Cree-Métis illustrator Julie Flett of Vancouver, formerly of Penticton, is easily one of the most successful book illustrators in B.C. you've never heard of.

In 2017, for the Governor General's Illustrated Children's Book Award, Julie Flett won for When We Were Alone (HighWater) with text by David Alexander Robertson. Simultaneously she was a finalist for the$30,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for her latest book, Black Bear Red Fox: Colours in Cree Board (Garfinkel Publications),a detailed explanation of how colour words work in Cree from the Cree Literacy Network.

Flett's success at the annual B.C. Book Prizes is unprecedented. First, Flett provided illustrations for Earl Einarson's children's story, The Moccasins (Theytus, 2004), winner of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize. [See Earl Einarson entry]. Then she won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize in 2011 for her picture book, Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alfabet di Michif) (Simply Read Books 2010). It was also shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature and nominated for the Neustadt Prize.

Flett received her second Christie Harris Illustrated B.C. Book Prize in April of 2015 for Dolphin SOS (Tradewind 2014), co-authored with Roy Miki and Slavia Miki. Based on true events, Dolphin SOS recounts the story of three dolphins trapped in an ice-covered cove on the coast of Newfoundland. After the government fails to provide assistance, some young boys take matters into their own hands in order to save the distressed dolphins. Dolphin SOS was also nominated for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award 2015 and was cited with an honourable mention for the 2015 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award.

In 2017, the B.C. Book Prize that stresses the role of the illustrator, the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, was presented to author Monique Gray Smith-who contributed 71 words of text-and illustrator Julie Flett for their collaboration on My Heart Fills With Happiness (Orca). Both appeared on stage but Gray Smith did all the talking. No mention was made of the fact that it was Flett's third win in that category in seven years.

Wild Berries/Pakwa che Menisu (Simply Read, 2013) was chosen as the First Nation Communities READ title selection for 2014-2015. From promotional materials: "Spend the day picking wild blueberries with Clarence and his grandmother. Meet ant, spider, and fox in a beautiful woodland landscape, the ancestral home of author and illustrator Julie Flett. This book is written in both English and Cree, in particular the n-dialect, also known as Swampy Cree from the Cumberland House area."

Julie Flett's story board book for infants, Little You (Orca 2013), with text by Richard Van Camp, has reportedly sold more than 50,000 copies, while also garnering the 2016 American Indian Youth Library Association Award for Best Picture Book. The American Indian Youth Literature Awards take place every two years to honour the best children's literature by and about indigenous people.

In 2014, Julie Flett provided the cover art for Kwe: Standing With Our Sisters, an anthology in response to violence against indigenous women, edited by Joseph Boyden.

Walking barefoot on grass. A hand to hold. Bannock baking in the oven. Written to support the wellness of aboriginal families in particular, Monique Gray Smith's board book for small children, My Heart Fills With Happiness (Orca 2015), illustrated by Julie Flett, encourages young people to reflect on what brings happiness. [Monique Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage woman of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry and a proud mom of young twins. Having been sober and involved in her healing journey for more than twenty years, she published a fictionalized memoir, Tilly: a Story of Hope and Resilience (Sono Nis Press 2013). It won First Prize in the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature in 2014.]

Set in the Nicola Valley, Nicola I. Campbell's A Day with Yayeh (Tradewind 2017), illustrated by Julie Flett, is a picture about a girl who spends a day gathering edibles such as herbs and mushrooms with her grandmother from the world around her. It, too, was shortlisted for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize.

Julie Flett was born in Toronto but grew up in Calgary from age nine onwards. She studied fine arts at Concordia University in Montreal and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. Julie Flett is the first-time recipient of the 2014 Aboriginal Literature Award, sponsored by the Periodical Marketers of Canada.

Her picture book, Birdsong (Greystone 2019) won the 2020 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award from the Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC).

"It is fitting that this year's winner, Birdsong by Julie Flett, is all about the lasting impact of art and the people we love during a time of change," says Rose Vespa, executive director of the CCBC. "This year's events have reminded us of the power of books to connect us with others while we are apart and bring light and magic to days that may feel dark."

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Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie, art by Julie Flett (Greystone Kids $22.95)

The hit song “Still This Love Goes On” by Buffy Sainte-Marie was inspired by the singer/songwriter’s attachment to her ancestral Cree homeland in Canada. “I wrote this song in a cabin in Alberta, in the wintertime,” she writes in a new children’s picture book of the same name.
“For me, it was like taking photos with my heart of the things that I see on the reserve. The geese, the ice, the snow, and the people are all there. But I was also thinking about how it is in the other seasons, when everything looks so different. The one thing that stays the same is my love for it all, day after day and year after year—especially the people and our Cree ways, precious like the fragrance of sweetgrass.”

