Missing Nimama
by Melanie Florence & Francois Thisdale
Description:
Publisher description (Clockwise Press, 2015):
A young mother, one of the many missing Indigenous women, watches over her small daughter as she grows up without her nimama, experiencing important milestones - her first day of school, first dance, first date, wedding, first child - from afar.
A free verse story of love, loss, and acceptance told in alternating voices. Missing Nimama shows the human side of a tragic set of circumstances.
An afterword by the author provides a simple, age-appropriate context for young readers. Includes a glossary of Cree terms. Melanie Florence is Cree.
Author biography (https://www.melanieflorence.com/my-story):
Melanie Florence is an award-winning writer of Cree and Scottish heritage based in Toronto. She was close to her grandfather as a child, a relationship that sparked her interest in writing about Indigenous themes and characters. She is the author of Missing Nimama, which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the 2017 Forest of Reading Golden Oak Award and was a finalist for the 2017 First Nation Communities READ award. Her most recent picture book, Stolen Words, won the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, is shortlisted for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, and was given a starred review by Kirkus, who listed it as one of the best picture books of 2017 to give readers strength. Her other books include Righting Canada’s Wrongs: Residential Schools and the teen novels He Who Dreams, The Missing, Dreaming in Color.
(From Illustrator's Website):
Since 1987, Francois Thisdale has been working as a freelance illustrator for North American, Asian and European clients.His work blends traditional drawing and painting with digital imagery, using collage, acrylic, watercolor and computer.
Resource format: Illustrated Poetry
Age recommendation: Grades 7 - 12, University
Keywords: Cree, Cree Language, Indigenous Language, MMIW, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Loss, Colonialism, Indigenous Women, kinship, mother-daughter relationship, matriarchs, butterfly, symbolism, memory, spirituality, spirit world, tradition, Stolen Sisters
Year of publication: 2015
Publisher information: Clockwise Press
Teaching and Learning Ideas
Our team collaborated with new teachers, alumni of the Werklund School of Education’s Bachelor of Education program, to create teaching and learning plans for texts in this website. With audiences ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-Secondary, lesson plans across this resource address a wide range of school subject areas, inclusive approaches, and Indigenous education topics, such as the revitalization of Indigenous languages. As this website was designed with Undergraduate Programs in Education instructors, as well as teachers in mind, connections to UPE courses have been flagged on each lesson plan. These lessons are intended as a starting place for educators, to help you envision ways in which you might bring Indigenous literatures, as well as ways of knowing, being, and doing, into your teaching contexts. Please adapt, use, and share these lessons in ways that are generative for your teaching practice. We offer our sincere thanks to the dozens of new teachers who gifted us with these creative ideas!
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