The Sockeye Mother
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
To the Gitxsan people of Northwestern British Columbia, the sockeye salmon is more than just a source of food. Over its life cycle, it nourishes the very land and forests that the Skeena River runs through and where the Gitxsan make their home. The Sockeye Mother explores how the animals, water, soil, and seasons are all intertwined.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Writing in lyrical prose, Huson, who belongs to the Gitxsan Nation, honors the sockeye salmon as a resource and potent symbol within Gitxsan culture: "Little does this small sockeye fry know that its life cycle not only nourishes the people and other beings along the watersheds, it is the whole reason the forests and landscapes exist." He describes the journey of a young sockeye from the river to the Pacific and back again to spawn, incorporating (and defining) vocabulary words related to salmon ecology, including semelparous ("breeding only once in a lifetime") and keystone species. Donovan, a member of the M tis Nation of British Columbia, incorporates masklike images into her dynamic spreads, as well as motifs of flowing currents, plumes of campfire smoke, grasses, and tree bark. Huson eloquently conveys the fragile interconnectedness of the natural world and the moral imperative to protect it. Ages 10 14.
