Gaawin Gindaaswin Ndaawsii, kimotinâniwiw itwêwina, & Nibi Emosaawdang

This September, Second Story Press will release a trio of translations for previously-published picture books of stories based in Indigenous peoples' experiences. By sharing these stories in dual-language editions, the publisher is inviting new readers of Plains Cree, Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) and Nishnaabemwin (Ojibwe) to draw personal connections with the text while also encouraging discussion and influence on English-language readers. This is especially meaningful and appropriate as we become more and more aware of the necessity to embrace all cultures and meet demands for multilingual editions of stories.

The English-language editions of the three picture books, both non-fiction and fictionalized accounts based on true events, have all been reviewed here on CanLit for LittleCanadians but here are their translations, presented in dual-language editions, which are set for release September 10, 2019:

Gaawin Gindaaswin Ndaawsii/I Am Not a Number

Gaa-zhibiigeuwaad/written by Jenny Kay Dupuis minwa/and Kathy Kacer

Gaa-mzinbiiged/illustrated by Gillian Newland

Gaa-aankanoobiigewaad/translated by Muriel Sawyer minwa/and Geraldine McLeod

Gaa-waadookaaged/with contributions by Tory Fisher

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-099-5

44 pp.

Ages 7-11

September 2019

English edition (978-1-927583-94-4), 2016

Reviewed here

kimotinâniwiw itwêwina/Stolen Words

omasinahikêw/written by Melanie Florence

otâpasinahikêw/illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

translated by Dolores Sand êkwa

Gayle Weenie kî-nêhiyawastâwak

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-101-5

28 pp.

Ages 6-9

September 2019

English language edition (978-1-77260-037-7), 2017

Reviewed here

Nibi Emosaawdang/The Water Walker

Gaa-zhi-biiyang miiniwaa gaa-mzinbiiyaang/written and illustrated by Joanne Robertson

Gaa-aankinootimaagejig/translated by Shirley Williams miiniwaa/and Isadore Toulouse

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-100-8

40 pp.

Ages 6-9

September 2019

English language version (978-1-77260-038-4), 2017

Reviewed here

Each of these poignant stories take on issues which are at the heart of the Indigenous experience, whether it be residential schools, loss of language and culture, or environmentalism and activism. The stories are well told and heartfelt but, with these translations, readers will gain a different perspective that opens up possibilities for learning, discussion and impact. I encourage teachers to make use of these editions, even if they have copies of the original English language versions, to promote those discussions and inclusivity, especially in a land where we need to do so much more to build supportive communities.

I Am Not a Number

by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer

Illustrated by Gillian Newland

Second Story Press

978-1-927583-94-4

32 pp.

Ages 7+

September 2016

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Stories like I Am Not a Number should always be told.  They should always be told loudly and emphatically and with purpose, to tell of a wrongdoing that was perpetrated against First Nations families like the Couchie family of Nipissing First Nation.  Tales of children stolen from their homes, under the direction of government, to attend and live at residential schools.  Narratives of holding onto self when everything was done to annihilate that sense.  This is the account of author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ granny, Irene Couchie Dupuis.

In 1928, Irene was living with her father, Chief Ernest Couchie, and her mother and two brothers, George and Ephraim, on Nipissing Reserve Number 10 when the Indian agent of the day demanded the children be surrendered to him to deliver to St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School.  Though her parents protest–her mother especially vehement that eight-year-old Irene needed to be with her family–the children are essentially taken by force.

The children are going with me to the residential school.  They are wards of the government, now.  They belong to us. (pg. 2)

With final goodbyes, her mother telling them to “Never forget home or our ways.  Never forget your mother and father.  Never forget who you are.” (pg. 7), the three children are taken away and separated, boys from girls.  Still Irene tries to stay strong, even after she’s told that she will be known as 759, telling herself “I am not a number.  I am Irene Couchie, daughter of Ernest and Mary Ann Couchie.  I will never forget who I am.” (pg. 8).  And through the horrible showering to “scrub all the brown off” (pg. 9) and the cutting of her long hair–normally only cut when a loved one was lost– and burning of her hands as punishment for speaking her own language, Irene heeds her mother’s words to never forget who she is.

From I Am Not a Number 

by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, 

illus. by Gillian Newland

After a full year of biting her tongue and dreaming of home, to and from which all letters were banned, Irene and her brothers are sent home for the summer.  As happy as she is to feel the love of her family again, to eat well and speak her own language, Irene is troubled by images of her time at school and her impending return in the fall.  But Irene’s father has other plans for his children and none of them include that horrible place.

Jenny Kay Dupuis does her granny Irene and her heritage honour by telling this story.  It’s a difficult one for all families involved in the residential school debacle, even for generations afterwards but one that Jenny Kay Dupuis tells, in collaboration with award-winning historical fiction and non-fiction writer Kathy Kacer, to inform and clarify for young readers.  It’s a shocking tragedy from our history but one from which we can only hope all learn valuable lessons.  I Am Not a Number is illustrated compassionately by Gillian Newland, who also illustrated Kathy Kacer’s The Magician of Auschwitz (Second Story Press, 2014) and A Boy Asked the Wind (Barbara Nickel, Red Deer Press, 2015). In the realistic style of Alex Colville and using the sombre tones of greys, blacks and browns for the residential school and a similar palette with splashes of gold and green away from that setting, Gillian Newland evokes the appropriate sentiment the book.  I Am Not a Number may be illustrated and classified as juvenile non-fiction but the extensive text and the account within is a mature one, yet one that can be told and taught and learned with empathy and as tribute.

From I Am Not a Number 

by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, 

illus. by Gillian Newland