Book Review: Sagkeeng Legends – Sagkeeng Aadizookaanag

Reviewed by Karl Hele

This short little unassuming book written in Anishinaabemowin, Anishinaabemowin-Syllabics, and English shares two stories of our pre-settler past as told by John C. Courchene. Fontaine’s introduction marvellously makes the linkage between language, culture, place, and sovereignty.  He views the loss of Anishinaabemowin as a loss of connection with place as well as between the spirit and the material. To this end he included the Anishinaabemowin text alongside an English translation and Anishinaabemowin-syllabics. The syllabics were included, according to Fontaine, to capture the true beauty of Anishinaabemowin’s sounds.  In translating the two stories told by his grandfather in Anishinaabemowin, Fontaine hopes that English speakers while have a sample, albeit inadequate, of Anishinaabeg of the Sagkeeng’s aadizookaan.

Both aadizookan take place in a time before the settlers, a time when the spirit and the material existed together without question or doubt. The first story “Aadizokaan Beshig,” discusses shape shifting, hunting strategies, familial love, respect for animals, only taking what one needs, and bad ‘medicine’.  The second story, “Aadizokaan Niish,” tells the story of a Saulteux boy and girl, who through their intimate connection over many years, are able to transcend death. This connection is evidenced through the “abijiiba” (raised from the dead) of the young woman, who had passed away while pining for the boy. The couple are joyously reunited, married, and live a long prosperous life until a single accident takes both. Together, both stories are connected through the common themes of family, love, and respect, as well as the traditional pastime of spending winters gambling.

For me, an Anishinaabeg who does not speak our language, English is the only medium at this time for me to engage with the stories. Yet, I treasure the kernels of knowledge within the aadizokaan that Courchene and Fontaine chose to share. These stories, and the thousands like them, are gateways into our cultural psyche. I can only hope to one day be able to read and hear these aadizokaan in the original language, to revel in its beauty, thought, and lessons.

John C. Courchene’s Stories, compiled by Craig Charbonneau Fontaine. Sagkeeng Legends/Sagkeeng Aadizookaanag.  Winnipeg: Roseway Publishing, 2012.