Mangilaluk by Bernard Andreason

In the graphic memoir, Mangilaluk, Bernard Andreason describes his life-long struggle to find a place to belong and to understand his own identity.

Bernard was taken away from his mother at birth and spent the first two years in several homes. He was given to the Andreasons who provided Bernard with the basics of life. Initially he felt loved at times but tragedy struck with the death of his foster mother. The Andreason family life soon became less than ideal with alcohol abuse. 

When he was eight years old, Bernard was sent away to a residential school in Inuvik. At Stringer Hall Residential School, Bernard found life harsh, often experiencing fear and shame. One Christmas, Bernard was forced to stay at the residential school over the holidays. Bernard and his friends would often get smokes. One time, his friend Dennis took smokes from a supervisor. She knew they had been stolen and was angry. The next day the three boys left the school and spent the day in the bush. They didn't want to return to the school to face their punishment so they decided to walk home. When they came to a raging creek, Bernard felt they had to go back but Dennis decided to continue on.

As the weather turned rainy, Bernard and Jack decided to turn around and find Dennis. Unable to find him they once again headed to Inuvik. But Jack became too ill to go on so Bernard made him as comfortable as possible and decided to journey to Tuk. He continued walking along the powerline and was eventually rescued. 

Once safe, Bernard felt that he was loved and cared for, but devastated that his friends were gone. As he could not return to the residential school, he continued his schooling in town. At school he continued to learn but at home he experienced "...a roller coaster of verbal and physical abuse, neglect, and an introduction to alcohol."

As a teenager, Bernard struggled, sometimes attending school, often drinking. In high school, Bernard found some teachers believed in him and tried to help. Eventually he came to believe that to find who he was, he needed to leave home. After drifting for several years, Bernard enrolled in the Indigenous Journalism program at Western University in London, Ontario. He soon found friends in the Six Nations Reserve community who made him feel accepted. He wrote, was published learned a lot about himself. 

It was in the early 1990's that Bernard was diagnosed as HIV positive. He felt isolated, an outcast and began to withdraw. He left London and moved to Vancouver, at first living rough. It was Dr. Catherine Jones who helped Bernard get back on track, prescribing a drug cocktail to manage his symptoms. A social worker helped him obtain a disability income. As his health recovered, Bernard became a student at the Native Education Centre in Vancouver, obtaining his Adult Upgrading. He felt capable of achieving anything.

He moved to Prince George to study at UNBC but found that while the campus was beautiful, the people were not. He felt out of place, perceived as just another unemployed Indigenous man. But when his biological father passed away in the middle of the semester, Bernard decided to head back to his family in Tuk. This would set in motion the old, destructive patterns that destroyed most of what he had built upon in Vancouver and Prince George. After more than a decade of living rough in Prince George he returned to Vancouver where he began to recover physically, mentally and spiritually. It was the efforts of a young teacher from Inuvik who would set in motion Bernard's healing from the events of his childhood so long ago.  

Discussion

Mangilaluk is a graphic memoir about one Indigenous man's perseverance, resiliency and tenacity. 

Bernard Andreason was born in an Inuvailuit hamlet, Tuktuyaaqtuuqt, Northwest Territories in 1961. As a child he was sent to Stringer Hall Residential School in Inuvik, NT. On June 23, 1972, Bernard, along with two friends, thirteen-year-old Dennis Dick and eleven-year-old Lawrence Jack Elanik decided to runaway from the school. Dennis had stolen a pack of  cigarettes from one of the dorm supervisors. They knew the punishment would be severe and so they decided to walk home to Tuktuyaaqtuuqt, despite the fact that in two days time, they would be flown home for the summer.

In 1972, there was no road from Inuvik to Tuktuyaaqtuuqt, an Inuvialuit community of the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The three boys decided to make the one hundred thirty kilometer journey on foot, wearing only the clothes on their backs. They began their journey by following the telephone poles through the tundra and bush. Andreason stated that they believed they could make the journey in several days. It was June so the sun shone all day and at the start of their walk, the weather was sunny and warm. They were able to eat berries and found plenty of fresh water to drink.

