A new children's book shares lessons about sharing from a Coast Salish perspective.
Written by Andrea Fritz, Raven Get Tricked follows a deer and raven in their search for food.
“It's a traditional story, last told by my great auntie Ellen White,” said Fritz, who is a member of the Lyackson First Nation in Chemainus. "She's a traditional storyteller. This was one of her stories that she got passed down ... and then she passed it down to me.”
Both entertainment and an educational tool, the book includes Coast Salish illustrations, names and words in Hul’qumi’num – an Indigenous language spoken on and around Vancouver Island.
“I try to use the language in a really simple way where kids and adults are willing to give it a try,” she said. “It's a good first experience of using an Indigenous language.”
Before writing stories, Fritz, a trained visual artist, taught students in Greater Victoria about Coast Salish art.
“My mother is a teacher,” said the author. "She insisted that I come share my knowledge in her classroom, and having had kids myself, I realized how important it was to share a little bit of knowledge that I had.”
“That led me to realize that the storytelling behind each piece of artwork is just as important as the artwork itself,” Fritz added. “I started teaching about the stories ... and that is how I got into storytelling.”
Fritz's stories proved so popular in classrooms that teachers asked her to write books they could use as teaching tools. And that’s exactly what Fritz did, self publishing a book of her stories she illustrated herself.
Soon after, Orca Book Publishers – a 40-year-old Victoria-based publishing house – asked her if she wanted to write a series of educational books, and Fritz accepted. That marked the start of her Coast Salish Tales series, of which Raven Get Tricked is the third instalment.
On Sept. 22, Fritz held a book signing at Indigo in Victoria, where she sold all three of her books.
“At least a dozen teachers went by and I was able to tell them about the story. They were all very excited I was there with the three teaching books they could use,” said Fritz, who added they've proven popular with younger audiences, too.
“I've had parents buy a copy because they've heard of me and they will actually send me a picture of their kids being obsessed with reading the story over and over again and drawing pictures from the story."
Fritz has another book in the works, which she hopes to release next year, called Willie Dog Warms His Family, about a now-extinct breed of domesticated dog Coast Salish people used to keep.
To find out more about Fritz's work, visit: www.andreafritzart.com.
