Books for Kids: Raising awareness of Indigenous culture

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Indigenous authors and illustrators have contributed a growing number of books to the field of Canadian children’s literature in recent years, helping to make even the very young aware of Aboriginal culture and accomplishments. Below, three picture books for ages three to eight that are part of that growth. 

Métis Like Me
By Tasha Hilderman
Illustrated by Risa Hugo
Tundra Books
Métis people are of mixed Aboriginal and European descent; in an author’s note at the back of this book, Tasha Hilderman — a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta — explains they have “a unique historical identity as the descendants of First Nations women and European fur traders.” She also notes that not all Métis grew up knowing about their language, culture and community — that there was a time they were known as the “forgotten people.” So it’s fitting that this picture book begins with a question: “Are you Métis like me?”

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The answers given by a group of children describe activities such as making bannock, going fishing, gathering saskatoon berries, doing beadwork, telling stories, making music and being part of a community. One child says he is Métis but has never done those things and is still learning; another says she isn’t Métis but likes “having you as my friends.”

Colourful illustrations by Vancouver-based Risa Hugo depict a welcoming community, and the embossed beadwork on the cover is a tactile invitation to explore Hilderman’s text, complete with her recipe for bannock and a glossary of Michif words that combine Cree and Métis French. 

Let’s Go! / haw êkwa!
Written and illustrated by Julie Flett
Greystone Kids
Award-winning Cree-Métis author/illustrator Julie Flett gives us a look at a different kind of community — one her family has been part of for many years. Her son is an avid skateboarder and Flett captures that world in both words and images, vividly describing the sounds and feelings of flow and movement, the sense of freedom, as well as the joy of belonging to an inclusive, passionate community.

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In an author’s note at the end of the book, she incorporates Cree words and phrases (and their pronunciation), including the subtitle “haw êkwa!,” which she defines as a Cree idiom meaning “OK then!”  

Freddie the Flyer
By Fred Carmichael and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail
Illustrated by Audrea Loreen-Wulf
Tundra Books
Frederick (Freddie) Carmichael, the first Indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic, was born in Aklavik, N.W.T.; now 89 and living in Inuvik with his wife, Miki, he still flies. His life story, co-written with Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, is one of passion, determination and great accomplishments, presented here in a series of 12 brief monthly accounts, beginning when Freddie was little.

The book tells us about a boy whose “heart soared” at first seeing a plane overhead and who decided, at 16, to “earn money and go to flying school.” The road he chose wasn’t easy, but he succeeded to such a degree that he is now a member of the Order of Canada and an inductee of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.

An inspiring picture-book biography illustrated by Inuvialuit painter Audrea Loreen-Wulf, with the bonus of teaching readers the names of the months in Gwich’in and Inuvialuktun.

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