(Mani-Utenam) Last spring, a few days before the unveiling of the program for the 39th Innu Nikamu Festival, some informed observers noticed that the names of the guests were already appearing on posters posted in various cities in Quebec. The most imposing of all occupied one of the huge billboards overlooking the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.
Normand Junior Thirnish, coordinator of the event, did not make this offensive thinking of selling thousands of passes. He did it to instill a sense of pride. “A Quebecer who sees his flag flying abroad will immediately feel a sense of belonging, he will recognize his flag and feel pride. The Innu Nikamu logo is the same thing. Everyone knows him,” he says, citing in particular the Innu, the Cree, the Attikameks and the Wendats.
Florant Vollant is, with his friend Richard Séguin, the headliner of the evening of this Tuesday. Among the dozens of others who will take to the stage set up on the site of the former Mani-Utenam boarding school over the next few days include Aysanabee, Roxane Bruneau, Émile Bilodeau (who has many Innu friends), Claude McKenzie, Violent Ground, Loud, Kanen, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine (whose mini-album is hot) and the Gipsy Kings.
Normand Junior Thirnish performs his role with the desire to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. “Innu Nikamu was dreamed by other people before me,” he says. Reginald Vollant and Kim Fontaine brought in Simple Plan. It made people want to have other artists like that here. It feels like an honor when artists like that come into our community. It is as if we were seen and heard. »
The Innu Nikamu coordinator is only at his second festival. His previous jobs did not particularly prepare him for such a position. Indeed, he was first a police officer, notably within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), where he learned to set up and manage projects. “The RCMP strongly believes in community policing, explains Normand Junior Thirnish, and that is where I developed this desire to please young people. »
Young people, he saw them suffer during the years he was an RCMP officer on the North Shore. “Young suicides, I’ve seen them,” he explains. And one day, there was one too many for him. It was in Pakuashipi, far on the North Shore. “I had been thinking for a long time that I had to do good, this time I did it,” he says.
Since hockey “is like a religion” in Indigenous communities, he partnered with the NHL Players Association, which donated 25 player and 2 goalie gear to the Pakuashipi community. “Parents, children, school staff, everyone was happy to be thought of,” he recalls.
His work at the festival is part of this desire to do good and to get closer to his community. “When you’re a policeman, it seems like there’s a wall between you and the people you’re supposed to serve and protect,” he observes. Now he feels like he is once again part of a community he wants to entertain and energize.
And carry the dream of Réginald Vollant (Florent’s late brother) and Kim Fontaine (from the Maten group) even further. “We see in the comments on Facebook that people want the Gipsy Kings, Shania Twain or Bryan Adams. Can we afford it? asks the organizer, without answering his own question. We got there. We have the right to dream of having that in our community. »