Takwâkin

According to the website statista, in 2020, 81.56 percent of the total population in Canada lived in cities. I only mention that fact because the book’s Cree title, Takwâkin, translates as “It is autumn”, and the season that the children and adults in this book are experiencing is most definitely a rural, not an urban, fall. The book’s primary goal is to assist beginning Cree speakers in adding autumn words and phrases to their vocabulary stockpile. The text, accompanied by full-colour photos, is presented in Cree syllabics and transliterated Cree as well as in English.

The book begins with an experience shared by both rural and urban children – the changing colours of trees’ leaves signalling the beginning of a new school year which reunites the children with friends while they meet new teachers. Unlike the majority of their urban counterparts, many of these northern children will participate in autumn’s hunting season by heading into the bush to camp out in tents with their parents while harvesting moose and geese. And while many city children may see flocks of geese flying south, the book’s children are also aware that the local black bears will be “fattening up for their long winter sleep.” Though the term “Thanksgiving” is never used by author Robertson, he does say that “We have a big feast with all our families and friends.” Takwâkin closes with another rural/urban commonality, children’s costumed celebration of Hallowe’en and their quest for candy.

With two exceptions, the colour photos, though small in size, are of good quality; however, both of the “feast” photos lack sufficient definition for readers to be able to identify the various dishes that have been laid out on the tables. When the text read, “We go hunting in the bush hunting for moose, and maybe chickens”, rural readers will know that the “chickens” are not the domesticated fowl found on urban menus. In this context, the word refers to some combination of ruffed or spruce grouse or perhaps partridges or prairie chickens.

Though Takwâkin will find its principal audience among those who are learning Cree, its contents offer urban children a brief glimpse into the lives of rural children.