Song for Day 41 - "Tshinanu" by Kashtin

Day 41 - "Tshinanu" by Kashtin

Kashtin:  Florent Vollant and Claude McKenzie

     The band, "Kashtin", was formed in 1984 by Claude McKenzie and Florent Vollant, two Innu from the Maliotenam reserve in northern Quebec.  The word means "hurricane on the horizon", but the name was chosen to parody friends of the bands who accused McKenzie and Vollant of having sold out or "cashed in" on early success.

     The Innu-aimun or Montagnais language is spoken by about 10,000 people in northern Quebec or Labrador.  That is down from 30,000 two generations ago.  That's more than speak Galilean Aramaic, the dialect of Jesus, or Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest extant language, but the rate of decline is ominous.  Efforts afoot to revive these tongues face a difficult challenge. 

      Young people are leaving the reservations and villages of the Montagnais.  The culture is dying.  Soon, the tradition of fathers singing this lovely lullaby, "Natanish",  to their daughters may go the way of all beauty:

 "Natanish" Lyrics:

N’teish N’teish tshissenten e tenemukuin tshissenten e shuenimukuin
N’teish N’teish tshissenten e tenemukuin ka ui tut tshi anemeshin
N’teish N’teish tshissenten nte uetshiin tshissenten uet tshinuetamen
N’teish N’teish ka ui nta un’tshissitut Tshikanesh ke tshuitsheuan
N’teish N’teish tshissenten e tenemukuin tshissenten e shuenimukuin
N’teish N’teish tshissenten e tenemukuin ka ui tut tshi anemeshin
N’teish N’teish ka ui nta un’tshissitut Tshikanesh ke tshuitsheuan
N’teish N’teish Toshoku uaten tsheishinakushin tshek uaten nte mesheshtin

my daughter. . . my daughter . . .
you I hold and care for . . .
I am your father and your friend . . .
My daughter . . . go to sleep . . . go to sleep . . .


      When a language disappears we lose, among countless other things, a culture, a mythology, a poetry and a mirror onto ourselves.  For example, when sexist Europeans observed the Innu trading spouses with visitors the practice was called "wife swapping".  Given who makes the decision when there are more than two couples involved, a more accurate view would have been "husband swapping".  When Inuits grow old and senile the tribe puts them onto an ice floe;  Democrats put them into Care Homes and Republicans put them into the White House.

      "Tshinanu" speaks of the things that unite and define a group that has been in decline.  We underestimate the importance of the pact Keith Ellison and Tom Perez made before the DNC election until we try to think of a more unifying and defining action taken by Democrats in our lifetimes.

"Tshinanu" Lyrics:

Tshinanu ui tshissentetau
Tshinanu tshinanu
Tshinanu uauatetau
Tshinanu tshmeshkananmenu
Tshinanu u... u... u...
Tshituassminut
Tshinanu u... u... u...

Tshinanu ui tshissentetau
Tshinanu tshinanu
Tshinanu uauatetau
Tshinanu tshmeshkananmenu
Tshinanu u... u... u...
Tshituassminut
Tshinanu u... u... u...

Tshinanu ui tshissentetau
Tshinanu tshinanu
Tshinanu uauatetau
Tshinanu tshmeshkananmenu
Tshinanu u... u... u...
Tshituassminut
Tshinanu u... u... u...

Tshinanu u... u...
Shtapuenanu


All of us
All of us
Let us look at our way of life
Our children
Our grandfathers

All of us
All of us
Let us look at our way of life
Our rivers
Our lands

This is our reason