Josephine Bacon

Joséphine Bacon (born April 23, 1947), is an Innu poet from Pessamit in Quebec. She publishes in French and Innu-aimun. She has also worked as a translator, community researcher, documentary filmmaker, curator and as a songwriter for Chloé Sainte-Marie and . She has also curated an exhibit at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal, Quebec and teaches at Kiuna Institution in Odanak.

Life and career Bacon was born in the Innu community of Pessamit in 1947 and spent the first five years of her life out on the land with her family before entering boarding school in Maliotenam. In the 1960s she moved to Quebec City where she worked as a secretary, later attending secretarial school in Ottawa run by the Office of Aboriginal Affairs. She subsequently collaborated with O'Bomsawin as co-directors of the documentary film Nitassinan, which is slated to premiere at the First Peoples' Festival (Présence Autochtone) in 2026.

She was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2023. She currently resides in Montreal.

Works Désobéissons ! Eka pashishtetau !. Tinqueux : Éditions du Centre de créations pour l'enfance, 2019 Uiesh |Quelque part. Montréal, Mémoire d’encrier, 2018 A tea in the tundra = Nipishapui nete mushuat. translated by Donald Winkler. Bookland Press, 2017 Guetter l'aurore : littératures et résistances, 1944-2014. Genouilleux: Passe du Vent, 2014 Akin Kadipendag Trickster. Montreal: Possible Editions, 2014 Mingan my village : poems by Innu schoolchildren. translated by Solange Messier. Fifth House Publishers, 2014 Un thé dans la toundra = Nipishapui nete mushuat. Mémoire d'encrier, 2013 Mingan, mon village : poèmes d'écoliers innus. co-authored with Rogé, Laure Morali, Rita Mestokosho. Éditions de la Bagnole,2012 Nous sommes tous des sauvages. co-authored with José Acquelin. Mémoire d'encrier, 2011 Bâtons à message| Message Sticks | Thissinuashitakana. Montreal: Mémoire d'encrier, 2010 La créature des neiges = Kunapeu. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2008

Filmography

Bacon has directed one documentary, and has worked as a translator and narrator in documentaries by film maker Arthur Lamothe and Gilles Carle, including: Tshishe Mishtikuashisht - Le petit grand européen : Johan Beetz (1997) Ameshkuatan - Les sorties du castor (1978)

Her first documentary film, about a meeting between Innu elders and clan mothers from Kahnawake, has been lost.

Awards and distinctions

in the category of Quebecois poetry for her work Uiesh / Quelque part, 2019 Indigenous Voices Awards, in the category of works published in French, 2019 Officer of l’Ordre de Montréal, 2018 Honorary doctorate from Laval University, 2016. Governor General's Award finalist for Un thé dans la toundra/Nipishapui nete mushuat, 2014