Today we welcome Anthony Garcia, a writer for the Online Graduate Programs website, with a thought-provoking article about why it is so important to ensure children have access to a diverse array of multicultural/cross-cultural books.

Anthony recently completed his graduate education in English Literature. A New Mexico native, he currently resides and writes in Seattle, Washington. He writes primarily about education, travel, literature, and American culture.

Educating people through literacy can last a lifetime, because it allows for empowerment. If someone can read information, they can continue to learn and educate themselves for a lifetime.

Have you ever run across someone who was woefully ignorant of diversity? It is a shame that so many people cannot appreciate the value of other cultures and be interested in the different ways social groups all over the world operate.  Perhaps these people would have been more interested in learning about and appreciating different cultures if they were more literate and could assess information accordingly.

Not all of us can attend graduate programs or are even exposed to reading as children. However, it is the responsibility of educated people to share the gift of education, empowering others to learn.

One of the best ways to help others through literacy is to begin sharing books in childhood. It can be difficult to expose children to new viewpoints, especially in areas where there are not significant minority populations. However, using books is a good start to combating ignorance. If children are exposed to other viewpoints, it raises levels of literacy, but also helps them to see similarity, rather than focus on the issues which divide as adults.

Parents and educators are aware that children need to read and to be read to, and should try to pick up books that focus on other cultures, nations and groups. Books about other countries are easy to find in any local library, and children will enjoy seeing pictures of children all over the world who, in some cases, are actually quite similar to them. Children can also learn about the foods that other cultures enjoy and perhaps prepare some of them as part of a class project. Another option is to have students read about the various holidays that are celebrated all over the world and enjoy a class party!

Besides books that just discuss the facts and figures about different countries, if can be fun to explore the folklore of various groups. Most civilizations have legends and fables describing how the world began and the origins of evil. It is interesting to compare all accounts and see how they are similar and different. Educating others through literacy should involve discussion for the most impactful education possible.

Reading culturally diverse books to children is important because (more…)

Bonita Sauder is author of the young adult novel Year of the Golden Dragon (Coteau Books, 2010). Last year, while living in Bangkok, she attended the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore; she loved it so much that, even though she had moved back to Canada in the meantime, she returned this year for a second time. Here, she shares with us her thoughts and impressions following her return home:

I’ve just returned to the cool, damp and rainy city of North Vancouver. Normally, the weather here doesn’t bother me too much, but as it is the beginning of June, we sure wish the weather would WARM UP! Unlike most of my friends and neighbours, I had a lucky break from what Ursula Le Guin called the “dreary beauty of Vancouver” when I went to Singapore to attend the Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2011. It was terrific—and not just because it was sunny and warm!

Last year, during the inaugural Festival, there were plenty of speakers, publishers, editors, authors, illustrators, teachers, emerging writers and librarians interested in children’s books. They came from across Asia with a handful from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe to discuss books for young people that embraced the ‘Asian’ identity.

Before I go further, I realize that Asians are as varied as their languages and cultures, just as every other people from around the globe. And with the continued increase of so-called blended families such as my own (I am second generation Canadian from Polish/Ukranian/Amish stock and my husband is Chinese American) Asians and everyone else in the world are becoming—more mixed—but hopefully not mixed up.

A very large portion of the world’s population has Asian blood, but sadly, the amount of children’s literature depicting Asian characters and protagonists does not come close to being representative of that number. And this is the case even if one includes stories and books written in Asian languages and dialects. While there are certainly more adventure stories, chapter and picture books and reinvented folktales than there were ten years ago, there is still a lot of room for more.

Last year, during AFCC 2010, we agreed that it was indeed time for creators to produce more Children’s Literature with Asian characters and protagonists. That was a very valuable conference for me and close to my heart as I am a mother to two children of Chinese descent. And it was great to meet other parents, teachers, and creators who cared about the same things that I did.

This year’s event, while only the second AFCC, drew many of the same participants and speakers from the region and abroad, but there were also many new faces. These included veterans from the US including Stephen Mooser, the co-founder of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Neil Porter, the Editorial Director of Neil Porter Books and Liz Rosenberg, author and book reviewer for the Boston Globe.

I don’t mention these people simply because they are from the United States nor do I think that the other ‘veteran authors’ in attendance deserve less recognition. I bring these Americans up because this festival is really very new and I was surprised and delighted to have so many wonderful presenters to choose from. Obviously, word is getting out. There are more people than we realize who are also interested in celebrating ‘Asian Content for the World’s Children’.

