KITCI 8ECKATC ANICINAPEK – Us a Long Time Ago

To engage in an encounter, one must be mobile and set aside one’s prejudices in order to achieve a true understanding of the other. Nomadic peoples move around in accordance with a conception of time divided into seasonal cycles. This way of life, shaped by constant mobility, is founded on an ensemble of skills and techniques, developed over thousands of years, that are still at the heart of our cultures.

Nomadism, based on hunting, fishing and gathering, requires constant movement to access resources, which results in a particular world view rooted in observation, adaptation and the maintenance of a network of relations with all entities of the universe. This lifestyle, which demands considerable diligence and should not be confused with vagrancy, dominated the course of human existence for millennia.

On the evolutionary scale, agriculture as a way of life represents only 1% of our history. For 99% of the species’ existence, Homo sapiens has been a nomadic hunter-gatherer. Nomadism is the common factor of our evolution, a universal principle to which we, Indigenous people, often allude in our myths and legends.

The pipe, the bag, the Inuit lamp and the toy express different aspects of the encounters that ensure the circulation of words and goods among the people, nations, territories and entities of the nomadic world. They are objects of encounter.

In this living context, in constant movement, there are rules to follow when it comes to nature, relationships with people and animals. So many things co-exist and we must respect them. It’s like an unwritten law that everyone understands and follows.

Ben McKenzie, Innu