Lesson for the Wolf
by Rachel & Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, & Alan Cook
Description:
Publisher description (Inhabit Media):
In the time before animals were as they are today, Wolf spends his days admiring all the other animals. Not content to simply be a wolf, happy and hunting with his pack, he watches the owls, wolverines, and caribou with envy, wishing that he could be like them. Wishing he could be anything other than a wolf. When the magic of the land finally grants his wish, Wolf finds out that what he admires may not be what he really wants in the end.
Author biography (Strong Nations):
Of Inuit-Scottish-Cree ancestry, Rachel A. Qitsualik-Tinsley was born and raised in the traditional Inuit culture of the late 1950's. After working for some time as a language specialist and consultant, she found success as a writer. Together with her husband, Sean A. Qitsualik-Tinsley, she has published many hundreds of articles on Inuit culture/folklore, much of which is used as educational content around the world. Together, they write fiction and educational works exploring the secretive world of Arctic shamanism. Rachel has also contributed to books, including Ring of Ice, Our Story, America is Indian Country, and Canada in 2020. Along with her husband, she has had the further pleasure of co-authoring Qanuq Pinngurnirmata: Vol. I, a book of Inuit myths expressed in modern narrative. Rachel is fond of hawks, dogs, and vanilla ice-cream (not necessarily in that order).
Of Inuit ancestry, Rachel was born in a tent at the northernmost tip of Baffin Island. Raised as a boy, she learned survival lore form her father -- eventually surviving residential school. Rachel specializes in archaic dialects and balances personal shamanic experience with a university education. On the basis of numerous articles written concerning culture and language, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
Resource format: Picturebook
Age recommendation: Kindergarten, Grades 1-3
Keywords: Arctic, winter, brown, mountains, flowers, wolf, strength, play, pack, sky, hobby, animals, caribou, antlers, wolverines, tails, owls, annoyed, emotions, alone, love of the land, beauty, unhappiness, scavenge, forage, transformation, mixture, misfit, form, function, embarrassed, starving, mother, nurture, understanding, feelings, healing, community, acceptance, self image, body image, Inuit, tundra, Inuktitut, Scottish, Cree, identity, self-acceptance, animals, Inuktitut language
Year of publication: 2015
Publisher information: Inhabit Media
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!