What have you done to my country? Tanite nene etutamin nitass? Written by An Antane Kapesh Edited and prefaced by Naomi Fontaine Translated by José Mailhot What have you done to my country? Understanding colonial history Summary After I am a cursed Savage • Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushkueu (2019), Mémoire d'encrier highlights An Antane Kapesh's second work What have you done to my country? • Tanite nene etutamin nitassi? , which denounces the abuses of the colonial system and the disasters of colonization among the First Nations. The Child learned everything from his grandfather to live in the woods. Once his grandfather died, the Child saw a swarm of Whites arrive (merchants, missionaries, doctors, dentists, etc.), who plundered everything: his territory, his culture and even his language. In this philosophical tale, Kapesh shows the multiple faces of white colonialism and the violence inflicted on the Innu.

Excerpt from the preface by Naomi Fontaine An Antane Kapesh, the first Innu author, was already old when she began writing. In this second work, she acts as an interpreter. She explains the world as it was before colonization. Then how, one gesture at a time, the colonizers transformed the Innu way of life. She interprets the forest and those who have suffered colonial history in their flesh and dignity. What have you done to my country? is the promise that what is lost can also be found.

The author Born in 1926 in the Far North, An Antane Kapesh's life was turned upside down in 1953 when the government uprooted her family from their land. Then began her long fight to preserve the Innu territories, culture and language. Her books Je suis une maudite Sauvagesse / Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushueu (first published in 1976) and Qu'as-tu fait de mon pays? / Tanite nene etutamin nitassi ? tell the story of her life and her thoughts on the history of the Innu. A mother of eight, she died in Sept-Îles in 2004. A guardian of Innu thought, she is a source of inspiration for Indigenous writers. An Antane Kapesh: The First Innu Writer