Description
Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue, Labrador Innu cultural and environmental activist, is well known within and beyond the Innu Nation. She is the recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award and has an honorary doctorate from Memorial University. This book began as her diary, written in Innu-aimun, with entries from 1987 to 2016, offering a detailed account of her day-to-day life, as well as reflections on Innu land, politics, culture and history. The diary was also a way for her to prepare speeches, court appearances and interviews. ‘I Keep the Land Alive’ is about living in nutshimit in the Quebec-Labrador area, living on the land, paddling the Mishta-shipu, the great river central to Innu culture, and their freedom. But it is also about the laws that forbid hunting and fishing and pressure to put their children in schools, destruction by dams, mines and logging, leading to disease, drugs, alcohol abuse, which erodes Innu culture and this freedom This book contains vibrant images including photos of Penashue’s stories of her walks and her family and friends. It also documents her involvement with environmental protests such as NATOs low level flights and bomb testing on Innu land at Goose Bay, canoeing down the Churchill River, eating fresh food everyday and the changes today. This book passes down Innu culture, knowledge and skills to children and grandchildren.