In addition to those of us who are involved in the creation, publication, teaching and reading side of books, there were two special guests who spoke on Friday evening: H.E. Dr. José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste who spoke to us of the importance in educating children in the developing world and Mr. Luis Soriano from Columbia. For those who haven’t heard of Mr. Soriano, as I admit I hadn’t, his story is one that everyone who loves books and children should know.

Mr. Soriano, wearing large, black rimmed glasses and a straw cowboy hat made his way up to the podium. I lived in Singapore for a year of so, and don’t remember anyone ever wearing a cowboy hat—so he didn’t exactly blend in. And after hearing what he had to say through the President’s translation, I think he likely stands out even in his native Columbia.

Several times a week, Mr. Soriano straps about 70 books onto the back of a donkey and treks to children off the beaten path in his homeland. He believes that since the majority of the Columbian population are children, with more than 50% without access to computers, he—and now other volunteers—take their travelling libraries to the children in the hope of introducing them to other ways of living through literature. After twelve years, Mr. Soriano is beginning to see some of these children striving to continue their education at University.

If you are a teacher (as I am) and perhaps have taught underprivileged children in your home country or some other place, you will understand that education is often out of reach for many reasons. Sometimes it is because there is a lack of resources including teachers, supplies and books. Mr. Soriano set out to change at least part of this equation in Columbia by introducing books to children to “activate their minds to understand that there are other realities” for them. If you want to see a clip of him, just do a search of his name on the internet. You will be as amazed as I was by this seemingly unassuming man.

Like Luis Soriano, there were other speakers and attendees who had come to Singapore for their first time. Most were delighted and inspired by the easy warmth and friendliness that seems inherent to people in this part of the world. Now that word has got out about the Festival, I’ll bet it won’t be difficult to gather an even more varied group of speakers and participants for AFCC 2012.

To have had so many talented speakers in the first two years makes me think that Festival Director, R. Ramachandran’s wish will likely come true. Singapore will become the “Bologna of Asia”.

Bonita Sauder
June 2011

Thank you, Bonita.

Australian writer Hazel Edward‘s picture-book There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake was 30 years old last year and is a must-read classic for all young Australians. The book has recently been made into a short film by Pocket Bonfire Productions, which premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival in Victoria, Australia at the end of May – here’s a photo of Hazel with writer/director Jaime Snyder and producer Joel Sharpe:

The film is due to be screened during the upcoming Edinburgh Film Festival as part of a program devoted to Family Shorts on 26 June (see here for details). Take look at the rather whimsical trailer to the film – and tell me if it doesn’t make you laugh out loud at the end!

Tantalising, isn’t it? Especially for those of us who are going to have to wait for the chance to see it… Meanwhile, we’re delighted to welcome Hazel back to PaperTigers with an article that ponders her reaction to her book being made into a film…

‘How Do You Feel About a Film Being Made from Your Picture Book There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake?

I’ve been asked that question a few times this week, especially as the world premiere is this Saturday night at the St Kilda Film Festival. And then it goes onto the international showing at the Edinburgh Film festival.

My short answer is, ‘Thrilled that my story has gone into another creative dimension.’

…Long answer:

A book is a bit like a child. At some stage you have to let it go out on its own.

For me, as an author, the greatest creative satisfaction is the moment of capturing the abstract idea in words, just before it goes onto the page or screen. The second satisfaction is when a reader takes those word clues and uses their own imagination to re-create an approximation of the idea I was playing with. Then it becomes their story, not mine.

The third satisfaction is when a ‘fan’ contacts me to share that something special has happened as a result of my book.

And that’s what happened with the making of this film. Pocket Bonfire film-makers Jaime Snyder and Joel Sharpe contacted me, as a result of reading their favourite book as children, and being inspired to make a film.

To me that is the greatest compliment, to offer to take my book-baby into a medium in which they are skilled, but I am not.

More than three years ago they contacted me, seeking permission. But they were student film-makers then, finishing their course at Swinburne, and I wanted any film of my book to be mainstream with no legal complications about who owned what. So we waited until they could make it as independent film-makers. And they had to negotiate with Penguin publishers too and convince rights manager Peg Mc Coll that they had the persistence and skill to finish the project and that somehow they would raise support. Most film options are never made.

One of the characteristics of our relationship has been the courtesy with which they have consulted or kept me informed. Jaime is especially good at following up details and in the creative world that is rare.

