{"id":11653,"date":"2021-05-18T12:58:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=11653"},"modified":"2021-05-18T13:00:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T17:00:31","slug":"cronkite-news-alaska-native-illustrator-makes-history-with-water-protector-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/05\/18\/cronkite-news-alaska-native-illustrator-makes-history-with-water-protector-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Alaska Native illustrator makes history with ‘Water Protectors’ book"},"content":{"rendered":"\"wearewaterprotectors\"
\u201cWe are Water Protectors,\u201d illustrated by Caldecott Medal winner Michaela Goade and written by Carole Lindstrom, was inspired by Indigenous-led movements across North America, including the protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo courtesy of Michaela Goade <\/figcaption>\r\n
\u2018Water protector\u2019: Indigenous illustrator wins Caldecott Medal for children\u2019s book<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, May 18, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Brianna Alexander<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAlaska artist Michaela Goade<\/a> has made history, becoming the first Indigenous illustrator to win the prestigious Randolph Caldecott Medal<\/a> for best American picture book for children for her illustrations in \u201cWe Are Water Protectors<\/a>.\u201d

<\/p>\r\nThe book, written by Carole Lindstrom<\/a>, was inspired by Indigenous-led movements across North America, including the protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux against the Dakota Access Pipeline<\/a>.

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI really wanted to make Standing Rock water protectors and water protectors around the world proud,\u201d said Goade, who an enrolled member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. \u201cI wanted them to feel seen. And then, within that, there’s a lot of other elements I wanted to bring forward and really speak for Mother Earth.\u201d

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\"wearewaterprotectorsbook\"<\/div>\r\n
We Are Water Protectors<\/a> by Carole Lindstrom. Illustrated by Michaela Goade. Roaring Brook Press, 2020<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nGoade<\/a> used her illustrations not only to help show the need to protect the planet\u2019s natural resources but to show diversity within Indigenous culture. Children need to hear and see that message, she said.\r\n“Children are seeing what we are telling them, and that is important and valued,\u201d Goade said. \u201cIf we give them diversity and inclusion, it not only helps Indigenous children feel seen and valued and important, it also helps non-Indigenous children and adults see a whole range of lived experiences.”

<\/p>\r\nThe Caldecott Medal, named for the 19th century British illustrator, has been awarded annually by the children\u2019s division of the American Library Association since 1937.

<\/p>\r\nSean George, south region manager for the Phoenix Public Library, said Goade\u2019s work inspires him. It\u2019s vital for Native Americans to be correctly represented in books.

<\/p>\r\n“I myself am mixed-blood Choctaw, Muskogee as well as European, American heritage \u2013 so you know it’s a very important topic to me,\u201d George said. \u201cPeople come to literature for a lot of different reasons, but very often it involves looking for some sort of reflection of our own experience \u2013 and what we read \u2013 so that we can feel some sort of affirmation or validation, but also (it\u2019s) important to see the rest of the world, or perhaps, other worlds outside of our experience.\u201d

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\"\"<\/div>\r\n
Michaela Goade, iIllustrator of \u201cWe Are Water Protectors,\u201d is an enrolled member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Her Tlingit name is Sheit.een, and she is of the Kiks.\u00e1di Clan (Raven\/Frog) from Sheet\u2019k\u00e1. Photo courtesy of Michaela Goade\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nGeorge, who has been a youth librarian, said children have confided to him their frustrations over the misrepresentation of Indigenous cultures in books.

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI\u2019ve known children that have expressed a lot of pain and frustration overseeing books that describe or represent Indigenous people and children as less than,\u201d George said.

<\/p>\r\nToo often, Native Americans are stereotyped as \u201csavages,\u201d he said.

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI know children who\u2019ve said that that’s not the way our culture is, that\u2019s not the way my family is, that\u2019s not the way my grandparents were.\u201d

<\/p>

<\/ins>