Teaching to Read as an Outsider: How I Created and Taught an Introductory Course on Indigenous Literatures in Quebec

Teaching to Read as an OutsiderHow I Created and Taught an Introductory Course on Indigenous Literatures in Quebec Marie-Hélène Jeannotte (bio) In 2009, when discussing the new course I was about to give on Indigenous literatures in Quebec, I was often met with doubtful questions: "But what books will you teach? Which authors? Is it really a literature?" A few years earlier, at the turn of the 2000s, Maurizio Gatti, one of the first researchers to study Indigenous literatures in French, faced similar disbelief from an employee at the Quebec documentation center in Paris, but also from the majority of professors he approached to supervise his PhD, some of them even challenging the very existence of Indigenous literatures (Littérature 18). At that time, Indigenous books in French were both rare and largely ignored. Librarians and other book professionals viewed Indigenous texts as purely ethnological (Gatti, Littérature 17–19). Unlike Indigenous literatures in English, which, back in 2009, were already well established in English Canada, Indigenous literatures in French in Quebec were then still absent from the literary field. As Isabelle St-Amand states, Si les littératures autochtones sont relativement bien établies au Canada anglais, il en va autrement dans le cas du Québec, où le statut de la littérature autochtone fait toujours l'objet de discussions. … [L]es œuvres des écrivains autochtones sont peu enseignées dans les universités et peu de discours critiques ont été élaborés sur la question.1 Indeed, Indigenous literatures were missing from university literary studies curricula in Quebec in the first decade of the 2000s. Indigenous literatures in French were taught in Ontario (Gatti, Être écrivain 180) and at Laval University's Department of Anthropology (Gagné 227). In 2008, the need to establish the legitimacy of these literatures in [End Page 135] academia and research but also within a curriculum convinced me to propose the creation of a course entirely dedicated to Indigenous literatures from Quebec to the University of Sherbrooke, the Francophone university where I was an MA student. I designed the course as an introduction to Indigenous literatures in French (or in French translation) in Quebec, including oral tradition and contemporary works. The course was offered for the first time in 2009. According to Gatti (Être écrivain 180) and Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui (5), it was the first Indigenous literatures course in French to officially be included in a Quebec university literary studies' curriculum. I have taught this class often since, updating and expanding it as Indigenous literatures in Quebec achieve wider and wider recognition. While none of my students had ever read an Indigenous work—nor could name an Indigenous writer—at the beginning of our first semester in 2009, the situation is the opposite today. Students who have never read a literary work by an Indigenous author are now in the minority. In this article, I wish to share and reflect upon my experience as a non-Indigenous teacher creating an introductory course in a literature department where Indigenous works were, back in 2009, practically unknown. I do not present this particular course as a model to follow. On the contrary, my intention is to describe the context within which the course was created, as well as the challenges, issues raised, and missteps made along the way. Having now taught this course several times over a decade, I wish to detail its evolution as well as that of its academic context, and of myself as a teacher. As well, I propose to explore questions that will be of interest to non-Indigenous scholars setting out to teach Indigenous literatures. As a teacher, how can I establish the legitimacy of Indigenous literatures? How can I equip students to read, interpret, and analyze works by First Nations authors when basic knowledge of Indigenous cultures is often lacking? How can I help students gain more awareness of their biases? I will share here a few avenues for reflection that have proved useful over these past thirteen years, all of which stem from fostering a sense of humility, listening, and empathy. filling a gap I came to Indigenous Studies through literature and specifically the...

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