Additional Information
Florent Vollant is undoubtedly the Indigenous artist who has had the greatest impact on French speakers in America, across all eras. This year, 2025, is one of honors for the Innu singer-songwriter: Innu, a documentary film about his life and work through the forced transhumance of his nation, topped off by his induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on Monday, November 17, at L’Espace Saint-Denis. He thus joins the select group of the country’s greatest songwriters, from Gilles Vigneault to Leonard Cohen. Never before has an Indigenous person from Quebec received such recognition.
PAN M 360: Hello Florent, congratulations! Being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Anne Murray, Bruce Cockburn, Claude Dubois, Claude Léveillé, Félix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault, Harmonium, Jean-Pierre Ferland, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Luc Plamondon, Michel Rivard, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, and Oscar Peterson.
Florent Vollant : Are there many?
PAN M 360: A little over sixty, all eras combined. Finally, what is certain is that for us, French speakers in America, you are the Indigenous artist who has had the greatest impact on our lives; there is no one else but you. In English Canada, it could be Robbie Robertson (The Band), whose mother was from the Cayuga and Mohawk nations on the Six Nations Reserve in Grand River. But for Francophones, the Indigenous artist who has had the greatest impact is you.
Florent Vollant :Yes. Thank you. I am aware of that, but I don’t know how to explain it.
PAN M 360: This explanation is not a concern, I imagine.
Florent Vollant : No, I don’t think about it that much. I’m not trying to demystify the whole thing, it’s just that I was chosen, I’m told I’m talented in this area. I say OK. But I said yes, I’ll go for it.
PAN M 360: Who will be there to welcome you?
Florent Vollant : I don’t know… well… I know there’s one in the gang, it’s Richard Séguin.
PAN M 360: That doesn’t surprise me. Richard Séguin was among the first to recognize your importance, to understand perfectly who you were and what you accomplished.
Florent Vollant : Otherwise, if all this allows me to chat with people like you whom I don’t talk to very often, so much the better. I have to go now. In any case, there is recognition, and I accept it.
PAN M 360: Let’s just say you weren’t exactly lacking in accolades, you’re just naturally humble!
Florent Vollant: I’m learning to accept things calmly, not quickly, but that’s okay.
PAN M 360: It’s wonderful that you can accept. You’ve been through some tough times in recent years with your stroke and its aftereffects. It looks like you’re still recovering well. Your speech is very clear, your ideas are clear.
Florent Vollant : Yes. I have friends around me, my family of course, who encourage me to keep going. So I don’t just sit around doing nothing! I can’t just sit around doing nothing. I have to work on improving my condition, I have to keep moving, I have to sing, otherwise I’ll deteriorate.
PAN M 360: You can still sing, we still want to hear you, we want to know about your work. In your current state, there is still a place for you in the creative world. We still need you!
Florent Vollant : I’m slow by nature, really slow. And so with my leg and arm paralysis, I’m even slower. That pretty much suits me fine, haha!
PAN M 360: But your condition is improving anyway! And when you reach your late sixties, you age very quickly if you are no longer active. You start to think slowly.
Florent Vollant : Yes, that’s right, I realized that. If I don’t move, I regress. I don’t want to go there.
PAN M 360: We know your career since Kashtin in the 1980s, we know your solo albums, we know you made one of the most beautiful Christmas albums in our recording history. But we haven’t talked much with you about Indigenous values, about what shapes your thinking and your sensibility. Personally, I believe we have a lot to learn from Indigenous thought and sensibility. And also from the future as seen by Indigenous peoples.
Florent Vollant : People ask me about this so that I can find answers. But I am not a philosopher or a political scientist… What interests me is that people can emancipate themselves. Truth & reconciliation, that’s not something I’ve been thinking about since the beginning of the week! I learned this more than 30 years ago. Throughout my professional life, I have lived with this idea of reconciliation. I wanted it then, and I still want it now. I have friends everywhere outside the Innu nation, I am still learning, I exchange ideas, and I remain open-minded.
PAN M 360: The emancipation of First Peoples remains fundamental. In Quebec, we talk about the Inuit peoples of the Abenaki, Algonquin, Attikamekw, Cree, Wendat, Innu, Inuit, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Micmac, Mohawk (Kanien’kehà:ka), and Naskapi. Where do you stand on this issue?