Buffy Sainte-Marie was born on a Saskatchewan Cree reserve and adopted by American parents from Maine, where she was raised. She later reconnected with her Cree roots in Canada. Sainte-Marie’s most notable songs include “Universal Soldier,” “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” and “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone.” In 1983, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Up Where We Belong.”
Based on the song of the same name, which was released on the 2008 album Running for the Drum, Still This Love Goes On is illustrated by Julie Flett (Cree-Métis), who has won two Governor General’s Awards, an American Indian Library Association Award, plus BC Book Prizes’ awards and nominations.

Flett says that while working on the book, she listened to the song every day. “My son and I would hum and sing the lyrics throughout the day, just like all the important songs and music that hold meaning for us; it’s imprinted on us now for life.

“The lyrics represent a Cree worldview, one in which we don’t really have a word for goodbye, but say kîhtwâm ka-wâpamitonaw, which means ‘we’ll see each other again.’”

Still This Love Goes On was selected by The New York Times/New York Public Library as one of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2022. 9781771648073 (BCBW 2022)

BOOKS:

The Moccasins (Theytus, 2004) 9781894778145. Written by Earl Einarson.

Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alfabet di Michif) (Simply Read Books, 2010) 9781772290592

Wild Berries (Simply Read Books, 2013) $18.95 9781897476895

Little You (Orca, 2013) $9.95 9781459802483. Written by Richard Van Camp.

Dolphin SOS (Tradewind, 2014) 9781896580760. Written by Roy Miki and Slavia Miki.

We All Count: A Book of Cree Numbers (Garfinkel Publications, 2014) $10 9781554763986

A River of Stories: Tales and Poems from Across the Commonwealth, Volume 3 (Commonwealth Education Trust, 2015)

My Heart Fills with Happiness (Orca, 2015) $9.95 9781459809574. Written by Monique Gray Smith.

Dragonfly Kites (Fifth House Publishers, 2016) $19.95 9781897252635. Written by Tomson Highway.

We Sang You Home (Orca, 2016) $9.95 9781459811782 Written by Richard Van Camp.

When We Were Alone (HighWater, 2016) $19.95 9781553796732. Written by David Alexander Robertson.

A Day with Yayah (Tradewind, 2017) 9781926890050 $19.95. Written by Nicola I. Campbell.

Black Bear Red Fox: Colours in Cree Board (Garfinkel Publications, 2017)

We Sang You Home (Orca, 2018) $6.95 9781459820142. Written by Richard Van Camp. Second printing in Plains Cree and English. Translation by Mary Cardinal Collins.

My Heart Fills with Happiness (Orca, 2018) $6.95 9781459820180. Written by Monique Gray Smith. Second printing in Plains Cree and English. Translation by Mary Cardinal Collins.

Little You (Orca Book Publishers, 2018) $6.95 9781459820067. Written by Richard Van Camp. Second printing in Plains Cree and English. Translation by Mary Cardinal Collins.

Zoe and the Fawn (Theytus, 2018) $19.95 9781926886534. Written by Catherine Jameson. Translation by Richard Armstrong.

The Girl and the Wolf (Theytus, 2018) $19.95 9781926886541. Written by Katherena Vermette.

Birdsong (Greystone Books, 2019) $22.95 9781771644730

Johnny's Pheasant (U of Minnesota, 2019) $16.95 9781517905019. Written by Cheryl Minnema.

We All Play (Greystone Books, 2021) $22.95 9781771646079

Still This Love Goes On (Greystone Books, 2022) $22.95 9781771648073. Written with lyrics by Buffy Sainte-Marie

[BCBW 2023]

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We Sang You Home text by Richard Van Camp; art by Julie Flett (Orca $6.95)

Little You text by Richard Van Camp; art by Julie Flett (Orca $6.95)

My Heart Fills with Happiness text by Monique Gray Smith; art by Julie Flett (Orca $6.95)

Orca book publishers now offers dual-language picture books for pre-schoolers, three of which are illustrated by multi-award winner Julie Flett. Previously published in English, We Sang You Home and Little You, both with text by Richard Van Camp - a Tlicho Dene from the NWT, and My Heart Fills with Happiness, with text by Monique Gray Smith-of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry, are now available in bilingual, Plains Cree versions translated by Mary Cardinal Collins.

Positive messages of parental love can be a healing balm for Indigenous peoples still struggling after generations of familial destruction wrought by generations of residential school systems that separated First Nation families. Those messages are more effective when they are in traditional languages.

Little You is a paean to a newborn baby, much adored by his mother and father. Each double page spread includes one side for text and the other for Flett's elegant, contemporary illustrations. The book ends with: "You are the birth/of everything new/you are perfect/you are you!"

We Sang You Home is another love story from parents to a young child.

Narrated from a child's point of view, My Heart Fills with Happiness describes looking into the face of a loved one, smelling bannock baking in the oven, singing, feeling the sun warm your face, walking barefoot on the grass, holding the hand of a loved one, listening to stories, and drumming. The final text is a call to action - "What fills YOUR heart with happiness?"

