Innu-aimun concert promotes language, culture of Sheshatshiu Innu
Innu Nteimun Music Festival organizers hope to inspire language resilience for youth
Organizers of an Innu Music Festival in Labrador are dreaming big for the future for their language and culture, in hopes of preserving it for generations to come.
David and Andrew Penashue created the Nteimun Innu Music Festival. It ran on March 29.
The Penashues hope the annual festival can continue, as Innu are in a challenging time for the Innu-aimun language, they say.
"Young people are slowly losing their language and I think it's very important for me, David and I to help out," Andrew Penashue said.
"They say in 10 years and in 15 years, the language will be gone," David said. "It's very important to keep it up because the language came a long, long ways."
The language is a core part of Innu identity, David Penashue said. He hopes the Innu-aimun performances of Sheshatshiu's Nitatshun, Shauit and David Hart inspire the kids in the audience.
Innu leadership awards handed out
The event included the Innu Nteimun Leadership Awards, given to three people and organizations this year.
Peter Penashue received an award for his decades of work with Innu Nation and as a Member of Parliament. He said the festival was powerful because Innu have the chance to maintain and preserve their language now, instead of trying to revive it after it's gone.
"It's almost impossible, next to impossible, to revive a language the way it was. And so that's why it's important to take advantage of our position of our language," he said during the event.
Mamu Tshishkutamashutau Innu Education was honoured through an award given to CEO Kanani Davis. The award honoured all the staff, teachers and leaders who worked to take control over the education of Innu children in 2009 and continue that work today.
"It's been a long time coming," Davis said. "We're trying to teach the younger generation to go back to school, get their education so they can come back and teach in our community."
Mary Pia Benuen was honoured for becoming the first Sheshatshiu Innu nurse. Benuen became the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation health director in 2011, and has served in that role since.
"It meant the world to me because people are out there recognizing me as a person that helped and that I've gone through a lot to get to where I am," Benuen said.
Future dreams
Andrew Penashue says it can be challenging to bring together everyone needed to pull off the event, on top of finding funding.
He says they learned a lot about potential grants and hope to find funding for the event to grow in the years to come.
David Penashue says it's tough to navigate the various organizations and institutions and their various deadlines, but it's something the duo is working on.
Looking to the future, David Penashue says he hopes the festival can happen in the Sheshatshiu reserve, and in their own performing arts space.
He says there are Innu musicians, artists and actors across Canada.
"If we have this kind of building in our community, we might take some acting workshops for them, and speak in their own language when they do shows," he said.
"There's a lot of opportunity for the new generation."
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