One of my most thrilling moments was to be invited one Wednesday morning to the workshop of Creatures Technology to see the hippo which had been created by their people as in-kind support for the project. A massive warehouse, with gigantic models of dinosaur creatures, roof high, and a buzz of creative enjoyment in the quality of the problem they were solving in hippo parts design. I tried on the feet and needed help to get out of them. I marvelled at the mouth. And the hippo backside. And felt the skin texture. But I also felt the communal creativity of imaginative problem solving, in another dimension. Animator Leo Baker came with me, and this year he was part of Shaun Tan’s Lost Thing team who won the Oscar. Proof that those who follow their dreams and do the best work possible, do succeed artistically. I place the Pocket Bonfire team in the same category.

I was always consulted on the numerous script drafts, but really Pocket Bonfire must take the credit for all phases of the project. They inspired others skilled in the technical aspects of camera, audio, music and editing as well as utilising social media to attract funding and publicity. Their attention to detail meant organisations were more inclined to support these youthful film-makers whose procedures reassured that this film might get made. Having a well loved book was helpful and that’s why the title was important.

I saw extracts, learnt to negotiate YouTube and other online promos and helped with autographed copies for fund-raisers. Sometimes I felt ‘the oldest’’in years (turning up at the night club fund raiser) but the same age in enthusiasm.

I heard about setbacks like Portia Bradley, the girl actress, having her leg in plaster, but they filmed around that. The choice of well-known actors like Angus Sampson and Bridie Carter has attracted many followers in addition to their skills being evident in the character relationships.

Seeing the completed film was poignant for me. It was almost as if I were outside myself, watching how an author is supposed to react to their film. I think Pocket Bonfire were concerned that I would be pedantic about keeping to the book, but I was just intrigued by how they had developed the story, still keeping to the essence of the original. The girl is older and there’s implied tension between the parents but the need for an imaginary friend is still there. At first I felt the hippo was a little scary, but later versions were emotionally and symbolically more balanced.

My daughter came with me to the mainly twenty-something crew/cast showing late last year, and the ‘ownership’ and pride of the participants at all levels was a thrilling experience. There was something special about being involved in the production. It had so much in-kind support, even to the neighbour’s ladder up to the roof for the hippo on the film set. ‘Did you see that ladder?’ I was asked at the showing. ‘That’s mine! Great film.’

I would echo his comment. Thank you, Jaimie and Joel, for giving me and the audience the gift of the imagination in taking my book into the film world.

That’s my long answer.

Hazel Edwards

Indian writer Ramendra Kumar‘s latest children’s books focus on stories of Indian children in a contemporary setting – an area of writing for middle-grade readers and young adults that has been greatly ignored in India: indeed, he would suggest, actively avoided. Though that may be changing: his most recent book, Now or Never (Ponytale Books 2010) has just been selected as a supplementary reader for Classes 7 and 8 by the Central Board of Secondary Education in India. Other novels include Terror in Fun City (Navneet Publications, 2008) and Not a Mere Game (Navneet Publications, 2006), and his book J J Act is endorsed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Butterflies, a non-profit “programme with street and working children”. Ramendra is also the editor of BoloKids.com, a “complete portal for the young and the young at heart”. We are delighted to welcome Ramendra to the PaperTigers blog.

During the Asian Conference of Story Telling in New Delhi a few years ago, a key-note speaker with very impressive credentials in the field of Library Science (and an equally impressive personality) was giving tips to children’s writers on how to write for children.

“All writers attempting to write for children should keep in mind that they have to go down to the level of children,” she concluded with a flourish, waiting for the applause which naturally followed.

During the interaction session I raised my hand to ask a question. She transferred her imperious gaze to me and lifted her eyebrows.

“Ma’am, I think you got the direction wrong. We children’s writers don’t have to go down to the level of children, rather we have to rise up to the level of the young and vibrant minds. For, ma’am, children are the closest that you can get to God, and God lives up there, not down below.” There was a stunned silence for some time and suddenly the entire Hall No. 5 of the India Habitat Centre exploded with claps and cheers.

As an MBA in marketing the primary lesson I was taught was to respect the customer. For us writers the customer is the child. However, instead of respecting the child, we patronize her and take her for granted. The books being churned out by writers and publishers in India are a testimony to this fact. Most of the books written for children are rehashes of earlier classics. As far as the publishers are concerned, they consider the fairytale/folk tale/fantasy segment safe.

