Achi news desk-
A new book by a Prince Edward Island author offers parents and babies a look at Indigenous motherhood.
“He’s called My Little Ogichidaa, which means my little Anishinaabemowin warrior,” Willie Poll told CTV News Atlantic’s Katie Kelly in an interview Tuesday. “It’s like a native-centric baby book that follows a mother’s journey as she’s pregnant with her toddler and preparing to bring the baby Earth-side and all the dreams she has for them.”
Poll, originally from the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory in Sault Ste. Marie, who now lives in the MI’kmaq territory of PEI, is the director of education for the Moose Hide campaign, which seeks to end violence against women and children.
Poll said she was inspired to write the book after listening to a speech by campaign founder Raven Lacerte, who was accompanied by her young daughter at the time.
“I remember thinking, like, how powerful that moment was for a young Native girl, watching her mother, this, like, powerhouse matriarch, up on stage and having people listen to such an important topic,” Poll said. . “And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that child’s future is so bright.’
“You will carry culture and you will carry our language and you will choose medicine and dance and make art and all these things that we are kind of recovering after the last years however much colonization, boarding schools and indigenous people on missing and murdered. .”
A poll said that the idea of recovery is essential not only for children, but also for parents.
“We often say that children are sent to boarding schools, but we don’t often look at the other side,” he said. “Those parents were left with no ability to pass on what it meant to be a parent, what it meant to be a loving and caring adult in someone’s life.”
Poll said the book was emotional and hopeful.
“I think the important thing is that you get this sense of knowing that Indigenous people are thriving and that we’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Indigenous children… their existence in this colonial world is sufficient and powerful all by itself.”