Author is doing his part for Indigenous language revitalization

What do a four-year-old girl named Mino, a grandmother and a cat named Mooz/Moose all have in common? The answer is writer-illustrator Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley and his desire to further his language. 

“One of my goals was to try to learn (Anishinaabemowin) so I could speak with my grandmother (Audrey Pawis). But unfortunately, I couldn't learn it quick enough to be fluent to have conversations with her before she passed away,” said Pawis-Steckley, a member of the Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario.

Nishnaabemwin is a regional variant of Anishinaabemowin. Mooz/Moose is written in English and Nishnaabemwin for kids three to six years old. 

“At that age, kids are like sponges and they absorb so much knowledge and information. If they're introduced at a younger age, they'll be able to pick up languages easier as they get older,” said Pawis-Steckley, who has shared his newest book with his daughter Mino.

“She loves it,” he said. “I've read it to her multiple times now and she's just really excited to have a book about her cat.”

Mooz is the Anishinaabemowin word for Moose. But is Mooz really a moose? As the book says in the end, “Now that I think about it, she’s not much like a moose at all. She’s just Mooz!”

In his delightful illustrations, Pawis-Steckley compares Mooz to a number of woodland animals, including a lynx, a marten, a racoon and a coyote. 

“It was pretty fun just coming up with all these different comparisons to all these other animals that she's like,” he said, noting he wrote the text first before doing the illustrations.

One of the challenges he faced was choosing animals that were different from the ones he used in the first book he illustrated and wrote, the award-winning Boozhoo!/Hello! which is also in English and Nishnaabemwin.

“I wanted a whole new selection of animals to give more language,” he said about Mooz/Moose.

“I put some text to it, some simple text with nouns and verbs that could be translated into Anishinaabemowin for toddlers to pick up the language at an early age or just read along with their parents,” he said.

The translation is done by Mary Ann Corbiere, who grew up speaking Nishnaabemwin in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island. She notes at the end of Mooz, “The translation of this book is based on the way speakers from my community normally talk every day.”

“There is never a direct translation from English so there has to be a bit of interpretation,” said Pawis-Steckley.

Past books illustrated by Pawis-Steckley include Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh / This Is How I Know, written by Brittany Luby and shortlisted for a 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award, and the recent adaptation of late Richard Wagamese’s Canada: We Are the Story.

Pawis-Steckley says Wagamese is a “huge influence in a lot of work I do” and admits he was initially intimidated.

“Richard's such a huge name and he's done so much for Indigenous people. But I feel like honestly that's probably some of my favourite work that I've done and some of the work I'm most proud of,” he said.

Pawis-Steckley anticipates he will be illustrating another Wagamese book, this one adapted into a graphic novel.

Pawis-Steckley is writing and illustrating his own Young Adult graphic novel, which is scheduled to come out in 2029. It will also contain some Anishinaabemowin.

“It's really important for the growth of (the language) to have as much resources as we can. For me, I feel like that was the biggest difficulty in learning is just the lack of resources. So I'm just honestly doing my small part in trying to get some more out there,” he said.

His passion lies in language revitalization projects, says Pawis-Steckley, who now calls the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Nations (Vancouver) home.

Mooz/Moose is published by Groundwood Books, a division of the House of Anansi Press. It will be released Sept. 1. It can be purchased through https://houseofanansi.com/products/mooz-moose