Mwakwa Talks to the Loon

By Dale Auger format: children's paperback publication: September 2007 ISBN: 9781894974325

Price $12.95 Quantity This item is in stock and usually ships within 24 hours.

Winner of the 2007 R. Ross Annett Award for Children's Literature.

Discover Dale Auger’s world of myth, magic, and human experience in Mwâkwa—Talks to the Loon: A Cree Story for Children, which features a substantial list of Cree words and phrases, along with a glossary and pronunciation guide.

As one of Canada’s most acclaimed Native artists and storytellers, Auger introduces readers young and old to his magical world by incorporating his powerful, insightful, and sensitive paintings to fully illustrate his story of Mwâkwa.

Auger’s Mwâkwa shows the reader the basics of life in a Cree village, where birchbark baskets and drying racks are used to store and prepare food, and where the Elders hold great power and insight into the ways of the world.

Mwâkwa is the timeless story of Mwâkwa, the loon, and Kayas, a young Cree man who was blessed with the ability to hunt well and provide for his People. Kayas was able to know the ways of the Beings he hunted. He knew where to find onêwokâtîwak, the four-legged kind; pêyisêsak, the winged ones; and even kinosîwak, those that swim beneath the water. He even knew how to talk with them in their languages: kaskihtâw tapîkiskwît opîkiskwîwiniyiwa.

But when Kayas takes his great gift for granted, he has his powers taken from him and his People grow hungry. With the help of the Elders and the Beings that inhabit the water, young Kayas is taught to be respectful of his abilities and to realize that in order to live a life of success, fulfillment, and peace, he must always remember to cherish and respect the talents and skills given to him.

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