However, after a few days the weather changed, becoming cloudy and rainy. When they were unable to cross a raging river, Jack Elanik was beginning to feel unwell. At this point, Andreason wanted to return to Inuvik because Jack was sick, but Dennis decided to continue onward. They never saw him again. Eventually Jack became too sick to continue on. Making his friend as comfortable as possible, Andreason set out once again for Tuktuyaaqtuuqt. For two weeks he continued walking, alone. Because of the twenty-four hour daylight, Andreason often lost track of time and would hallucinate. 

Andreason was eventually found eight kilometers south of Tuktuyaaqtuuqt, in early July, walking the NCPC powerline. He was spotted by an Eldorado helicopter pilot flying between Inuviut and Tuktuyaaqtuuqt. Upon his rescue Andreason was taken to the nursing station in the community, suffering from exposure. When Andreason was rescued, he believed he had only been walking for two days instead of weeks.  Jack Elanik was eventually found dead but Dennis Dick's body was never recovered.

This tragic event would have significant repercussions in Bernard Andreason's life. The loss of his friends led to survivor guilt which was compounded by growing up in a dysfunctional family, and later on by alcoholism, and an HIV diagnosis. It seems that without a supportive family and the loss of his cultural identity, Bernard struggled throughout much of his life. 

Despite this, Mangilaluk is a story of tenacity, perseverance and determination. Bernard's HIV diagnosis came at a time when he was making significant progress in his life. One wonders, had he the support of a loving family, how things might have been different. As an Indigenous person, already somewhat marginalized, the HIV diagnosis would have exacerbated his feelings of isolation and lack of belonging. However, he managed to seek out better treatment protocols in Vancouver and restart his life by upgrading his education at NEC.  

Although Bernard succumbed again to his demons and ended up on the streets, this time in Prince George, he managed to return to Vancouver to get himself well again. And showing great courage, Andreason agreed to participate in a reconciliation ceremony that would address what happened to he and his two friends so long ago. It would be a healing ceremony that would follow a speaking engagement to students in Inuvit. Andreason undertook this despite his self-doubts. 
He would have to face his family and face the devastating memories of what happened back when he was an eleven-year-old boy. 

"The ceremony was beautiful. Every moment was infused with a love and respect I had only just begun to understand was possible for me. And I received it. I opened my heart and I let them in to help heal it. I felt the power or their prayers over me and the admiration of all these people who felt I had lived a life worth honouring. I felt my story come alive, and I felt a weight lift from my shoulders...." This ceremony was healing for Bernard, whose Indigenous name is Mangilaluk. 

Bernard Andreason's story is told through the beautiful artwork of Mark Gallo, whose colourful panels are effective in portraying the emotions, and settings. Mangilaluk is another significant contribution to the Indigenous experience in Canada.

Book Details:

Mangilaluk by Bernard Andreason

Iqualuit, Nunavut: Inhabit Education Books Inc.
96 pp.

Aggie & Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children by Wendy Proverbs

Eight-year-old Maddy lives with her mother (Cherrie) and her grandmother whom she calls Nan. Maddy's parents are separated and her father is not around. The three of them, along with their dog, Buskers, live on Rupert Lane, named after Mr. Rupert who built the homes. Mr. Rupert, who seems rather crusty, is Scottish and Metis.

One day Maddy asks Nan to tell her about the two girls in a sepia-coloured photograph tucked away in Nan's desk. In the photograph there is a taller girl who has her dark hair tied back, and a younger girl with braids. Nan begins her story about the two girls:

They lived in a community called Daylu, in the far north on the British Columbia-Yukon border and were of the Kaska Dena people. The older girl was Mac-kinnay and her younger sister was Beep. When a black robed man came to their community, he told the Kaska Dena people they must be baptized into the Catholic church and in doing so, must take a new name. The priests and nuns wanted to turn the Kaska people away from their beliefs and have them take on the Catholic Christian beliefs. So when Mac-kinnay and Beep's family were baptized at Holy Family Mission, the two girls took on the names of Agnes and Martha. However they didn't like the names very much, so they changed them to Aggie and Mudgy. Their parents, Long and Yanima still called them by their old names.

When Long died in a hunting accident, Yanima had to raise the girls on her own. She did have help from her son, Sylvestor and also from their community. Soon another priest, by the name of Father Allard, came to the village. As there was no school in their community, he told Yanima that the girls must go away to school to learn to read and write and worship God. Instead of sending the girls to a closer school in Whitehorse, they were to travel with Father Allard to the new school in Fraser Lake, British Columbia.

