From 2008 to 2013, the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures collaborated on producing Pīsim Finds Her Miskanow, a picture book for young people about the life of Kayasochi Kikawenow, Our Mother from Long Ago, a young Cree woman who lived in northern Manitoba in the late-seventeenth century and whose burial site was discovered in 1993.
Now the Pīsim research team has launched a crowdfunding campaign (https://foundation.uwinnipeg.ca/projects/help-launch-a-storybook-app-for-pisim-finds-her-miskanow/) to help create an interactive digital text version of the story which will bring to life the cultural and historical contexts of Pīsim’s journey. Our goal is to invite young readers to immerse themselves in the Rocky Cree world as they travel with Pīsim and her family through their northern Manitoba territory, listen to the travelling songs that mark the people’s progress, experience the drama of an unexpected thunderstorm, and share Pīsim’s satisfaction as she is acknowledged as a young woman by her minisiwin and finds her miskanow — her life path.
We see both the picture book and the app as an important reclamation of Rocky Cree culture and as part of the larger Canadian project of education for reconciliation, as that is understood in the post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission era.
Please consider supporting this campaign and forwarding this campaign to colleagues, friends, and members of your social media networks.
Anyone who makes a gift of $10 or more will receive a link to download the app when it’s finished.
Contact Mavis Reimer for further information.