sentence/sentence group. Large capital Episode break, marked by pitch range reset and other vocal features, or determined by content. Small caps Impressionistically harsh (breathy, raspy) voice quality, sometimes in unusually low pitch. Italics Impressionistically mild voice quality or higher pitch register. Italic small caps Impressionistically mild voice in low pitch. Bold Menacing voice, slow, soft, frequently employed when Wolverine is speaking to other characters. Savard includes both ‘‘Wolverine and the Ducks’’ and ‘‘Wolverine and the Geese’’ in his 1971 French translation.10 Savard’s Innu collaborator, Matthew Rich of NorthWest River (Labrador...

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