We Are Water Protectors

Written by: Carole Lindstrom

Illustrated by: Michaela Goade

We Are Water Protectors, written by Carole Linstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade, is a beautifully written book that follows a girl who is committed to protecting her village's water from the black snake. The black snake in the book personifies the pipelines as an evil force that is killing and destroying Mother Earth by being built through rivers, which leads to contamination of the water. The books depicts water as a source that connects everyone and everything to each other. We, the people, must fight to protect the water from the evil black snake for the ones who cannot. I enjoyed learning from the section, More on Water Protectors, that in Ojibwe culture, women are the protectors of the water and Indigenous People have long acted as stewards of the planet, giving a voice to our silent home. This tidbit opened my eyes to how empowering women of the Ojibwe culture must feel to protect water. To have authority and an obligation to serve an element that brings all beings on Earth together is a feeling I will never understand. But, through the book, We Are Water Protectors, the language used by Linstrom was powerful and allowed me as the reader to feel what it is liked to have that responsibility, like the women in the Ojibwe culture do. When the main character says, "TAKE COURAGE! I must keep the black snake away from my village's water. I must rally my people together. To stand for the water. To stand for the land. To stand as ONE. Against the black snake", I could feel the passion and responsibility she felt to protect her village's water against the pipeline that was going to be built through their river. How much pride she feels as a protector of water. She has the power to try and save the water for her people, the animals, the plants, and everything else that uses water to survive.

The author, Carole Lindstrom, is Anishinaabe/Métis and is tribally with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Carole is also a water protector, like the main character in the book. Carole uses her voice to speak up for all the voices that cannot for themselves and portrays the connection between her culture and the land. The illustrator, Michaela Goade, is from Tlingit descent and is tribally with the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. She grew up surrounded by Mother Nature's beaches and rainforests of Alaska. In Michaela's about section on her website, she states that working with Indigenous authors and other literature pieces she has been able to reconnect with her culture. She has also been able to create art for Indigenous authors and tribal organizations that is much needed due to the under representation these groups are receiving in literature. Both of these women accurately and authentically represent the experiences and feelings of Indian people who fight to keep nature preserved. Below you will find links to both of their websites.

Carole Lindstrom's website: http://www.carolelindstrom.com/

MIchaela Goade's website: https://www.michaelagoade.com/

Reading to Make a Difference by Lester L. Laminack and Katie Kelly, is a textbook that is exploring how teachers can use literature to help students speak freely, think deeply, and take action. They offer a framework, "that can both deepen and broaden students' understandings, insights, and empathy for the greater human family and world we all share" (xxi, Introduction). The framework consists of five phases: selection, connection, reflection, action and next steps. I want to use the framework they have provided and relate it to the book, We Are Water Protectors.

The first phase is Selection. There is a lot of thought that goes behind selecting a text to use in your class. If I were to select We Are Water Protectors, I would consider the different cultural, language, and challenges the book has to offer. The book introduces language used by different tribes, including: Ojibwe, Tlingit and Lakota. The book also introduces culture aspect that may differ from student's who are reading the book which offers them to explore a new culture. However, as a teacher, I would focus on the challenges the main character is facing if I were to use this book in my class. The main character is fighting environmental injustice to her village's river. She is using her culture's responsibility and tradition to protect the water from being polluted from the pipeline being built. I think by sharing this book with my student's, my end goal would be for the student's to understand why protecting water is important through another culture's lense. The second phase is Connection. I will want my students to be able to share connection they are experiencing with the character, situation, issue or topic (xxiii). By doing this I will have to scaffold their experiences. This book is a great opportunity to open up conversation about other environmental issues students know about or experience in their lives. This will allow them to experience empathy towards the main character in We Are Water Protectors, when she is protesting against the pipeline being built. Also, before I even begin reading the book, I could expose them to background knowledge on environmental issues.

The next phase is Reflection. This phase is great because it allows the readers to put themselves in the character's shoes and reflect on how they would feel in that situation. By reflecting on how the girl felt in the book, the students could write or talk about how they would feel in the Ojibwe culture if their job was to protector the water, especially for female identifying students. Students could also reflect on how they would feel if something was being built in their neighborhood that could contaminate the water. Phases four and five, in my opinion, can work together. Phase four is Action and phase five is Next Steps, which I believe students can do simultaneously. Students can work together on an environmental issue in their community, which would touch on phase four, while also educating the community or their peers in other classes. I think We Are Water Protectors is a perfect book to tackle the subject of environmental issues while also exposing students to another culture and a marginalized group of people.