Lucy and Lola: The Journey Forward, a Novella on Reconciliation
by Monique Gray Smith & Julie Flett
Description:
Publisher's description (McKellar and Martin, 2018): Monique Gray Smith’s Lucy & Lola is about 11-year-old twins who spend the summer on Gabriola Island with their Kookum so their mom, Mary, can have peace and quiet to study for the bar exam. Though Mary and her mother’s experiences at residential schools run as a current through the story, Smith incorporates everyday details (Kookum’s barky dog, trips to the beach, savoured bowls of ice cream) to create a gentle yet effective narrative.
The girls are proud of their Indigenous identity and culture. They smudge to make themselves feel better when they are upset or to feel close to one another and their ancestors. They learn new words in Island Hul’q’umin’um’, the language of the Snuneymuxw people, whose traditional territory includes Gabriola Island; they take guidance from Lola’s prophetic dreams.
Smith doesn’t shy away from the realities of deeply entrenched racism and the legacy of residential schools. The girls encounter a woman on the beach who reveals unintentional racism assuming when they say their mom is getting ready for the bar that they mean a tavern, not a law exam. She is aghast at her mistake and shows up on their doorstep the next day shedding tears of shame and apology. Lucy and Lola forgive her; Kookum praises the woman for her courage and the girls for their strength and self-respect. The message here is about healing and understanding. Monique Gray Smith is Cree, Lakota, and Scottish. Julie Flett is Indigenous.
Resource format: Novella
Age recommendation: Grades 4 - 9
Keywords: Gabriola Island, residential school, identity, culture, kinship, reconciliation
Year of publication: 2018
Publisher information: McKellar and Martin
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!
Lucy and Lola / When we Play Our Drums, They Sing Novel Study - grades 4-6
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