Canada

Materials from Canada

How The Robin Got Its Red Breast: A Legend Of The Sechelt People (Legends Of The Sechelt Nation)

These traditional teaching legends come straight from the oral traditions of the Sechelt Nation. Simple enough to be understood by young children, yet compelling enough for adults, they are gentle, beautifully presented cautionary tales. You’ll want to read them again and again – and you’ll learn a few words of the Shishalh language while you’re at it. Charlie Craigan is a young Sechelt artist who works in a tiny studio set up in his bedroom. He studied traditional wood carving with Sechelt Nation carvers, but learned to draw and paint by studying books.

My Name Is Seepeetza

Her name was Seepeetza when she was at home with her family. But now that she’s living at the Indian residential school her name is Martha Stone, and everything else about her life has changed as well. Told in the honest voice of a sixth grader, this is the story of a young Native girl forced to live in a world governed by strict nuns, arbitrary rules, and a policy against talking in her own dialect, even with her family. Seepeetza finds bright spots, but most of all she looks forward to summers and holidays at home. This autobiographical novel is written in the form of Seepeetza’s diary.

Slash

Slash is Jeannette Armstrong’s first novel. Slash poignantly traces the struggles, pain, alienation and accounts of a young Okanagan man’s search for truth and meaning in his life. Slash has been adopted for use in high schools, colleges and universities.

Nanabosho and the Cranberries

Sometimes we can be fooled by what we want to see. That happens to a famished Nanabosho when he sees a bush of plump cranberries seemingly floating on the surface of the lake.

A Really Good Brown Girl

Marilyn Dumont’s Metis heritage offers her challenges that few of us welcome. Here she turns them to opportunities in a voice that is fierce, direct, and true, she explores and transcends the multiple boundaries imposed by society on the self. She mocks, with exasperation and sly humour, the banal exploitation of Indianness, more-Indian-than-thou oneupmanship, and white condescension and ignorance. She celebrates the person, clearly observing, who defines her own life. These are Indian poems, Canadian poems, human poems.

Arctic Adventures: Tales From The Lives Of Inuit Artists

Extreme weather, hunger, magic, hunting, and the land are themes that shape the existence of the Inuits’ of the Far North. These stories — retold by Raquel Rivera based on the lives of native artists Pudlo Pudlat, Jessie Oonark, Kenojuak Ashevak and Lazarusie Ishulutuk — offer young readers a glimpse into this rich, remote culture, past and present. In “Pudlo and Kapik Go Hunting,” a young boy drifts out to sea on an ice floe; “Oonark\’s Arctic Adventure” tells of a mother and daughter stranded on the icy tundra; “The Shaman’s Granddaughter” movingly explores loss and mystery; and “Lazarusie and the Polar Bears” reveals just how finely attuned the relationship between animals and humans can be. Accompanying each story are illustrations by Jirina Marton, who has spent time in the Arctic and whose deep appreciation for its subtle beauty shines through her art. In addition to the stories, there is a feature spread on each artist with a photograph, a brief biography, and a reproduction of one of the artist’s works.

Mishomish Book : The Voice of the Ojibway

The Ojibway is one of the largest groups of Native Americans, belonging to the Anishinabe people of the northern United States and Canada. This book includes Ojibway creation stories and legends, the origin and importance of the Ojibway family structure and clan system, the Midewiwin religion, the construction and use of the water drum and sweat lodge, and modern Ojibway history.

The Shaman’s Nephew: A Life In The Far North

When Jewish author/storyteller Sheldon Oberman met Inuit artist/hunter Simon Tookoome, he knew the encounter was special. Still, he had no idea their meeting would result in an amazing collaboration that would span a decade. Through the use of many tape recordings and translations, Sheldon has painstakingly woven the threads of a remarkable man’s life into a book for all to treasure. With Tookoome’s drawings to enhance the text, Oberman has managed to express the cadence and voice of one of the last of the Inuit to live the traditional nomadic life in the Arctic. The Shaman’s Nephew magically transports readers to a cold climate that warms and grows more familiar with every turn of the page.