Orca Chief
by Roy Henry Vickers & Robert Budd
Description:
Publisher's description (Harbour Publishing):
Thousands of years ago in the village of Kitkatla, four hunters leave home in the spring to harvest seaweed and sockeye. When they arrive at their fishing grounds, exhaustion makes them lazy and they throw their anchor overboard without care for the damage it might do to marine life or the sea floor.
When Orca Chief discovers what the hunters have done, he sends his most powerful orca warriors to bring the men and their boat to his house. The men beg forgiveness for their ignorance and lack of respect, and Orca Chief compassionately sends them out with his pod to show them how to sustainably harvest the ocean's resources.
Accompanied by almost exclusively new illustrations by Roy Henry Vickers, this next installment of the Northwest Coast Legends will captivate readers young and old with its vivid imagery and remarkable storytelling.
Orca Chief is the third in a series of Northwest Coast legends by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. Their previous collaborations, Raven Brings the Light (2013) and Cloudwalker (2014), are award-winning national bestsellers.
Creator biographies (Harbour Publishing):
Roy Henry Vickers is a renowned carver, painter, printmaker and storyteller. He is the illustrator and co-author of Harbour Publishing’s popular children’s First West Coast Book series and Northwest Coast Legends series, the latter of which were all shortlisted for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award: Raven Brings the Light in 2014, Cloudwalker in 2015, Orca Chief in 2016 and Peace Dancer in 2017. His other books include Storyteller (Harbour Publishing, 2014) and Voices from the Skeena (Harbour Publishing, 2019). He lives in Hazelton, BC.
Robert (Lucky) Budd holds an MA in history and has digitized many high-profile oral history collections including that of the Nisga'a First Nation. He is the author of Voices of British Columbia (Douglas & McIntyre, 2010), a bestseller which was shortlisted for the 2011 Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, and its sequel, Echoes of British Columbia (Harbour Publishing, 2014). He currently lives in Victoria, BC.
Resource format: Picturebook
Age recommendation: Any
Keywords: Kitkatla, Prince Rupert, story, handed down, west coast, sea, sustainability, food harvesting and sustainability, pre-contact, food gathering, spring, seaweed, fish, sockeye salmon, anchor, tired, rest, prayer, safe place, chief, Orca, underwater house, ratfish, canoe, angry, warriors, whirlpool, traditional art, respect, unceded territory, Ts’msyen, scared, crying, beg, careful, learn, kind, hunters, teach, give thanks, halibut, red snapper, ling cod, crabs, Skeena River, Pacific Ocean, candle fish, oil, humpback, herring, bubbles, mother, hugs, kelp, bounty, share lessons
Year of publication: 2015
Publisher information: Harbour Publishing
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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