“The beat of a drum is the heartbeat of a mother, the earth, a community, a people. The drum symbolizes life, the relationship between humans and nature, animals, and the spirits.”
Anne-Marie André, Innu
“At age 30, I started going into the forest alone to practice what I had learned from my father and to perfect my hunting skills. I started doing what my father had done. He was the one who taught me how to hunt.
No one can play the teueikan before having killed an animal. The drummer must have killed all sorts of animals such as caribou, beaver, and porcupine.”
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur, Innu
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur, Innu
Interviewer: Laurent Jérôme – Interpreter : Richard Mollen
Images : Carl Morasse, La Boîte Rouge vif and ARUC Tetauan, 2011
“The process of making a drum begins with a dream. After dreaming about the drum three times, you get the impression that you’ll be a better hunter. The dream leads the hunter to the caribou.”
The traditional Innu drum, called a teueikan, is more of a hunting tool than a musical instrument. The drum is sacred. The spirits visit the future drummer through dreams, telling them to sing and then to make a drum. To play the drum, you must be a hunter, your father must also play, and you must dream of the drum three times.
Voice of Céline Bellefleur.
This video clip is from Innu Aitun, "connaissances traditionnelles innues",
a documentary TV series produced in 2005 by Production Manitu inc.
See : www.nametauinnu.ca
“What will happen to this drum you are using now? Will you give it to someone? What will happen to it once you no longer play it?”
“I will give it to the oldest member of my immediate family, to the one who dreams of it. I don’t have many relatives, only my sons. My brothers are all dead and I only have one sister left.”
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur, Innu
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur, Innu
Interviewer: Laurent Jérôme – Interpreter : Richard Mollen
Images : Carl Morasse, La Boîte Rouge vif and ARUC Tetauan, 2011
"In my dream I see everything in great detail. I see the place where the caribou are and I see where they are foraging. So I will look for exactly that place. I will go directly to where the caribou are.
When the caribou appear in the drum’s circle, the drummer keeps them there a long time."
"The drum was a means of communication. We could see things here and elsewhere simultaneously. We could see everywhere where there were Innu. It was like a telephone. It was our way of visiting each other."
Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur, Innu
1-2. Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur, Innu
Interviewer: Laurent Jérôme – Interpreter : Richard Mollen
Images : Carl Morasse, La Boîte Rouge vif and ARUC Tetauan, 2011