An Antane-Kapesh


An Antane Kapesh, who also went by the French name Anne André, was an Innu writer and activist from Schefferville, Quebec. She was a chief at Schefferville from 1965–1967.
In 1976, she published the autobiographical book Je suis une maudite sauvagesse/Eukuan nin matshimanitu innu-iskueu in a bilingual French-Innu edition. This book, which deals with topics such as loss of hunting territory, the residential school system and police brutality, may have been the first French-language book published by a First Nations woman in Quebec. The publication of books such as this, containing Innu text, has also been cited as an important factor in the cultural revival of the language; an Innu-language press was soon founded and existed until 1993.
Kapesh followed this book with another, Tante nana etutamin mitassi? / Qu'as-tu fait de mon pays? in 1979, discusses colonization of Turtle Island from the perspective of a fictionalized child. In 1981 it was adapted for stage production by Kapesh and Jose Maillot. Although her writings would be an inspiration to subsequent Innu writers, they were not well received at the time of publication. According to the publisher, Bernard Assiniwi, Je suis une maudite sauvagesse brought on a negative reaction from the reading public and subsequent planned volumes in the series were canceled.