When the day came for the girls to leave, Yanima couldn't bear to see her daughters off. Instead, Sylvester and their grandmother Gyuss, as well as many of the community, came. Aggie and Mudgy left with Father Allard and the two Dick brothers whom he hired to take them across Dease Lake. The two Kaska Dena girls did not know it, but they were about to embark on a journey that would take them far, far from their homes and their families.

Discussion

Aggie & Mudgy is the story of the author, Wendy Proverbs' birth mother Mudgy and her Aunt Aggie's journey to Lejac Residential School. The story is based on Aggie's memoir about their journey from Daylu to Fraser Lake. Wendy was one of Mudgy's twelve children, eight of whom were placed into the care of social services at birth. Wendy was adopted at birth into a non-Indigenous family who loved and cared for her. She has been able to meet two brothers and four sisters and is grateful for the loving family she was raised in. While Mudgy was able to return home once during her time at Lejac and see their mother, Yanima, neither girls ever returned to live at Daylu. their ties with their community and their culture, broken. Mudgy died in 1976 while Aggie passed away in 2001. Father Elphege Allard died in a canoe accident in 1935. The Lejac Residential School finally closed in 1976.

LeJac Residential School

Unlike many books on the experiences of Canada's residential school survivors, Aggie & Mudgy is about their journey to the school. It was a journey of almost "...1,600 kilometers by riverboat, truck, paddlewheeler, steamships and train" undertaken by two very young girls in the company of a total stranger from a very different culture. The sisters had no understanding of where they were going. It also demonstrates the degree that the government and churches were willing to go, to gather in as many Indigenous children as possible.

The author employs the story within a story method to tell her young readers about her birth mother and aunt's journey. Their story is told by "Nan", grandmother to eight-year-old Maddy. The telling is rich in Indigenous bush craft and cultural practices. For example, when Nan tells Maddy about eating fish,  she also explains that "They were used to a diet of fish, as well as moose, caribou, and mountain sheep. Gathering seasonal bounty such as plants, roots, and wild berries was a nutritional and tasty addition to their diet."  

In another example Nan explains to her granddaughter about Aggie and Mudgy's grandmother Gyuss's beading and how the girls were just learning to master this skill. "Their grandmother beaded many items. She used seed bead that are made of very small pieces of European-made glass. her patterns were cut from birch bark and often incorporated floral designs. Her moccasins, gloves, and pouches were well made, and when she could, she traded these items at the Hudson's Bay Company trading store. Gyuss was just beginning to teach Aggie the more difficult moccasin designs when the priest took the girls away." 

Nan also explains how the Europeans came to change many things, not just their names. "They changed the names of communities and mountains and rivers too. The Kaska Dena always knew Daylu as a gathering place where Aggie and Mudgy's ancestors and family lived. It only became known as Lower Post in the late 1800's, after Europeans established a trading post there."

Through Nan, young readers also learn a bit of history of some of the places Aggie and Mudgy travel to on their way to the residential school. For example, Nan tells Maddy about Wrangell, Alaska. "A long time ago, in the late 1890's, Wrangell was a very busy port of call. The reason for this was because of gold. Gold fever gripped North America as gold was discovered in the Yukon. due to gold fever, Wrangell thrived as thousands of men travelled up to the Yukon, seeking their fortune."  

Nan also provides information on the different First Nations tribes that occupied the areas they were traveling through.  For example, in Prince Rupert, Nan explains that "...Prince Rupert is a huge, deep ocean port community situated on an island - Kaien Island - that is connected to the mainland by a bridge. Many Tsimshian First Nation tribes have lived in that rugged area for millennia, and totem monuments stand tall like sentinels in their territory. The Tsimshian actively traded with other First Nations and Europeans." When Maddy asks what they traded, Nan tells her, "Before the Europeans arrived, northwestern interior and coastal First Nations traded food items such as eulachon, which is a small fish that is prized for its oil, known as eulachon grease....They also traded carved horns spoons, obsidian rock, and thin little white dentalium shells. When the Europeans arrived, beaver pelts were highly sought after, as well as sea otter, mink, fox, marten, and muskrat. This became known as the fur trade, and it turned into a huge industry throughout Canada."

