Grandparents passing along the beauty of their cultural heritage can be a powerful form of resilience. In Heart Berry Bling, an Anishinaabe grandmother passes along to her granddaughter Maggie the art of beading. She threads into this teaching her hard-won wisdom about overcoming discrimination, bearing hardship, and celebrating roots.
As Granny and Maggie sort through photos in order to come up with a special design for Maggie's beading project, they come upon an old photo of Granny living on the reserve. As Maggie inquires, she learns that when her Granny married her grandpa, who wasn't First Nations, by law she was stripped of her status and had to leave the Anishinaabe community. Many First Nations women spoke out against this law, and as a result, Maggie's Granny was able to apply to regain her status. "It wasn't easy for me or our community," she tells Maggie, "But beading gives me strength."
The beading itself is a joyful experience. Maggie chooses a strawberry earrings design and notices that the shapes look like hearts. Granny says that through this shape, strawberries remind us that "caring is more than a feeling." The plant's fruits, flowers, leaves, stems, runners, and roots demonstrate how everything is connected.
Guiding Maggie through discouragement about the meticulous work, a painful pricked finger, and other difficulties, Granny passes on much more wisdom about patience, confidence, and breathing one's spirit into one's work. Eva Campbell's vibrant illustrations of these two working side-by-side beautifully convey their love and mutual respect.
Designed for readers ages six to eight, the book closes with a note from the author about her own and her grandmother's real-life experiences of gender discrimination. Jenny Kay Dupuis is a sought-after public speaker, bestselling author, educator and accomplished artist whose focus is raising awareness about Indigenous realities. Under similar circumstances to Maggie's family, she did not receive her rightful First Nations status until 2011, as part of a series of changes to the discriminatory Indian Act. When she writes about beauty, truth, love, respect, trust, acceptance, peace, and hope, her words have behind them the full power of her experience.
This is a special book you will not want to miss.