I would like to put forth a strong case for a different genre of writing; and I would like to take the liberty of naming this segment of writing the Here and Now genre.

What do I mean by Here and Now writing? (more…)

Award winning Australian children’s author Chris Cheng is a passionate literacy advocate and besides writing full-time and being Co-Regional Advisor for SCBWI Australia/New Zealand, he has an extensive schedule of  speaking engagements at schools and literacy festivals. Chris recently returned from the Philippines and shares with us his experiences at the First Manila International Literary Festival:

Last month the National Book Development Board of the Philippines held the First Manila International Literary Festival and I was thrilled to be the only Australian (and one of five international speakers, including Vikas Swarup author of the book Q&A on which the movie Slumdog Millionaire was based) at the festival. The three day festival was titled LOL, Lit Out Loud. There were also many Filipino speakers that included some wonderful poets, columnists and authors.

The Filipinos have a glorious love of poetry and throughout the festival there were breakout panels expressing and discussing the love of poetry – there were also wonderful recitations of poetry on the opening day (many in the Filipino language so even though I couldn’t understand what was being said listing to the sounds being spoken for me was a joy) which begs me to request that we should have more opportunities at festivals and events and in our daily lives for ‘hearing’ poetry being recited.

I was engaged to speak on children’s literature in Australia and abroad, to talk about the changing children’s market and also to talk about my own writing experience and the writing of identity. As I have written a number of very popular children’s titles on the Chinese diaspora; New Gold Mountain, the Melting Pot, and Seams of Gold,  this was right up my alley. Talking about identity was extremely powerful for in the Philippines many of the available titles are imported. A very, very small publishing industry exists – they are establishing an identity but it is small.

There were session on graphic novels, travel writing, experimental literature, story telling workshops, gender writing – even a cooking demonstration with book launch – and the food by Mita Kapur (the books is the F Word – we discussed that title and how it would work in Australia!!!)

I was also thrilled to be able to send a short time on Saturday morning talking to the staff at the all girls school – the Immaculate Conception Academy at Greenhills in Manila. My one hour talk on writing and teaching became a two hour talk when they asked for demonstration of how teachers can use everyday objects all around them to be the stimulus for writing! We ‘wrote’ (talked actually) great stories on wall fans and baby elephants!

It was just a delight to the first Australian to speak this festival. As a well-established Australian children’s author I feel it is vital for the established nations with a rich literary heritage to support developing nations who desire one. In Australia we love reading our stories – stories that cast a light on life in the bush, in the suburbs and in the city; stories that feature our native wildlife and our own human characters with their particular follies and foibles; that describe our bushfires or floods, or simply our way of life. Readers in other national also deserve to be able to read their stories as well.

More information about the festival can be found here on my blog.

Australian author Susanne Gervay (visit her website and blog) has had a very busy year this year and social justice has been high on her agenda. She is one of the contributors to Fear Factor: Terror Incognito, an anthology of short stories featuring ten Australian and ten Indian writers, edited by Meenakshi Bharat and Sharon Rundle (Macmillan Australia/ Picador India, 2010). She has been writing about her travels to India and Kiribati, a “Pacific atoll nation drowning under climate change”. She has just launched Always Jack, the third book about Jack, following on from her wonderful I Am Jack and Super Jack. Most recently, Susanne was in South Korea for the Nambook-010 Fesival, the 5th Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival. She was there because she was taking part in Peace Story, a very special project. We are very grateful to Susanne for telling us all about it here. For those of us who couldn’t be there in person, Susanne’s description and photographs are definitely the next best thing!

In these troubled times with North Korea’s military attack on South Korea, the international publication of Peace Story is poignant and important. Twenty-two children’s authors and twenty-two illustrators from twenty-two countries engaged in an international cooperative to create a unique anthology, Peace Story, for young people. Respected academic author on Irish children’s literature Valerie Coghlan and Irish Laureate for children’s literature Siobhán Parkinson were the co-editors of Peace Story.

‘Peace Story’ was part of the Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival, South Korea which was first held in 2005 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. It is a six-week bi-annual festival of children’s books, the environment and peace, featuring outstanding exhibitions of children’s books and illustrations from all over the world. Much loved Korean illustrator Kang Woo-hyon, President of the Nambook-010 International Committee headed the ‘Peace Story’ project with the support of the Nami Island Minn family who published and translated some of the stories, and hosted the authors and illustrators on Nami Island. It was supported by National YMCA Korea, UNICEF and UNESCO Korea, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, and Nami Island the official sponsor of the IBBY Hans Christian Anderson Awards.

