oe eee

This literature of voyages must be analysed in light of Franco-
phone history on the North American continent and, concurrently,
of the various ideologies which prevailed in Europe. It has been
established that these voyages influenced the literary development
of ideas; for instance, the Romantic Movement, which came to its
apogee during the 19th Century (51).

3. Texts by the missionaries.

The Francophone catholic missionaries were here at the very
beginning of the 19th Century and they were the first, with the
navigators and the “voyageurs” to describe the lives and languages
of the Indians. They had as well extensive contacts with the Franco-
phone community living here. Their writings are therefore of
particular importance for the historian and specialist in the social
sciences. (I have published elsewhere the principal documentation
sources of missionary work (52)). Among the most important studies
are those of Petitot and Morice (53). Oblate Father Le Jeune
published, together with Father Durieu, dictionaries and religious
pamphlets in Amerindian languages (54). Le Jeune also set up a
method of transcription for Native languages, the “Wawa” method
(from Chinookan “to speak”, “to communicate”) into which he
transcribed the Bible (55). Also significant is the study by Father
Brabant (56) of Nootkan languages and that of:Father Blanchet
(57), whose Chinook dictionary was among the earliest of its kind
(Chinook was the vernacular language of the region until the middle
of the second half of the 19th century).

4. Francophone texts of various origins.

These texts are related to Western encounters with Pacific
Northwest Coast Indian artifacts and the impact of the latter on
Western imaginations. In this regard, the encounter of Surrealist
writers and artists with the mythological and “magical” universe of
the Indians gave birth to an extraordinary artistic and literary wealth
(58). As early as the 1920’s, André Breton and Paul Eluard ex-
perienced Northwest Coast objects at the Ethnographic Museum in
Paris and at London’s British Museum. In 1936, the Surrealist
exhibition in Paris displayed Northwest Coast Indian artefacts and
photographs. This Surrealist interest in Amerindian cultures cannot
be overemphasized, reflected inasmuch in works by André Breton
(59), Vincent Bounoure (60), Philippe Audoin (61) and in the
paintings and texts of Max Ernst, W. Paalen (62) and K. Seligmann
(63), to name a few.

In literature, Michel Butor’s novel, “Boomerang”, deals with the
mythology, chiefs and shamans of the Pacific Coast through his
rewriting of anthropological texts (those of Franz Boas, for instance).
In the media, the radio-drama “The Traveller and the Mask” by Guy
P. Buchholtzer (64) describes one man’s encounter with the poetic
universe of Indian imagination and mythology on one of the countless
islands of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

The Surrealists changed Western cultural life, changes that led
to new developments in contemporary world art and literature. It is
striking that a handful of little-known Indians of the Pacific North-
west Coast have had such an influence in this historical metamor-
phosis.

34

KNOWING OTHERS...

D. GENERAL CONCLUSION

From this brief overview the reader may conclude that sources of
Francophone information fall into several categories: works by
specialists, the literature of travels and voyages, scripts by missionaries
and, finally, contemporary works which are ideologically and artis-
tically related to the Native world.

As the literature of voyages slowly disappears (replaced, unfor-
tunately, by texts of purely touristic use), the contribution of mis-
sionaries has also reached a virtual standstill due to historical and
political changes which have occurred since their first arrival.

But one sees emerging today a whole new set of textual creations,
as much in the domain of anthropological or linguistic research as in
that of literature. The latter demonstrates, in particular the wealth
produced by the incursion of this rich mythical and cultural universe
into our own collective consciousness. .

And while French language education has made tremendous
progress in the British Columbia public school system, we “voyageurs”
in this Centennial city wait with impatience for the seeds of this
interest in Francophony to bear harvest within the great Canadian
mosaic.

(Translation by Guy P. Buchholtzer)

REFERENCES

1. Les plus célébres sont celles des empires Inca et Mexicain. Quant
aux peuples du Pacifique Nord Ouest, Lévi-Strauss compare leurs
réalisations a celles des anciennes civilisations égyptiennes, grecques
et chinoises / The best known are those of the Inca and Mexican
empires. As for the Pacific Northwest Coast people, Lévi-Strauss
compares them to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Chinese. Cf.
Claude LEVI-STRAUSS, La Voie des Masques (Conclusion), 2 vol.,
Ed. Skira, Geneve 1975.

2. COLOMB, Christophe, Oeuvres. Traduites et annotées par/
translated & annotaded by Alexandre Cioranescu, Paris 1973.

3. Le lecteur intéressé a "histoire des rapports entre Européens et
peuples indigenes, lira: / The reader interested in the history of
European-Indigenous relationships, should read: Eric R. WOLF,
Europe and the People without History (Cf. pp. 182-194), Univer-
sity of California Press, 1982.

4. BUCHHOLTZER, Guy P., La céte du Pacifique Nord-Ouest:
1753-1984, pp. 131, cartes, illus., bibliogr., index; A.E.A. Chan-
tiers-Amerindia, Paris 1985.

5. WHORF, Benjamin, Language, Thought and Reality, 1956.
Consulter aussi/ Read also: Dell HYMES, Foundations in Socio-

Le chronographe Volume III no. 1-2, Printemps-Eté 1986