The ancestral territory of the W8banaki people (“people of the rising sun”) is called “Ndakina” and extends from southern Quebec to New England. The Abenaki people have traditionally been connected to nature, hunting, fishing, and basketry, notably the weaving of black ash baskets, an ancestral skill passed down from one generation to the next. Today, the W8banaki Nation in Quebec includes two communities: Odanak and W8linak. They are located respectively on the banks of the Alsig8ntegw and W8linaktegw (Saint-François and Bécancour rivers) in the Centre-du-Québec region and are the only W8banakiak settlements on the Ndakina.

Aln8ba8dwaw8gan (the W8banaki or Abenaki language) is part of the Algonquian language family, which is spoken today in the territories that are now Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and northern Maine. It is still spoken by some elders and is characterized by distinct dialects, such as the Eastern and Western varieties, but is now endangered. Initiatives to support the revitalization of the language include an educational mobile app, university courses, modernization of the W8banaki dictionary, and toponymic recognition. The symbol “8” represents a nasal “o,” which is pronounced “on.”