Julie Flett did not grow up speaking her traditional languages although her grandparents were multilingual (Michif, Swampy Cree, as well as English and French). "They didn't teach their languages to their children for complex reasons that many indigenous families face," says Flett.

When her Swampy Cree-speaking grandfather was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, Flett asked him, during one of their last phone conversations, to say a few words in his first language. "It was almost as if he was waiting for me to ask," she says. "He spoke it to me very well."

Her grandfather died not long after that exchange but it left its mark on Flett. "I was really impacted and began to wonder what I could do for my children's generation and my nieces to re-connect with our languages."

An opportunity came when Flett was asked to do a book project of her choice. She opted to write and illustrate an alphabet book, Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alfabet di Michif) (Simply Read, 2010). Working with two linguists and a Michif speaker, Flett also spent time talking with her Metis relatives and visualizing her family's experiences to develop the book's illustrations.

"I wasn't looking at objects, rather, it was experiences - being and doing - that I worked with. Instead of 'A is for Apple,' I used activities like picking berries or actions like 'fly up, fly away' that is ohpaho in Michif. It was such an organic process for me and worked really well."

By the time of the re-release of her Orca books into dual English and Plains Cree, Flett's intuitive approach to picture book illustration was well-developed. "I'm such a visual person that as soon as I read the story for the first time, I start visualizing it. I begin by doing spontaneous sketches, immediately getting the images down within hours. The labour comes later in developing the sketches, though I usually stick close to the original sketches."

And in keeping with her instincts to take inspiration from her family experiences, images in the Orca books often reflect Flett's personal experiences and those of people close to her. An image of two parents lying in bed with their newborn baby in We Sang You Home came from times that Flett spent cuddling in bed with her baby son. And the last picture in My Heart Fills with Happiness of a father carrying his daughter on his shoulders as he shows her a Narwhal, was conjured by stories of her father, who spent time in his later teens in Churchill, Manitoba where he would have witnessed the northern tusked whales.

After working on dual language books, Flett is learning to speak her traditional languages. "I'm a beginner speaker," she quickly admits. But clearly, Flett is dedicated to learning more about her grandparents' languages and helping children do the same.

We Sang: 978-1-4598-2014-2
Little You: 978-1-4598-2006-7
My Heart Fills:978-1-4598-2018-0

Article by Beverly Cramp, associate editor of BC BookWorld.

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The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena Vermette (text) and Julie Flett (illustrations)
(Theytus Books, $19.95)

Review by Irene N. Watts  (BCBW 2019)

It is berry-picking time. A little girl wearing a bright red dress runs with joy in every step of her moccasin-clad feet.

Her mother’s warning not to stray too far before dark floats over the girl’s head like the butterfly just ahead of her.

When she stops running she no longer sees her mother and cannot remember the way back to her. The trees loom thick and black; she is scared and hungry.
Suddenly a tall grey wolf with flashing white teeth appears:
The wolf came up close and
sniffed her.
His wolf breath was hot and
stank of meat.

Will this wolf use his wiles to trick the child? As happened to Little Red Riding Hood?
No, this is not a story about a wolf from old European fairy tales. This is a compassionate, helpful wolf. He tells her:
Take a deep breath.
Close your eyes, then look.
What do you see?

And so the child, too young to hunt, discovers berries to eat and safe water to drink. She finds her way home by recognising trees close to her camp. The wolf has given her strength, a power she did not know she possessed, the ability to rely on herself. Her happiness restored, the girl runs back to her mother, a happy reunion.

The wolf is no longer beside her. He has disappeared, his work done.

That evening, the girl wraps a special gift of tobacco, one of four sacred medicines —as a thank you for the help she was given.

The illustrations by Julie Flett, a Cree-Métis artist based in Vancouver, are outstanding. Her textured images are perfectly in tune with the story, both supporting and enhancing the words.

One of the most striking illustrations is when the wolf first appears, white teeth gleaming, eyes glinting. Flett has created a brilliant image of the girl’s apprehension, as she holds herself still. Yet moments later, the wolf appears as a caring companion watching over her; the artist’s image now exudes gentleness and compassion.

The end papers—a delicate shade of palest blue, with a motif of white butterflies in the upper and lower corners—provide serenity and contrast to the darkness that falls rapidly as the tale unfolds. The girl with her flowing black hair and scarlet dress illuminates each page.
This is an intrinsically Canadian picture book that is sure to resonate with children, both in this country and beyond. The Girl and the Wolf is the work of Katherena Vermette, an innate storyteller who has chosen her words—not too many and not too few—perfectly. Dialogue is sparse yet totally apt, lending depth to the story.
Highly recommended for ages 4-8.

9781926886541

Playwright/writer, Irene N. Watts most recent work is Seeking Refuge, a graphic novel illustrated by Kathryn E. Shoemaker (Tradewind Books, 2016).