While at times Nan's narrative can seem almost encyclopedic, with the many bits of information she provides Maddy, it makes this short novel a wealth of information and serves to help young readers understand how things were before European contact and some of the changes that occurred afterwards. For example, by detailing the trading that the Tsimshian First Nation participated in, we see a vibrant, thriving culture that interacted with other peoples in North American and even Russia.

The profound effect the residential school had on Aggie and Mudgy is implied by Nan's inability to continue her story once the girls arrived at Lejac. She tells her daughter Cherrie that she is a coward for not being able to tell her granddaughter what happened to Auggie and Mudgy at Lejac. But Nan does reveal that she is Mudgy's daughter and the reader does learn some of what the two sisters experienced at Lejac. Author Wendy Proverbs ends the telling in a positive uplifting way, a tribute to herself, and her ancestors who are survivors because of their resiliency, courage and determination. She honours these qualities in her mother and aunt in her retelling, while acknowledging the intergeneration effects of the residential schools.

There is a Bibliography and a Suggested Reading List at the back of this short novel. The author has also included an excellent map that shows just how far Aggie and Mudgy travelled from their home in Daylu to Lejac. This novel offers an excellent opportunity to learn about the residential school system for younger readers.

image credit: https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/sacred-healing-ceremony-to-take-place-at-site-of-lejac-residential-school-3859738

Book Details:

Aggie & Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children by Wendy Proverbs
Wandering Fox Books     2021
134 pp.

The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson)

In the month of May, during the Lasa'yanja, the Budding Trees and Blooming Flowers Moon, plants are blooming and spring is beginning to take hold. During this time, many animals are giving birth. The Now Gibuu, the wolf mother has recently given birth to six new wolf pups. One of the wolf pups is black with a tiny white strip above her left eye.

By the time of the Lasa maa'y, the Gathering and Preparing Berries Moon, the wolf pups are now travelling with their family, hunting gax, the rabbit. The black pup aggressively pushes to the front of the other pups to get the meat she loves. 

After two years of growing, hunting and learning from her pack, it is time for the black wolf to leave and find her own group and become a Nox Gibuu or wolf mother.

During the time of Lasa gangwiikw, The Groundhog Hunting Moon, there is plenty of prey for the black wolf, especially the well fed groundhogs, as she seeks out a new home.

In November, during Lasa gwineekxw, the Getting-Used-To-Cold Moon, the black wolf approaches a group of wolves she has been following for some days. One of the wolves, a grey female is wary of the strange black wolf but eventually submits, rolling over on her back. The black wolf is now the leader of this group of wolves.

By January, Nox Gibuu is bonding with a strong male wolf with grey fur. Soon the wolf mother will be able to begin her new family.

The arrival of  spring, Nox Gibuu's third Lasa 'yanja is heralded by the birth of her first litter of five pups. There are now ten animals in the pack. Nox Gibuu has made a good start for the future of the wolves in her ecosystem.

Discussion

The Wolf Mother is part of the Mothers of Xsan series written by award-winning storyteller and artist Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) from the Gitxsan Nation in the Northwest Interior of British Columbia. As Gyetxw mentions in his note "The Gitxsan" at the back of the book, the territory of the Gitxsan encompasses the headwaters of Xsan or its colonial name, the Skeena River.   The Gitxsan Nation is a strong matrilineal society, meaning that "all rights, priviliges, names and stories come from the mothers". There are four clan that make up the Gitxsan Nation, the Lax Seel (Frog), Lax Gibuu (Wolf), Lax Skiik (Eagle), and Gisghaast (Fireweed).  The Mothers of Xsan series include The Sockeye, The Wolf, The Grizzly and the Frog, fitting nicely with three of the Gitxsan clans. 

Like other books in the series, The Wolf Mother offers young readers the story of the life cycle of the animal in the title, in this case the grey wolf. The Wolf Mother blends biology and Indigenous knowledge and culture, showing how the natural world and the human world share similar practices. For example Gyetxw mentions how both wolf packs and the Gitxsan people share the responsibility of raising the young, teaching them the skills they need to know to survive.

Beyond the life cycle of the wolf, readers will also learn the importance of the wolf in the ecosystem in the Gitxsan Nation territory and Gyetxw also points out how the wolf should not be considered a feared predator but in reality are "...some of the most loving and caring beings."

