Arts and Cultural Heritage

Author Allie Tibbetts is an enrolled citizen of Nagaajiwaanang, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe reservation, as well as a long-time employee, educator, and learner on and for the reservation. She is currently working with children at Gookonaanig Endaawaad (Grandma's House) participating in Ojibwe language immersion with her daughter and other children. Tibbetts is also an Anishinaabe language and education student at the tribal college. Artist Sophie Tibbetts is also an enrolled citizen of Nagaajiwaanang and long-time employee at the Mino aya Win clinic on the reservation. Tibbetts practices a traditional sustenance lifestyle within her community, netting in the spring and ricing in the early fall, exercising treaty rights from time immemorial. Both author and artist are of the community represented and carry and teach cultural beliefs and practices to their children. Using current skills (writing, editing, painting) and developing new skills of the process of creating a book (layout, formatting, illustrating), the measurement will be the product of the book itself. The book will undergo rigorous editing with particular care and consultation given to Ojibwe language usage. Feedback will be sought from Elders and language keepers prior to publication. Exposure of the book to Ojibwe children will be measured through tracking attendance at events and tracking distribution of books. Feedback will be sought at and following reading events to determine children's connection to the story. Children will engage in a post-reading discussion and asked the following questions: - How did this story make you feel? - Do you have any memories from when you were a baby? Adults present at events will be given feedback forms and contact information for the author to reach out should conversations involving the story occur later on.