Florent Vollant : People show me things, they send me political information about Indigenous peoples. Yes, we are different and we are proud of that difference, but I don’t think we are stronger than anyone else. Difference makes us grow. I learn from my Quebecois friends, I learn from my friend Richard Séguin, and my friends learn from me and my fellow Indigenous people. We don’t have time to waste on wars; there are far too many of them.
PAN M 360: I sincerely believe that we must recognize Canada’s three founding peoples equally: the First Peoples, the Anglos, and the Francos. These three nations must listen to each other and accept each nation’s right to self-determination.
Florent Vollant : Yes. Listening to each other and living together. Not preventing others from living. Helping others to grow. I think that’s how we’ll ensure a future for our children.
PAN M 360: If there is mutual respect and recognition of each person’s autonomy, the egalitarian mixing and merging of peoples is possible. The more equal it is, the more harmonious it is, and the more it ends up blending together.
Florent Vollant : And it all comes together. My music, for example, has been sung in Innu by Quebecers. Francophones singing in Innu, girls, guys, groups—I appreciate it. It touches me. Music makes these experiences possible.
PAN M 360: Absolutely. It’s a change from the old dynamic. If a people’s rights are violated, as has been the case for indigenous peoples since European colonization, it can’t work.
Florent Vollant : If a people grows by harming its neighbors, that people is growing in the wrong way. We cannot destroy others in order to grow. Something is wrong. It seems to me that we should move on to something else. In any case, we must not forget this and make room for those who follow. I am aware of the new generation coming up, more open to communication, more open to the Internet. Young people have a phone at their fingertips, and this change makes them more global.
PAN M 360: Exactly. Younger people are much closer to the entire planet than to a single territory in which they grew up.
Florent Vollant : That’s what I discovered, and that’s what I’m discovering. Does that mean we’ve become better humans? I don’t know. But the young people coming up are asking good questions. They know their culture, they know what an Atikamekw is, they can even teach their parents.
PAN M 360: Today, there is an impressive diversity of Indigenous artists across all musical genres, from Innu soprano Élisabeth St-Gelais to visionary singer-songwriter Jeremy Dutcher. This diversity is also evident in Maliotenam, where hip-hop is also present.
Florent Vollant : Yes, music has changed a lot. Now we have access to all kinds of music, we see that among young people. This is just the beginning, anything is possible.
PAN M 360: Getting back to your music, are you still riding high on your latest album, Tshitatau, released in 2024?
Florent Vollant: Yes, that’s right.
PAN M 360: Are you preparing another one?
Florent Vollant : No, not yet, I had things to finish. I’m going to calmly finish what I have to do, then I’ll start on another project. I’m taking it one step at a time, you have to take it slowly. One of my arms can’t play the guitar the way I’d like it to. But I still have my voice. I just need to find someone to play guitar alongside me. I have friends, good friends who are willing to work with me, like Eric Poirier.
PAN M 360: There was also Réjean Bouchard, who was a valuable colleague and who died prematurely.
Florent Vollant : It’s really sad. He was an excellent musician and an excellent person. He used to come and work at Makusham Studio, at my place. He was a pillar of strength. When he left, it was a huge blow. He played bass on my latest album. We traveled together. We went to the South, the North, the West. We went everywhere together.
PAN M 360: Are you working more with your son Mathieu McKenzie and your circle of friends from Maliotenam?
Florent Vollant : We built the Makusham studio over 25 years ago, with soundproof walls, flooring, and everything else. We’ve added more space over the years. We’ve had all kinds of projects for adults, seniors, girls, and children. It’s truly a place for creativity. I’m there often, and sometimes I don’t say a word; I’m just there to observe in silence. Sometimes people ask me what I’m doing there. I tell them I’m there to applaud! (laughs)
PAN M 360: You feed off what happens there!
Florent Vollant : Sometimes I applaud, sometimes I don’t applaud at all. Sometimes I don’t get involved, sometimes I do. Sometimes I’m asked, sometimes I’m not asked, sometimes it’s okay. When it’s my turn, I take up more space. I can sing, I can move, I can listen. I still have good ears.
PAN M 360: I take your word for it! You have to keep going.
Florent Vollant : People come up to me and say, “Hey, you, you’re not allowed to stop.”
PAN M 360: They’re right! There’s no way you should stop. We don’t stop. People like you should only stop when they die.
Florent Vollant : That’s exactly what they made me understand. If I want to live a little longer, I have to work, and this is the work I know. It’s what I know how to do, it’s what I have to do.
