Cheryl Bear-Barnetson - The Honour Drum: Sharing the Beauty of Canadas Indigenous People with Children, Families and Classrooms

The Honour Drum: Sharing the Beauty of Canadas Indigenous People with Children, Families and Classrooms

Copyright 2016 Tim Huff and Cheryl Bear

All rights reserved

Printed in Canada

International Standard Book Number 978-1-927355-64-0 soft cover

ISBN 978-1-927355-65-7 EPUB

Published by:

Castle Quay Books

Lagoon City (Brechin), Ontario

Tel: (416) 573-3249

E-mail: info@castlequaybooks.com www.castlequaybooks.com

Edited by Marina Hofman Willard

Cover design and inside layout by Burst Impressions

Printed at Essence Printing, Belleville, Ontario

All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bear, Cheryl, author

The honour drum : sharing the beauty of Canadas indigenous

people with children, families and classrooms / written by Cheryl Bear

and Tim Huff ; parent and teacher discussion guide by Cheryl Bear

; illustrated by Tim Huff ; forewords by Ray Aldred and Steve Bell.

(Compassion series)

ISBN 978-1-927355-64-0 (paperback)

1. Native peoples--Canada--Juvenile literature. I. Huff, Tim,

1964-, author, illustrator II. Title.

E78.C2B43 2016 j971.00497 C2016-904539-0

Foreword by Ray Aldred

Dear reader,

The drum is the place where all of our relatives gather. This book seeks to honour the relationships that make up our lives. The rhythm of the drum and rhythm of this book help draw out the dance that is within all of creation. The authors of this book have done a marvellous job of helping lead a community to find and affirm the dance that lies at the heart of each person, the dance that Creator has put into all things.

The children keep the old people alive because they bring healing, just as the south wind brings healing in the spring. This book provides a resource to facilitate those conversations between young and old, between creation and Creator. These conversations nurture the stuff of life that lies at the heart of every child, every human beingso that every person on Turtle Island will be able to stand on the earth and hear it welcome them back, so that we might understand what it means to be a human being. This book helps to build those relationships with the earth and with each other.

Wisdom is like a river that flows from Creator. Understanding comes when we enter this river that has flown through the land and our ancestors. The task of learning the dances and stories of this land helps us find the wisdom stored up in all of creation. The authors of this book have provided a way forward on the journey through the land that is our life toward the wisdom that will lie at the end.

All my relatives.

*****

Ray Aldred is Cree from Treaty 8 and is also related to the Mtis. He is director of the Indigenous Studies Program at the Vancouver School of Theology. He is married to Elaine and has four children, two sons-in-law and two grandchildren. He is a teller of stories he has heard from the many relatives that make up life: the no legged, the four legged, the winged and the two legged.

Foreword by Steve Bell

As you will soon learn about how to rightly approach an honour drum, I hope you have also come to this book in a good way. That is, with a humble and grateful receptivity to the precious gift of anothers storied wisdom. You, no doubt, have your own story as well and will read this through your unique lens. This is inescapable. But we need not see the world of storied wisdom as an aggressive and competitive zero sum game where there will be inevitable winners and losers. Rather, the wonder of story is that, when it is shared and received in a good way, our own worlds expand and inflate, and new possibilities emerge. Best of all, vital mutuality is forged: enduring friendships marked by grace and beatitude.

The best of childrens booksand I believe the one you hold in your hands is among themcontain a hidden depth. They are filled with the enchanting delights of rhyme and colour and shape and discovery. But these are like the tip of the iceberg whose glimmering surface veils the silent mass below. There is a mass of sadness and loss undergirding this tender little book. However, the tender mutuality of its authors and their loving attention and care to each word and image are themselves a testament to the splendours of redemption (re-creation) that can rise from the depths to catch the blaze of the sun, delight the eyes and fill the heart with hope-filled wonder.

Post the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this book is a most helpful resource to guide us as we continue down the path toward the healing of relations between Indigenous and settler peoples.

*****

Steve Bell is a singer/songwriter living with his wife, Nanci, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory and homeland of the Mtis Nation. Together they have four adult children, one son-in-law, two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. Steves music and advocacy work have been awarded with two Juno Awards and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. At the time of this books release, Steve is working on his 20th CD release, Where the Good Way Lies .

Dear Parents and Teachers

from Cheryl and tim

Before you enter into this book with the children in your care, we want to share a few words about who we are, how this book came together, how you might use it and how we hope it is received.

WeCheryl and Timcome from very different homes, but both abide in the same notion of home. We both celebrate Creators goodness. We dwell in very distinct regions of an enormous country, but both are in awe of the entire nations beauty and diversity. In so many lovely ways, we are more alike than different.

However, the history of our lineages surely tells a different story. The sacred bloodline of an Indigenous woman from Canadas west coast and the branches of a Toronto-born Anglo-Canadian mans family tree cross at complex intersections. Canada at-large knows this uneasy kind of reality from east to west, north to south, only too well.

Crafting this childrens book together has been more than a shared projectrather, a shared experience. Vital questions, harsh realities and sophisticated conversations do not filter simply into a childrens book such as this. But they have been imperative on this journey, just as they are for the entire country of Canadaand they have certainly informed The Honour Drum s purpose and driven its outcome. Grace and humility, truth and reconciliation, transparency and respect, beauty and newness, have all been, and are, at the centre of our tender little book. Better yet, at the centre of our shared story in creating it.

The book has been designed so that you can walk children through it in a variety of ways. We suggest that a first reading might simply have you follow the rhyming stanza and illustration pages in sequence, sparking intrigue and introducing the books content and themes. After, revisit the book using the accompanying Parent and Teacher Discussion Guide pages to open up meaningful teaching and learning conversation. Depending on the age and interest of the child or children you are sharing this book with, you might work through it over several days, incorporating further research, writing and arts projects. The discussion guide pages have been written so that you will have meaningful content to work with for children of all ages, allowing you to discern age-appropriate language and follow-up.