Precious Little

by Camille Fouillard

One cold February morning in 1992, Anna receives a phone call, a request to work with the Utshimassiu Innu in Labrador to organize a people’s inquiry, a self-examination into a house fire that killed six children. Eager to escape a complicated relationship and afraid to face the grief of losing her father, Anna accepts the invitation. She catches a plane, painfully aware that she doesn’t have a clue what a people's inquiry might look like, and heads for Nitassinan.

This world, with its own language and spirits, is where she’s told children die because people do not care for the caribou bones. It is a world where an inquiry becomes a gathering of voices. As the community tells its story—elders, men, women, and children—Anna learns to listen deeply to their words, to the land, to the past and the present. Memories knit together to find meaning in a pain that cannot be named. She immerses herself and leans into her own grief. As she bears witness to the fiercely close community and the unexpected, tender, and courageous way they look after each other and carry on, she learns something about our collective need to imagine a future together, no matter how fragile and imperfect.

Inspired by true events, and the Gathering Voices report, of which Fouillard served as editor, Precious Little is a unique enmeshing of the imagination with memories and experiences spanning decades of working and living with the Innu. At its core, it is a journey toward unlearning and unknowing. By turns harrowing and empowering, provocative and enlightening, this novel is a powerful act of reconciliation and resistance in the face of trauma, infused with love, humility, humour and joy.

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 18, 2022

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A gift .....for all of us trying to find our small part in the long journey toward reconciliation.” - Leslie Vryenhoek

“ There are no answers, only willingness to stand with. To be in it.” - Marjorie Beaucage, Métis elder

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gentle story about a Canadian of settler heritage bearing witness to the Innu experience. Beautifully written in an accessible, rather than academic, way. Required reading for anyone who wants a glimpse into the human side of Canadian colonization.

[Enid Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one where the whole “Fiction informed by Fact” - basically autobiographical novel - actually works.

This is a devastating novel… and so incredibly important. This has the ability to seriously move the needle as we move through these uncharted waters towards decolonisation and reconciliation.

Raw, full of emotion, and demanding the reader to bear witness, the decision to write about her experience in novel form as opposed to non-fiction clearly was the right one. This is so incredibly powerful… and it allows us to journey with the author as she questions her own role and motivations in a way she might not have been able to otherwise.

This is a must read title…

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a good hard look at the things white people have done wrong to the Innu in Labrador, and I’m sure countless other indigenous populations. I really wish this was required reading in Newfoundland and Labrador, especially the island, because it might make some people reconsider their horribly racist views. Well worth reading. But expect hard truths.

[Mary H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to learn more about Utshimassiu Innu, but this book - and its premise of the report - highlights the difficulties of the colonial system of report writing upon Indigenous communities, especially as a white settler is the person commissioned to write. Would have been interesting to learn more about any impact the resulting report may have had.

[laurel jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

more questions than answers

[Hannah Flight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Heart wrenching, honest and raw, this is among the best books I have ever read.