Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 02/00) - A historical Northern figure has been immortalized on film.

Emile Petitot, the controversial Oblate missionary in the North from 1863-83, caught Tom Shandel's attention when the documentary filmmaker lived in Yellowknife in the early 1990s.

"Early on I met Rene Fumoleau," says the Vancouver-based Shandel.

"Then I saw a film that Alex Czarnecki had done on Rene, Where the Rivers Meet. I suddenly realized there's kind of an Oblate who's gone Indian in Rene and 100 years earlier there was another Oblate who went Indian. And they're both radical and interesting guys."

Shandel started researching Petitot and believed his life was a great Canadian story.

"And also because he was such a major intellectual force, unknown in Canada and unknown in France."

Shandel originally intended to create a documentary about both Oblates, but Fumoleau said he already had plenty of exposure.

Getting started

"It took me about four or five years to get it going."

Research proved fruitful at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

"There was a collection of material donated by Donat Savoie."

Savoie had published two volumes on the aboriginal lifestyle in the North, written by Petitot.

Petitot has also written about a dozen books based on his experiences and observations in the North.

"I think he considered himself an explorer more than, say, an anthropologist or an ethnographer, or even a linguist. His biggest achievements were in linguistic and in cartography. Because he was an explorer and an amazing traveller, and he was formidable guy. His Dene dictionary, which has literally 10,000 entries, is still in use today."

Intellectual club

Shandel can talk at length about Petitot's mind-boggling productivity in multiple areas.

"With a guy like that, an hour film is almost silly. You can only skirt the surface. Yet there were serious allegations against (Petitot), pedophilia and that. So that had to be treated in some way."

The film's structure touches on areas where Petitot contributed and then features a modern expert in a comparable field.

"I believe that Petitot's contribution was huge. Huge intellectually, obviously. But it was even more huge because he was part of that group, which was all over the world, it was a kind of unofficial intellectual club.

"But in the 19th century, North American aboriginal were really respected (by them). And treated in a way we wouldn't know today. He understood that if you want to survive in the North, you have to know what the natives know because they're the ones who survive there. He was different than the average priest."

Shandel also talks the Oblate's personal demons. Petitot experienced moments of "lunacy," Shandel says, at which point fellow oblates would flay him to bring him back to reality.

Petitot's unpublished personal journals were never found, which dismays Shandel.

"The significance of his journals and notebooks is amazing because we're talking about a guy who really was with it intellectually. You read his letter, he was completely aware of his place in the world, the relationship of Europe to North America and what it meant.

"And he had an active kind of sex life -- in the sense that he was a passionate man. I imagine his journals must have been filled with private musing and sort of moon inspired freak-out in parts of the year."

Petitot also experienced bouts of paranoia, says Shandel.

"He suffered from a lot of swings in moods. I mean, we're talking about a genius. He was great in everything he did."

Shandel adds Petitot "had his 19th century blinkers on. But not many. I found that he was very much a modern thinker."

I, Emile Petitot, Arctic Explorer and Missionary will air on Vision TV, Oct. 25 (ET/PT) at 9 p.m. A slightly different French version will air on Societe Radio Canada the following week.