Writer picked berries, jury picked writer

TORONTO – Julie Flett, author-illustrator of Wild Berries and the Cree version Pakwa che Menisu, is the first-time recipient of a new Aboriginal Literature Award.

A jury of librarians from First Nation public libraries in Ontario, with coordination support from Southern Ontario Library Service, selected Wild Berries and Pakwa che Menisu from more than 40 titles submitted by Canadian publishers as the 2014-2015 selection for year-long community reading. The First Nations Community Read call was for children’s books that encourage family literacy, inter-generational storytelling, and inter-generational information sharing.

“With concise text, playful language, and elaborate illustrations, Wild Berries’ and Pakwa che Menisu deliver,” the jury said. “They welcome and encourage everyone to read, recall, tell, share, and even venture out again, or for a first time, to a local berry patch.
The surface story of a day of sunshine, birdsong, and berry picking in a woodland clearing makes for a deceptively simple-seeming picture book. However, Wild Berries’ and Pakwa che Menisu have important underlying themes: the importance of intergenerational relationships and teaching, respect for Mother Earth and all her creatures and creations, and the acknowledgment, preservation, and use of Aboriginal languages and dialects. Even Flett’s wild blueberry jam recipe speaks to traditions of socializing and feasting.”

Flett, a Vancouver-based Cree-Metis writer, will receive the first $5,000 Aboriginal Literature Award from the Periodical Marketers of Canada on June 9 during the 40th Annual All Ontario Chiefs Conference in Toronto.