Page 207 [207]
MAITRES CHEZ QUI?...
the Toronto International Film Festival, Obomsawin was asked to relate her
experience interviewing PQ minister Lucien Lessard following his comments
on Indigenous sovereignty.'* She explained that despite the pushback Lessard
received from her, the minister told Obomsawin’s film crew that he understood
her conviction as she was “defending her people.” This empathy led
Obomsawin to subsequently “like him.”!°° She recounted: “I started thinking
[of myself] in his role and I could almost understand what he was talking
about [...] he is [also] honest to what he believes [so] I kind of respected him."
The mutual sympathy between Obomsawin and Lessard is encouraging in that
it demonstrates that Québec’s French and Indigenous inhabitants can respect
each other even at times of disagreement. Whether or not Indigenous Peoples’
territorial sovereignty can be handled in a similar manner remains to be seen.
What is certain, however, is that the relationship between French-Quebecois
and the province’s Indigenous communities is a subtle one, but one which has
and will continue to evolve — hopefully for the better.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
---, René Lévesque: Premier of Quebec, Encyclopedia Britannica (28 October
2019), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Levesque (accessed 8
April 2020).
---, Timeline: Colonization (2016), The Canadian Encyclopedia,
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/timeline/colonization-and¬
immigration (accessed 26 July 2020).
ANCTIL, Pierre, René Lévesque et les communautés culturelles, in Alexandre
Stefanescu (ed.), René Lévesque: Mythes et réalités, Montréal, VLB éditeur,
2008, 178-201.
BALTHAZAR, Louis, Les nombreux visages du nationalisme quebecois, in
Alain-G. Gagnon (ed.), Quebec: Etat et Société Tome I, Montréal, Les
Editions Québec — Amérique, 1994, 23-40.
BEDARD, Mario, La géographie culturelle québécoise: Rôle et objet depuis la
Révolution tranquille, Erudit, Vol. 51, No. 143 (Sept. 2007), 219-242.
CARLSON, Hans M., A Watershed of Words: Litigating and Negotiating
Nature in Eastern James Bay, 1971-1975, The Canadian Historical Review,
Vol. 85, No. 1 (March 2004), 63-84.
104 The quotes listed below have been taken from the following interview: Alanis Obomsawin
— Jesse Wente, In Conversation With Indigenous Icon Alanis Obomsawin, TIFF 2018, TIFF
Talks (17 January 2018), https://youtu.be/cUBmX9KDzuo (accessed 8 April 2020).
105 See 40:40-41:20 in Obomsawin — Wente, In Conversation With.
106 Tbid.
107 See 40:50—42:10 in Obomsawin — Wente, In Conversation With.
+ 205 +