Mwakwa Talks to the Loon

Winner of the Aboriginal Children’s Book of the Year Award, 2006 Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival and Book Awards

Kayâs is a young Cree man who is blessed with a Gift that makes him a talented hunter. He knows the ways of the Beings he hunts and can even talk with them in their own languages. But when he becomes proud and takes his abilities for granted, he loses his gift, and the People grow hungry.

With the help of the Elders and the Beings that inhabit the water, Kayâs learns that in order to live a life of success, fulfillment and peace, he must cherish and respect the talents and skills he has been given.

Illustrated with Dale Auger’s powerful, insightful paintings, Mwâkwa Talks to the Loon introduces readers to the basics of life in a Cree village. A glossary with pronunciation guide to the many Cree words and phrases used in the story is included.

Dale Auger, PhD, (1958–2008) was a Sakaw Cree artist and storyteller from the Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta. He was born in High Prairie, Alberta, near that province’s second-largest body of water, Lesser Slave Lake. As a young boy he went to school in Faust, near the Driftpile Reserve, where his knack for painting brought him recognition as the “school artist.” He attended the Alberta College of Art in 1988, and studied at the University of Calgary for 10 years, obtaining a master’s degree in education in 1996 and a PhD in education in 1999. His book Mwâkwa Talks to the Loon was named Aboriginal Children’s Book of the Year at the 2006 Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival and Book Awards and also received the 2007 R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature. He lived in Bragg Creek, Alberta, until his untimely death in September 2008. He was posthumously honoured as the 2009 inductee into the Western Art Show’s Hall of Fame at the Calgary Stampede.