Collection : Huron-Wendake Band Council, Quebec, Canada
Photograph : Musée de la civilisation, Quebec City, Pierre Soulard, 1995
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This crèche uses a bark-covered Iroquois long house to interpret the Jesous Ahatonnia of Father Jean de Brébeuf. As the cardinal points of the compass are important in Amerindian culture, four tribes from different regions were chosen to depict the shepherds and the Wise Men. The Montagnais hunters living north of the Saint Lawrence River thus represent the shepherds, while three tribal chiefs of the Ottawa (Lake Huron), Iroquois (Lake Ontario) and Tumica (present-day Florida) represent the Wise Men. Following Amerindian custom, the Infant Jesus sleeps in his mother’s arms rather than in a manger. The crèche is in the chapel of the village of Huron-Wendake, near Quebec City. |
