Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu

Retold by Annie Picard

Illustrated by Elizabeth Jancewicz

Translated into Innu-aimun (Mushuau dialect) by Penash Rich

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides, Inc.

Mamu Tishishkutamashutau Innu Education

978-1-998802210

48 pp.

Ages 4-8

October 2024

 

This Innu creation story is one that the author, Annie Picard, heard from her grandmother. Isn't this how these traditional stories were lovingly passed along through the generations? And isn't it wonderful that a new generation of children, Innu and others, will hear this story again, now with illustrations by Elizabeth Jancewicz.

From Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, retold by Annie Picard, trans. by Penash Rich, illus. by Elizabeth Jancewicz

This story begins when the whole world was covered in water due to a great flood. Some animals survived the flood in a big canoe. Kuekuatsheu (Wolverine in Innu-aimun) suggests that he could create land for them if given some earth, so the different animals offer to dive deep into the water to grab some. First, Amishkᵘ (Beaver) attempts to fetch some from the bottom but it is too deep. Nitshikᵘ (Otter) and Muakᵘ (Loon) also try but are unsuccessful. Finally, the littlest animal, Utshashkᵘ (Muskrat), offers and, after diving deep into the water, is gone a long time. When they discover his body nearby, he still clutches a piece of earth.

From Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, retold by Annie Picard, trans. by Penash Rich, illus. by Elizabeth Jancewicz

Kuekuatsheu blows on the earth, watching it grow, until it is so big that Missinakᵘ (Turtle) carries it away on its back. Kuekuatsheu creates a land so big that all life could live there.

This is a story of how we came to be but it is also a reminder that we must respect all animals, including the smallest, for it was Utshashkᵘ who was able to help create the land though he did not survive his ordeal. 

From Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, retold by Annie Picard, trans. by Penash Rich, illus. by Elizabeth Jancewicz

This creation story has the elements that are often featured in Indigenous origin stories: animals working together, a turtle who carries the land on its back (hence Turtle Island), and a planet covered in water.  But Annie Picard makes the story more personal, relating how she heard these stories from her grandparents when she lived with them in Sheshatshiu Innu Nation in Labrador. The first image of a child at the knees of her grandmother shows the tender bond from which the story arose. And with each scene described by Annie Picard, as she heard it, there is the nuance of connection, compassion, and collaboration. The story is gently captured in the watercolour and ink artwork of Elizabeth Jancewicz who provides both realism and the fantastic. The animals are recognizable and realistic in their forms and sizes but Elizabeth Jancewicz also creates illustrations such as where Kuekuatsheu blows the clod of earth into a land mass that seem both natural and extraordinary. And that is just what it should be in a creation story that tells a traditional tale of what might have happened long ago but maybe not exactly that way. 

I'm so pleased to review Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, an Innu origin story, particularly one that is available in English and Innu-aimun, both in Mushuau dialect, translated by Penash Rich for the review copy I read, and Sheshatshiu dialect, another edition but translated by Anne Nuna (Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka tutak assinu). By providing multi-language editions, the author and publishers have opened up opportunities to a broader audience, both non-Indigenous who may not know the story and the Indigenous communities from which the stories originated, and that can only cultivate deeper inclusion. 

• • • • • •

 

This is the Sheshatshiu dialect edition:

 

Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka tutak assinu

Retold by Annie Picard

Illustrated by Elizabeth Jancewicz

Translated into Innu-aimun (Sheshatshiu dialect) by Anna Nuna

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides, Inc.

Mamu Tishishkutamashutau Innu Education

978-1-998802203

48 pp.

Ages 4-8

October 2024