N'tshish nuaten eshenniuian
N'tshish nuaten eshen'tautshian
N'thish tapue pussen'taman
Nte ueshket ka inniuian
Muk tapue ninen n'tinniun
Tshetshi nan'tam akua tuteman
Ne menuen'ten eshenakushian
E uataman e uassiuian
Eshk tapue ne mamet'nenten
Net ueshket ka metueian
Kametueian shet nuitsheuan
Tshetshi nan'tam tekushenian
Apu tshekuan n'tshish iten'taman
Nte aitapian nte uateman
Nte e uataman nte ka n'tautshian
Apu tshi nan'tam tekushenian
Muk tapue ninen n'tinniun
Tshetshi nan'tam akua tuteman
I menuen'ten eshenakushian
E uataman e uassiuian
E Uassiuian by Kashtin (Tornado)
Now I see how I live
Now I see how I grew up
Now, I am really confused because
Of my life before now.
But really, we live and
We should always be careful what we do.
I am content with my present lifestyle,
But I still think back to playing with my friends...
[when I think about playing with friends,
My mind journeys back to my childhood]
Thinking about nothing,
Just looking back,
Looking at how I was raised,
You cannot go back forever.
But honestly, we should live in a way that
We take care of ourselves [we should take care to live to the fullest now]
Be content with our present lifestyle...
I see... my childhood...
The you-tube video shows how close the language is to slang-French. Similar sounds form strange phrases in French. The REAL lyrics are above... th "mis-heard" lyrics are on the video, pour mes ami francophone...
Claude McKenzie and Florent Vollant are from the Innu Nation of Quebec / Canada. The Innu (not to be confused with the Inuit people) are an Algonquian people and are based in 13 different communities of Eastern Quebec and Labrador. The home community of the two Kashtin members is Maliotenam on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence River.
Florent and Claude met when Claude's family moved to Maliotenam. In Kashtin's 1992 tour-video "Eternal Drum", Florent explains that he and Claude started playing together ten years earlier after they had each been playing with their own groups. He says that one day, Claude just walked up on stage to him, and that they've been playing together ever since. That would have been 1982, and Florent would have been 23 and Claude 15.
The name Kashtin, commonly just explained as "tornado", appears to be a play on words. For the magazine Music Express, Florent once explained that in Innu, it means "tornado on the horizon" or, conversely, "good times ahead." In English it is pronounced "cashed in", which he said was their way of having fun with friends who said they had sold out.
The song is from their first album, self-titled and released in 1989. It is about the conflict between childhood and youth, being able to recall the happiness of childhood, but that innocence is gone by the time we've grown up.
Kashtin always included positive messages for the native population, such as the last verse.
Despite singing only in their tribal band's language, the album was well received and they are remembered as the first successful First Nations rock group in Canada. (The album was damn good too!) (This from a "maudit Anglo-dude!")
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