Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

Awakening the ‘Voice of the Forest’ • 85
pack of dogs welcomed us, but Eddie wasn’t home. Angelo and Paul
exchanged a few words in Algonquin. “We’re trying to think where to
go,” Angelo told me. “Not many elders left.”
I was looking down over the frozen lake towards the tiny islands that
dot the horizon, and asked naively where the elders had gone. Angelo
did not respond and when I looked back at him for an answer, his firm
gaze met mine, as if imploring respect; he raised his hand dutifully,
index finger pointing to the sky. It was then that I fully realized the
urgency of the radio’s mission.
We headed back up to the school, where groups of people were gathered
around the computers, passing the headphones back and forth
as they learned how to use the programs. Young children ran rampant
through the schoolhouse with their coloured paper and crayons,
taking advantage of the unmonitored access to the classrooms. Sonny
started to interview some of the little girls, who had just come back
from playing broom ball in Val-D’or, practicing for an upcoming tournament.
This was the first time Sonny had ever conducted an interview,
and the girls were shy. But he had an innate, almost uncanny
ability to prod them on, quickly and easily getting them to open up.
Soon they were talking so much Sonny had a harder time getting them
to speak one at a time. Jamie and Sonny started taking turns introducing
songs. Then Sonny cued up some of the interviews he recorded
earlier, and announced them in Algonquin. Most people headed home
to prepare food a little while later, tired after a long and productive
day learning the ropes. Those of us who were left followed Sonny and
Angelo over to his grandfather Toby’s house.
Toby is the keeper of the community’s three wampum belts — symbolic
strings of coloured beads central to the community’s oral history.
The first wampum represents the community and its history, the
second an agreement between the Algonquin peoples and the Québec
and Federal governments, and the third represents the community’s
Great Law. In Toby’s dark cabin, we crowded around the small wood
stove while Toby and Sonny sat down at a table in the corner. Toby’s
wife, daughter and a few small children were sitting on the only bed,
and turned off the TV as their gazes shifted attentively towards Toby.
From a high shelf, Toby pulled out a leather bag, removing from it
three replicas of the original wampum belts. Sonny set Tim’s recorder
on the table and Toby began speaking. The complete stories would
have taken more than four hours. Instead, Toby gave shortened expla-