My Australian story ‘To East Timor with Love Australia’, illustrated by the award-winning Frané Lessac, opens the anthology Peace Story. Frané Lessac’s vibrant colours of bright pink bougainvillea and yellow-centred frangipanis create a visual representation of loss of homeland through war, but also hope for the future. (more…)

We are delighted to welcome Karon Alderman to the PaperTigers blog: Karon received a Special Mention in this year’s Frances Lincoln Children’s Book Award for her title Story Thief, about asylum seekers in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the Ouseburn Valley, which is also the location of the Award’s co-founder and principle administrator, the wonderful Seven Stories.

Story Thief is about an 11-year-old failed asylum seeker called Arlie. She narrates her story of the days following the arrest and detention of her family as she tries to hide from the authorities. She is supported by her friend Louise and two boys who have their own reasons for staying in hiding. At the announcements of this year’s award, Mary Briggs, one of this year’s judges and the co-founder of Seven Stories, hinted at the twists in the plot that give Story Thief its name. She also described it as “not a happy story” and “distinctly depressing”, and perhaps the lack of hope is what would make this more suitable for older readers than the middle-reader audience the award is aimed at. However, apart from its local setting being close to Seven Stories’ heart, it was felt that it needed a special mention because it explores the horrors of asylum seekers’ situations and presents the reality of the sense of helplessness when dealing with the beaurocratic system.

Here, Karon tells us about her passion for the issues she highlights and why she wrote the story.

Story Thief is about Arlie, an eleven-year-old failed asylum seeker. When her mother and sister are taken in the night, to a detention centre, she is on a sleepover with her friend next door. She tries to run away, helped by her friend, Louise.

I was thrilled that Story Thief was a runner up in the Diverse Voices competition, especially as I’d written it very quickly. However, the ideas had been simmering for some time as I support Common Ground, the East Area Asylum Seekers Support Group, a voluntary organisation that gives friendship and practical help to asylum seekers.

The asylum seekers I’ve met – the woman who’d lost her nine-year-old daughter, the girl who’d been trafficked, the stateless woman – are real people, in desperate situations, yet living in hope. But at the same time, I saw endless press coverage about asylum seekers committing crimes or receiving generous benefits. Actually, asylum seekers in Britain get a £35-a-week card. If their application to be official refugees is rejected, they can be left destitute. They are not allowed to work. They can be moved with little notice, detained, deported.

The story grew from two incidents: (more…)

Welcome to the Second Part of our Guest Post from photographer and journalist Caroline Irby, whose interview with PaperTigers is also featured in our current issue. If you missed Part One, then head on over there straight away to take a look at her stunning photographs of some of the children from her recent book A Child from Everywhere (Black Dog Publishing (UK), in association with Oxfam, 2010) – and without further ado, here are the rest of the photographs that Caroline has kindly shared with us, along with some of the background to each one.

I’ve taken photographs for the NGO WaterAid a few times in Africa, and their head of photography in London offered to help with this project, knowing that some of their UK-based employees are from overseas. Alexander’s father, Anthony, came forward.

The Community of Malian Refugees introduced me to Oumou’s family, now living in London.

BBC World Service were a brilliant resource: their journalists come from all over the world and I spoke with people working on every different language desk there. A woman on the ‘French for Africa’ desk gave me Boubacar’s contact details.

Daniel’s father was working for a refugee organisation in Scotland, and they put me in touch with him.

I met a Cuban on the London underground; he knew no Cuban children in the UK but did have a Peruvian contact, whom I called and who invited me to a party for Peruvians near Waterloo. There were no Peruvian children at the party born in Peru, but I was given contact details there for a boy called Luis…

I joined an online chatroom for people from St Vincent and the Grenadines living overseas; Andree-Ann’s much older sister responded to my message that I was looking for a young St Vincentian in London, and suggested her younger sister…

I met Emmanuel through an organisation called Refugee Action, which provides support to refugees who have arrived in the UK direct from refugee camps, as part of the UK government’s Gateway Protection Programme.

Bola was the last child I interviewed for this project. After trying all the more obvious routes (the Swazi embassy, South Africans living in the UK, online chatrooms etc), I contacted an independent newspaper in Swaziland, hoping I might find a journalist there who’d studied in the UK and had connections in this country. There I found a man called Welcome, who gave me the number of a Swazi lady living in London.

