Innu writer from the community of Mashteuiatsh, Michel Jean wrote 12 books translated into several languages, with sales of nearly 400,000 copies in Quebec. Kukum, several times awarded, is one of the 25 books that defined Quebec according to L'Actualité.

He is the recipient of the 2023 Library and Archives Canada Award and in 2022 was named a Companion by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for his work.

Synopsis

Kukum

Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award in the Translation Category A Quebec bestseller based on the life of Michel Jean’s great-grandmother that delivers an empathetic portrait of drastic change in an Innu community. Kukum recounts the story of Almanda Siméon, an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle, who falls in love with a young Innu man despite their cultural differences and goes on to share her life with the Pekuakami Innu community. They accept her as one of their own: Almanda learns their language, how to live a nomadic existence, and begins to break down the barriers imposed on Indigenous women. Unfolding over the course of a century, the novel details the end of traditional ways of life for the Innu, as Almanda and her family face the loss of their land and confinement to reserves, and the enduring violence of residential schools. Kukum intimately expresses the importance of Innu ancestral values and the need for freedom nomadic peoples feel to this day.