9781773661704
Availability: In Stock

The Creator’s Plan

Created by: Richard Pellissier-Lush
Artist: Jessica Jerome
Publisher: Acorn Press
SKU: AC0222

$14.95

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Description

“My son, you do not need black hair, brown skin, or brown eyes like me to pray and practice your culture. You will learn the songs and the drumming in time. The Creator’s plan was to give you everything that makes you who you are, and you are perfect to me just the way you are! Always remember that, no matter what anyone else says to you. We need to pray for those children too, my son, as hard as that may seem. But remember, you are exactly how the Creator planned you to be, and I will love you until the end of time.”

As a Mi’kmaq child, Richard Pellissier-Lush grew looking different than other the other Indigenous children. He didn’t feel he fit in with the non-Indigenous or the Indigenous children he knew. But his mother continually reminding him that he was part of the Creator’s plan empowered him to embrace his culture no matter what he looked like. Her chorus of encouragement stayed with him through his childhood and helped make him the man he is today.

Additional information

Dimensions9 × 9 in
Author

Artist

Publisher

Binding

Paperback

Published on

November 22 2024

ISBN

9781773661704

Status

Active title

Language

Press

A new children’s book was launched at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax over the weekend. The Creator’s Plan is by author Richard Pellissier-Lush of Lennox Island First Nation with the goal of helping young Indigenous readers embrace who they are. The book’s illustrator, Mi’kmaw graphic designer Jessica Jerome, attended Sunday’s event and said she initially felt connected to The Creator’s Plan because of her young son.
“He would often ask me, ‘Why mom, why do I have fair eyes, why do I have fairer hair?’ So it resonated with me so much that it was an honour to be able to do this story,” she said.

“We don’t all have brown eyes, we don’t all have dark, dark, dark skin. We don’t always have black hair.” Jerome hopes the book sheds a light on the different kinds of Mi’kmaq people.

“We’re all different, and my son and I are different. Where I come from, we’re all different colours… that doesn’t make us any less Mi’kmaq,” she said. “For me, it’s to represent those people too and to realize there’s a lot of young Aboriginal children and Mi’kmaq that see themselves in this book.”

Jerome says it’s also important for adults to see themselves in The Creator’s Plan. “When they’re talking to their kids about culture and they’re talking to their kids about how the world perceives them, it’s good to have that,” she said.

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