Author: William Dumas
Illustrator: Rhian Brynjolson
Publisher: Highwater Press / Portage & Main Press

“I don’t recall seeing books when I was a little boy. But the old people, they grew up listening to stories. And so, every night, when the old people were done their evening prayers, they would sit and they would tell us stories too.”

At the time of the spring thaw, the Rocky Cree fill their canoes with furs, eager to trade with the new visitors in mistiwāsahak (Hudson Bay). But not all of the new visitors are welcome.

When the canoes return home to the shores of the misinipī river, the Rocky Cree begin to collapse one by one, drenched in sweat and slowly slipping into delirium. Kākakiw struggles to help the sick as more and more people pass into the spirit world. Exhausted physically, emotionally and spiritually, he seeks guidance through prayer.

Hope finally comes with a visitor in the night: one of the Little People, small beings who are just like us. If Kākakiw can journey to their home, he will be given the medicine his people need. All he has to do is paddle through a cliff of solid bedrock to get there.

To save his people from certain death, Kākakiw must overcome doubt to follow the traditional teachings of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak and trust in the gift of the Little People.

In this illustrated short story for all ages, celebrated Rocky Cree storyteller William Dumas shares a teaching about hope in the face of adversity. This book is a companion story to The Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak series.

This book is very special, and defies most categories. It is neither picture book nor graphic novel, neither a children’s nor youth read. It is all and none of those. It is simply a precious sharing of an ancient legend, captivating to any age and culture, with striking illustrations that will stay with you, and will burn the story into your psyche.

Read this work to understand Indigenous culture, or browse it to be utterly and completely drawn in by the artwork. Call it a middle-grade graphic novel if you must assign it a box, but believe me when I say it is a novella bursting with art for all ages, and especially for those who want to deepen their truth and reconciliation journey.

Personally, I’ve always been secretly jealous of cultures and eras with a storytelling tradition. I used to fantasize about families sitting in front of a crackling fireplace, respected elders handing down colorful legends from generation to generation. Legends that explained life, legends that let us hold on to a fantasy world regardless of age. Surely that scenario beats stressed-out families who sit apart with a variety of electronic devices?

So, here it is: a gift from a culture and an age rich in this tradition, a gift from a master storyteller and illustrator.

Turn off your electronics, take this book in hand, and lose yourself in a mystical retelling and its burst of mesmerizing art.

- Pam Withers