Gyetxw also incorporates some of the Gitxsan language into his text such as gal ts'ap (village), gibuu (wolf).  The author also uses terms that are familiar to the Gitxsan to describe the world around them. The months of the year are defined by the names the Gitxsan have for each lunar cycle. For example, the moon in May is very appropriately called Budding Trees and Blooming Flowers Moon or Lasa 'yanja.  To make the text more understandable to younger readers, more difficult words and terms are highlighted in separate boxes where a definition is provided. 

Accompanying the descriptive text is the colourful artwork of Metis illustrator Natasha Donovan who incorporates many beautiful indigenous motifs into her work. This artwork really enhances the story being told. Overall, this graphic series is very well done, the artwork outstanding and the information presented in an appealing and engaging way.

The Mothers of Xsan series is highly recommended for students interested in wildlife.

Book Details:

The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Geytxw (Brett D. Huson)
Winnipeg, Manitoba: Highwater Press      2021

On The Trapline by David A. Robertson

A young boy travels north to visit his Moshom, or grandpa who is taking him to see his old trapline that his family had when he was a boy. Moshom hasn't been to his trapline since he was a child.

Moshom explains that a trapline is "where people hunt animals and live off the land." When their plane lands, they are met by Moshom's old friend. They greet each other in their native language of Swampy Cree. The boy notices that in the north there is a lot of space and the houses are far apart.

First they go to a small house by a large lake. This is where Moshom's family lived after they left the trapline. In the winter, everyone slept together in one room, next to the wood stove, to stay warm.

Moshom shows his grandson the broken down building where he went to school after his family left the trapline. At school all the students had to speak English. To speak their mother tongue, Cree, they would sneak into the bush.

At the river at the end of the highway, Moshom, his friend and his grandson take a motor boat out onto the river. The boy sees beaver dams, eagles on the wing and paintings on the rocks. Eventually they arrive at Moshom's trapline.

Moshom tells him that while on the trapline, his family slept in one large tent to keep warm. Everyone shared the work, even the youngest children had jobs to do. He also shows his grandson one of the places he used to set traps to catch muskrats. This animal provided his family with meat, and the pelts were sold to buy flour, sugar and tea. While fishing on the way back, Moshom tells his grandson they also fished on the trapline and everyone shared what they caught with others.

At a community feast later that night, Moshom, who is an Elder, blesses the meal. His grandson serves him first because as an elder, Moshom eats first. It is a delicious meal of bannock, vegetables, berries, wild meat and fish.

On the flight home, Moshom remembers and can see his trapline. So can his young grandson.

Discussion

In this touching story about a Cree grandfather and his grandson, Robertson weaves a story of remembering that incorporates many aspects of indigenous culture and values. On an obvious level, there is the inclusion in the storytelling of many Cree words on almost every page; kiwetinohk which means "north", wakomakanak which means "family" and kiskisiw which means "he remembers" are a few examples.  But On The Trapline also highlights many important features of Cree culture and life, as through Moshom. For example, Moshom tells his grandson how every person on the trapline worked together and had a job to do, even the young children. He also relates how food was shared with others, demonstrating the generosity that enabled indigenous communities to survive. At the community feast, the value of older Cree members is highlighted by the young boy first serving his grandfather, an Elder, demonstrating respect for his wisdom and knowledge.

On The Trapline is a remembering of a way of life that vanished when Moshom's family left the trapline and settled into a house in a community. David A. Robertson writes in his A Note from the Author, that his father lived on the trapline until he was nine years old. His family left the trapline at the time and moved to Norway House, situated on the banks of the Nelson River in Manitoba. His father accompanied his own father on the trapline on and off but eventually never returned after his teens. In 2018, David accompanied his father back to the land. For his father, it was the first time in seventy years and for the author the first time ever.  As Robertson writes in his note, "Reconciliation is more than just healing from trauma. It's connecting, or reconnecting with people, culture, language, community."

The illustrations for On The Trapline were rendered using an earthy pastel palette on paper and then composed digitally. These were created by Swampy Cree and Red River Metis author, illustrator and artist, Julie Flett. Her family have a history as trappers and traders as well as hunters and fishers. Her son and nieces are reclaiming their traditions and skills through the learning of their language, living off the land and beading.

On The Trapline provides an excellent and informative introduction to the Indigenous experience in the early 20th century.

Book Details:

On The Trapline by David A. Robertson
Tundra Books    2021