Description
Written by Karen Krossing who is an author of settler heritage, and illustrated by Cathie Jamieson. Cathie Jamieson is an Anishinaabe artist from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation with Haudenosaunee family ties to Six Nations. Her multidisciplinary art is based on storytelling from her Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee identity. Themes in her work include history, the Dream Realm, traditional dancing, Clan Systems, natural elements, landscapes, figures, sounds and abstract forms. She now lives on Manitoulin Island in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, where she practices land-based living.
This rich collaboration between author Karen Krossing, of White settler descent, and Anishinaabe artist Cathie Jamieson ends with a question that readers anywhere can ask—what does your street remember?
The story begins 14,000 years ago, when mammoths roamed the icefields, and the First Peoples followed their trail. Historically accurate illustrations show the lives of their descendants over thousands of years as they hunted and gathered food, built homes and celebrated together, until the 1600s, when Europeans arrived with settlers in their wake.
In lyrical text, the street remembers agreements to live in peace, the efforts of the British to take the land with unfair treaties, and the conflict and suffering that followed. The street recalls its naming, paving and the waves of immigrants who called it home. Illustrations of recent times depict Canada’s apology to Indigenous Peoples and efforts toward Truth and Reconciliation, including a march with a banner that reads: Every Child Matters. Full colour throughout.