New Children’s Hospital book designed to ease kids’ anxiety in English, three Indigenous languages

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This article was published 10/10/2017 (3255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dolly the deer isn’t just an animal with a broken hoof.

The story of her hospital stay is the subject of a new kids book with a distinct focus on the importance of preserving Indigenous languages, one of the key recommendations from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Children’s Hospital launched the book Nindooshkinagadenima My New Friend on Tuesday. More than 25 per cent of the kids admitted to the province’s children’s hospital are Indigenous and this is the first book of its kind written in any Indigenous language here.

“Children learn so easily and children need to understand their culture and it’s important for healing the past,” said Dr. Celia Rodd, a specialist in endocrinology at the hospital.

Written in English and Cree, Okimaw-Cree and Ojibwa, the illustrated volume is designed to ease kids’ anxiety when they fly into the big city from remote regions.

It is also the latest addition to the hospital’s READ literacy program, which provides reading material to more than 4,000 children every year and encourages parents to read to their children.

Children’s hospitals in Kitchener, Montreal and Halifax also circulate similar books but the one issued Tuesday in Winnipeg is considered the most ambitious of the group. Plans for the book in Manitoba include translating it into additional Indigenous languages.

The book was introduced publicly by Children’s Hospital Foundation president and CEO Lawrence Prout and Rick Frost, CEO of the Winnipeg Foundation, who mentioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as part of the project’s inspiration.

A grant from the Winnipeg Foundation contributed to the cost of producing the book.

Donations from Winnipeg’s Schell family picked up the remaining costs. Family member Gerta Schell helped develop the storyline to introduce hospital procedures to children under the age of six.

About 4,000 copies will be distributed across pediatric health systems in Nunavut and Manitoba in the coming months.

The book is based on concept credited to late-New Brunswick Maliseet elder Veronica Atwin and illustrated by award-winning children’s author Mike Parkhill, a former Microsoft tech executive who works closely with Indigenous people in the Maritimes.

Parkhill worked with translators here, including Cree Cross Lake mother Marsha Blacksmith, who flew to Winnipeg for the launch.

“It’s important because it instils the identity back into our lives, to have that language… to teach our children and to be able to guide them in their lives,” Blacksmith said.

The book is also available in a digital format, with translation in Indigenous languages.