Le don du caribou et l'appel du teuehikan: Repenser des patrimoines autochtones à la lumière des dimensions familiales et relationnelles établies avec les non-humains.

Indigenous heritage is mainly conceived, within museum practices and policies, in collective and community terms. However, this conception is not representative of heritage traditionally used in the context of a semi-nomadic and familial lifestyle, as it is the case for many of the First Nations of Quebec. To illustrate the importance of considering the familial and territorial dimensions of Indigenous heritage, this article uses a story told by Thomas Siméon, an Ilnu artist from the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, about a trapping season in the spring of 1980 with his father (Gérard Siméon) and his wife (Louise Siméon) on their ancestral hunting territory, on sectors of the Peribonka and Manouane Rivers. Their sojourn resulted in an encounter with atuk ͧ, a caribou, and was the starting point for the making of a teuehikan (Ilnu drum), finalized twenty years later. The central theme of this article analyzes the need to rethink the definition of Indigenous heritage in order to refine our understanding of their territorial and familial diversity. The article also addresses the process through which territorial and family heritage can be used as a vector of well-being, but also obviously as a space of transmission. Finally, by specifying an Ilnu conception of relational law relating to non-human beings, the article analyzes the way in which heritage is anchored in cultural continuity and the expression of ancestral relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]