Vital bilingual poetry by Innu Elder Joséphine Bacon
The poems in Uiesh / Somewhere speak directly to the reader, without artifice or pretension. They are rooted in Joséphine Bacon's experience as an Innu woman, whose life has taken her from the nomadic ways of her Ancestors in the northern wilderness of Nitassinan to the clamour and bustle of the city. Wherever she is, the poet and Elder is attentive to the smallest details of her environment, from the moon and the stars, the aurorae borealis, the falling snow, and the changing seasons to the sirens of fire engines and ambulances and the noise of a busy bar night. From her quiet centre, she listens to the voices of the Old Ones, whose stories are alive within her, and reflects on the beauty and the pain of her long life.
Winner of the Prix des libraires, the Indigenous Voices award, the Prix littéraire des enseignant.e.s de Français, and the Coup de Cour Renaud-Bray, and finalist for the Prix Alain-Grandbois
Dual-language edition
The poems in Uiesh / Somewhere are rooted in Innu Elder Joséphine Bacon's experiences of moving between the nomadic ways of her Ancestors in the northern wilderness of Nitassinan and the clamour of the city. Wherever she is, Bacon is attentive to the smallest details of her environment, from the moon and the stars, the Northern Lights, and the falling snow, to the sirens of fire engines and the noise of a busy bar night. From her quiet centre, she listens to the voices of the Old Ones, whose stories are alive within her, and reflects on the beauty and the pain of her long life.
