Indigenous Teaching: Authority and Relationality in the Works of Naomi Fontaine

Innu author Naomi Fontaine’s three novels, Kuessipan , Manikanetish , and Shuni , all foreground the role of teaching in identity formation and cultural preservation, while questioning the notion of authority characteristic of colonial educational systems, including, historically, residential schools. This article examines how relationality and relational accountability, principles affirmed by Cree scholar Shawn Wilson, inform the themes and textual strategies of Fontaine’s fictions, including her privileging of dual address to both an Innu and non-Innu read-ership. Through her teacher-narrators and her portrayal of teaching as a form of reciprocal learning, Fontaine’s literary work models relationality as key to interpersonal and cross-cultural understanding.