We are Water Protectors Book Review

We are Water Protectors

Lindstrom, Carole and Michaela Goade. WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS. New York: ‎ Roaring Brook Press, 2020.

ISBN: 978-1250203557

We are Water Protectors is a beautiful picture book that tells of the Native prophecy of the black snake who will destroy the water that creates and nourishes us all. Against the backdrop of rich, lush watercolors by Michaela Goade, Carole Lindstrom's lyrical poetry moves the reader like the currents of the river. "Water is our medicine" (p. 2). Water "nourished us inside our mother's body. As it nourishes here on Mother Earth" (p. 3). The black snake prophecy is a prophecy told to the members of Lindstrom's Ojibwe Indians, and similar stories are told in other Native tribes. These peoples decided that the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was a fulfillment of this prophecy. The pipe transporting oil across the land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was installed without permission on their land, and it leaks, polluting the tribes' sacred water. Our protagonist tells the reader why water is important, and shows us how to rally and protest to protect it.

The author Carole Lindstrom is Anishinabe/Métis and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Indians. In the back matter, Lindstrom says that she was not able to go and protest the DAPL in 2016, because she was living in Maryland at the time. She realized that she could use her skills as a writer to draw attention to this issue. She uses poetry as a metaphor for the water she's discussing. Her words flow across the pages in flowing rhythm, "The river's rhythm runs through my veins. Runs through my people's veins" (p. 6). The typography mimics the poetry here, a sinuous line of text. There is a chorus that thrums through the narrative, "We stand/ Wwith our songs/ And our drums./ We are still here," (p. 19). It is a drumbeat that drives theme of standing up and protecting what is sacred to you, and it is the drumbeat of the Natives themselves, standing up and protecting their land.

 We are Water Protectors Book Trailer

The illustrator Michaela Goade is from the Raven moiety (a ritual group) and Kiks.ádi Clan from Sitka, Alaska. She grew up and currently lives in Alaska. She says her inspiration comes from the forests and mountains of Southeast Alaska. The watercolors have a rich depthness that is at once wild and warmly encompassing. Goade uses many different blue tones to depict the sacred waters that creates and nourishes us. She paints with motion as well. The water carries us. The mother standing in the river, with a baby in the waters of her womb (p. 4), is a beautiful, Native madonna and child, illustrating how the water creates and protects us. My favorite picture is on pages 23 & 24. A sunrise casts deep raspberry tones over the mountains and speckling the reflecting river. Goade includes Aslaskan wildlife, innocent sufferers to the black snake, in this luscious picture. In the backmatter, Goade says that she deliberately uses traditional Annishinabe and Ojibwe clan symbols in her depictions of wildlife that is significant in their teachings. She also includes Annishinabe floral motifs in white over all her illustrations. The effect is beautiful and inspires the reader to join the fight to protect our earth.

 Interview with Illustrator Michaela Goade

Programming Connections

Students will brainstorm what the "black snake" in our geographic region could be: oil? drought? suburban sprawl? Students will also research the Native peoples indigenous to their area. Then they will use watercolor and pen to illustrate this "black snake" of their own, using some of the motifs of the Native people they researched.