Narration (dancing_singing.mp3, 489 KB)

When Jacques Cartier's boat entered the waters of Baie des Chaleurs for the first time, groups of native men and women jumped in the water, singing and dancing to welcome these strangers. How ironic!

Dance is an art deeply integrated in the life of our people. For ages, drums, songs and dances were part of our seasonal gatherings and ceremonies.

Today, traditional dancing and druming still exist; they call everybody from all ages to reconnect to their identity. Traditional, secular and sacred dances reproduced the behaviours of animals, of nature or of particular gestures seen in dreams. Movements express happy events such as a rich harvest, a wedding or childbirth.