Website
Atikamekwstudies.org is built and developed by the German linguist and digital humanist Nastasia Herold.
All projects described and published here were initiated by Herold. Some projects are today fully managed by the Atikamekw First Nation, e.g. Wikipetcia Atikamekw Nehiromowin.
Comments can be made under each project description. Only comments by Atikamekw First Nation members or contributions to an academic discussion will be published.
If you want to contribute, please read the contribution paragraph below the respective project description. For all other question, please right to: nastasia.herold@uni-leipzig.de
Atikamekw First Nation
The Atikamekw First Nation (endonym: Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok) are situated in the Canadian province of Quebec. Their ancestral territory, called Nitaskinan, covers an area of 80,000 km2 (30,000 sq. mi.) including the St. Maurice River valley and surroundings – from St. Laurence River in the south to the north of Réservoir Gouin. Four reserves have been allocated to the nation: Kokokac (Coucoucache), Manawan, Opitciwan and Wemotaci – from which Kokokac was flooded in the 20th century due to dam constructions. The 8,000 Atikamekw have a self-administration on the three remaining reserves. The Great Council of the Atikamekw is situated in the town of La Tuque. The nation speaks the most vital Indigenous language in Canada and maintains its language, culture, values and knowledges – all connected to the forest. Atikamekw is the first language of almost all nation members, French is the second language.
About the author
My name is Nastasia Herold. I studied Romance Philology with a focus on French and Portuguese language, culture and literature at the Universities of Leipzig (Germany) and Lisbon (Portugal). Currently, I’m a PhD student at University of Leipzig (Germany), researching on the foreign and the own perspective on history, culture and language of Indigenous people – giving the example of the Atikamekw First Nation.
I first got in touch with the Atikamekw Nation when I spent several months in Manawan in 2012 and 2013. While staying there, I worked in the tourism office of the village, I did research for my master thesis on the bilingual language situation in Manawan (interviews and a survey), I got the chance to start learning the polysynthetic language and first and foremost I immersed in the rich culture of these wonderful people who allowed me staying at their territory.
This website shall be a contribution to studies on the rarely known Atikamekw First Nation and a contribution to the Digital Humanities. It’s self-published and open access.
@Atikamekw Nation members: Je sais que la langue anglaise est votre troisième langue et que, pour cette raison, le contenu de ce site web n’est pas lisible pour chaqu’un(e) de vous. Je m’excuse pour cela! J’ai choisi cette langue parce que je ne parle pas assez bien le nehiromowin et parce que l’anglais me semble être la langue la plus utilisée des chercheur/ses ce qui permet de faire connaitre votre nation à un public plus grand. Si vous avez des questions, n’hésitez pas à m’écrire: nastasia.herold@uni-leipzig.de. Mikwetc! Nin, Nastasia/Kiackw
@Researchers: Please feel free to discuss and use all given data. For citation, please see the citation paragraph below the respective project description.