10/12/2026
Director Sharry here ... In thinking of something to post for Indigenous Peoples Day, I didn’t have to go any further than a song that I’ve been obsessed with all year. Please give it a listen! Featured in an episode of the Canadian Indigenous sitcom Acting Good (check it out on tubi!), I was instantly hooked and went on to learn it had a sort of link to the La Salle: Expedition II exhibit work we were working on for so much of this year.
“Tshinanu” (“Our People”) was recorded by the Canadian group Kashtin in 1989. While in style a pop-folk song, it is sung in Innu-aimun, an Algonquin Cree tongue. Although uniquely its own among Algonguin languages, Innu-aimun was inevitably somewhat influenced by French when explorers like La Salle began trading with the Innu in the 17th century, claiming the land for King Louis XIV. Roughly 12,000 people in Quebec and Labrador still speak Innu-aimun today, most of them bilingual French.
The song speaks to the Innu themselves, reminding them to proudly reclaim and maintain their heritage. English translation:
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.
Kashtin - Tshinanu
