Native Village
The driver slows the truck down as he looks for the road that would lead us the Huron village. The villages around Quebec City all look more or less identical. If it hadn't been for the native-language road signs, we wouldn't have known that we were entering into Huron-Wendate territory.
When we get to a place that is made to look like a traditional village, I feel like I've just fallen into a tourist trap, a deep one. But as we further explore the site, I gradually change my mind and see that there's really something to be learned from all this. Like time-travellers, we are sent back to the past to learn about a nation whose people lived in long houses more than a thousand years before European conquerors sailed up the St. Lawrence. Among the people we meet, we discover a strong sense of identity and a profound attachment for their ancient roots, despite the fact that things have changed drastically over the last three centuries. The politics of assimilation sometime seemed more like ethnic cleansing, but the Hurons have found a balance between their traditions and the upsets of colonization. Today, it is with innate pride that they display the foundation of their culture.
The site explains the ancestral way of life before it was changed and contaminated by the arrival of Europeans settlers and up until the 18th century. Here the public can visit a period long house where six families would have lived, totalling about 50 people. At the head of this extended family was an older woman, revered for her wisdom. The women were dominant in Huron society. They were the ones responsible for agriculture, which made up 80 per cent of the nation's activities.
Women also chose their husband, who would move in with his wife's clan. In this matrilineal society, maternal uncles were much more important to children's upbringing than their own fathers. Another interesting fact: If women had more than one sexual partner and became pregnant, she got to choose who she wanted as the father for her child, without necessarily having to choose the man who impregnated her.
In the long house, there are no walls between beds as sexuality was not taboo. Sexuality developed naturally as soon as people reached maturity. Everybody was sexually active and it wasn't something that had to be hidden behind closed doors. All this must have seemed very unpleasant to the Jesuits who came through here during the period of colonization.
On the other hand, trappers felt right at home with the Hurons and many of them moved into the village. This was made easy by the Hurons' profound respect for strangers, for life and for nature in general. Most people were welcomed by the community as long as they exhibited no violence. In fact, the Hurons who later went to Europe with the settlers were more shocked by the men and women begging for their next meal than by the castles and the King's courtiers. That sense of sharing and respect are the basis on which the Huron-Wendate nation was built.
Of course, nowadays, the Huron-Wendate people live in houses just like our own, except for the dream catcher that hangs in the window. But their individuality trumps simple appearances. After having almost given them up some centuries ago, present-day Hurons ensure that the ancestral traditions are coming back. Today, the younger generation prefers to go to the elders, who have experience and wisdom, for advice. That's a far cry from the fate that befalls many of our elderly people.
I leave the village with the feeling of having travelled to another world, one with a whole different system of ethics and values. I see the timeline as it rushes by we who are, mere specks in the scheme if things. I wonder what the future has in store for us. Every nation can teach a lot of valuable lessons if we only take the time to listen. After all, Quebec's great cultural diversity also includes native people. Their culture is still very strong and it's easy to step into that magical world if you only stop and spend some time with them.
