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Okotoks artist illustrates Indigenous children's books

Exchange of ideas and culture were essential for Kainai artist Alyssa Koski to render Swampy Cree and Haida Gwaii characters accurately.
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Alyssa Koski holds two books she illustrated, at Yooneek Book Store on March 1.

An Okotoks artist has illustrated two stories of Indigenous culture. 

Character illustrator and artist Alyssa Koski was approached by Heritage House Publishing to illustrate two books depicting less-represented Indigenous cultures.

“It’s amazing working with the authors because they have so much direct knowledge on the subject,” Koski said. 

She has always sought out knowledge of First Nations, herself a member of the Kainai Nation through her grandmother Pauline Dempsey, who was born on the Blood Reserve to Senator James Gladstone and Janie Healy Gladstone. 

Working with award-winning author, musician, artist and lawyer Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson, Koski illustrated the characters of Magical Beings of Haida Gwaii from what was originally a photo book depicting a series of supernatural female figures of ancient narratives.  

“That was another one that I needed a lot of guidance through, because my area is mostly Plains rather than Coastal,” Koski said.

The story was aimed to empower young minds, adding Indigenous representation where Williams-Davidson said there was little before. 

“This book draws on a lot of the themes that I have in my adult book as well, not just about the supernatural landscape, but the idea that that power and magic is inside every one of us,” Williams-Davidson said.  

“Especially given the challenges that Indigenous children might face in some communities, I thought this would be helpful to uplift them and to see their own face in the book, which is certainly nothing that I had growing up.” 

Rewritten for children by her stepdaughter Sara Florence Davidson, the backdrops and landscapes for Koski’s illustrations were created by artist Judy Hilgemann.

The desire to showcase the characters began as a musical project Williams-Davidson started when she entered law school. Writing the album, she chose to enact the characters herself through performance art, having it captured in photograph.

“I went far back into the historical records to find some of them that might have had a sentence about them,” Williams-Davidson said. “Some of them might be things that my parents told me or in addition to what I had read."

This is one of very few children’s books depicting the Haida culture, the author added. 

“There’s usually a lot of children’s books across Canada, but not necessarily from the West Coast," Williams-Davidson said.

Looking to central Canada, kā-āciwīkicik - The Move tells the tale of a couple in the 1960s that is relocated to make way for a hydro-electric project.

Throughout the book, Cree language specialist Don K. Philpot and Chemawawin educator Doris George fill the pages with the Swampy Cree language alongside English.

"The old people in this story, they lived all their lives by the water,” Philpot said. “Then they had to settle into the new house away from the water and so many things were associated with that old house, their livelihood, their traditional ways of living."

The story, he explained, is about reclaiming their way of life in a new space. 

“The old woman is longing for the life she left behind, all the traditional things she used to do like making birch bark baskets, maple syrup, smoking fish,” Philpot said. “She longs for it so much she prays, and the spirits help her to restore the elements of her environment.” 

While not born to an Indigenous family, Philpot was taken in as a young adult by a family of the Chemawawin people in northern Manitoba, whose culture he depicts in the book.

“I think that’s a real learning experience for non-Indigenous people, but for young Indigenous people too,” he said.

“Young Indigenous people can learn about things they don’t know happened in their own heritage; maybe to their grandparents, the changes in their grandparents or great-grandparents' life that were forced upon them. 

“Also for all groups, how important that natural environment was and continues to be for Indigenous people in Canada... it still provides so many resources for Indigenous people and it’s such a source of identify and pride.” 

Accurately depicting the couple's traditions was key for Koski, who again worked closely with her author counterparts. 

“It was phenomenal working with Don, because I always do a lot of research on my own – that’s one of my favourite parts, but there's limited resources out there for certain specific cultures,” Koski said.

“Don, he’s this wealth of information on the subject; I would bring him ideas that I had, and he would say, ‘I know that, that’s working, and this is why, but this is inaccurate; this was more another area of the Cree people and the Swampy Cree were over here doing this.’"

The collaboration was more than work for the artist.

“It was just really amazing, we talked for hours, not even stuff that would be used in the book, just because we’re both really interested in the history,” said Koski. 

The growing world of Indigenous literature, including children's books, is encouraging to Koski. 

“It’s great seeing so much more of it coming out and a lot more voices being represented,” she said. “When I was a kid there was nothing available, but now I’ve seen so many new books coming out talking about different Indigenous cultures by Indigenous authors. 

“It’s a really exciting time.” 

The books are available at Yooneek Book Store in Okotoks and more information can be found at heritagehouse.ca.

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