Manikanetish

Yammie left everything behind to return to Uashat, on the North Shore. She left the Innu community as a child, and returned to teach French, hoping to rediscover her roots. But she finds that things have changed. Or is it she who has changed? How can a place and the people who live there create such a complex mix of belonging and otherness?

At the Manikanetish school, Yammie meets Marc, Myriam, Mikuan and Rodrigue, her teenage students, almost adults, who are trying to build a life of their own. In these voices, these glimpses and these northern landscapes, we see struggle and tragedy, but above all, determination, beauty and solidarity.

Author and teacher Naomi Fontaine is Innu from Uashat. Manikanetish has received critical acclaim and several awards.

The novel Manikanestish was published by Mémoire d'encrier.

*Governor General's Literary Award 2018