Oxford University put me in touch with Fiona’s family: her mother is a postgraduate student here.

I met Emilia at her school, in a very multicultural area of Leeds.

The Scottish Refugee Council gave me Fernanda’s details; she was one of the first children I met with.

Thank you again, Caroline, and many congratulations on the arrival of your own baby son in August.

The exhibition of A Child from Everywhere has now closed in London but will be opening in Japan later this month: at Okazaki World Children’s Art Museum from 18th September to 28th November 2010, then at Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, from 21st December 2010 – 23rd January 2011.

It is a real privilege to welcome photographer and journalist Caroline Irby to the PaperTigers Blog to share some of the photographs from her recently published book A Child from Everywhere (Black Dog Publishing (UK), in association with Oxfam, 2010), in which she has brought together children from 185 countries now living in the UK. In itself it is quite an achievement, but what makes this project so very special is how Caroline has captured the children in her beautiful photographs, and how they then speak to us in their own words.

You can read an interview with Caroline in our current issue of PaperTigers, in which she talks about the project. Here, she gives us an idea of how widely she had to throw her net to track down children from so many countries. Enjoy these stunning photographs – and we’ll be bringing you more in a second post next month.

I called the Andorran Embassy in London and the Ambassador’s wife agreed to help… Andorra is a tiny country with few nationals living in the UK; it took a few months to find an Andorran child here.

An organisation called Education Leeds gave me the details of a few schools in multicultural areas. One of these yielded Akeilah.

I wanted to reflect the extent of the diaspora of the recent wave of immigration; I’d also never been to the Orkneys and was curious to see so I contacted the Orkney Isles Education Authority and they found me Juan.

The Dominica Embassy in London helped me to track down Alissa.

University postgraduate departments are home to many foreign students; Cardiff University put me in touch with this family from Egypt.

I got talking to someone at a Christmas party about this project; her daughter was at school with Elsabet…

The British army recruits soldiers from Fiji, amongst other countries. I knew of an army barrack in Tidworth village, Hampshire, and contacted the local school, who let me interview a couple of children.

A friend of mine living in Oxford has a daughter who goes to school with Aura…

I noticed a sign reading, ‘Ivoirien Computing and Community Centre’ outside a portacabin on an estate near my home. The man working at reception connected me with Inza’s family.

Cambridge Racial Equality and Diversity Service introduced me to a few recently-arrived children who they give English language support to. Moeko was one of them.

I contacted the Pacific Islands Society and they invited me to a party for Pacific Islanders in London. I met Isabella’s family there.

As Corinne wrote a couple of weeks ago, there is an exhibition of A Child from Everywhere now on in London – or do get hold of the book for yourself: not only for the actual photographs, but also to read the insightful, thought-provoking and sometimes funny observations the children make about their new and old homes. I can’t recommend it highly enough! Thank you, Caroline.

If you haven’t read our recent interview with Métis author David Bouchard yet, then head on over there right away! In the interview we talked only a little bit about his recent book Seven Sacred Teachings of White Buffalo Calf Woman (More Than Words, 2009), which he co-wrote with Dr Joseph Martin, is stunningly illustrated by Kristy Cameron, and has an accompanying DVD with music by Swampfox, and for which Swampfox created seven flutes out of seven different woods, each in a different key.

David considers Seven Sacred Teachings to be one of his most important works to date. The seven teachings (Humility, Honesty, Respect, Courage, Wisdom, Truth, and Love) are universal to First Nations peoples, and are the strongest link between First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities. Read on to find out more, for in this post David explains in more depth the background to this fascinating and ambitious project, which brought together six languages: English, French, Ojibwe, South Slavey, Bush Cree and Chipewyan.

The Aboriginal people in Canada have had to deal with many negative experiences over the past century and more: but one of the golden, shiny spots from coast to coast in our country is the spirituality that remains intact. If you go into any one of our schools, any school from coast to coast in Canada with Aboriginal kids, you’ll see posters or writings on the walls that refer to these teachings. Different people call them different things. Among the Ojibwe people they’re called the Grandfather Teachings, amongst the Lakota and Dakota people (who used to be called the Sioux), they’re called the teachings of White Buffalo Calf Woman. Among the Dene of the north and their cousins the Navaho in America, they call them the Dene Laws.

But the teachings are very, very (more…)