Kitigan Zibi author's Anishinaabemowin children's book recognized in global collection

Kitigan Zibi author's Anishinaabemowin children's book recognized in global collection

New kid's book collection highlights 150 languages, including several from Canada

A collection of books designed to recognize children's literature that promotes and revitalizes Indigenous languages came as a surprise for one author who didn't know she would be included.

The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and UNESCO curated the Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages, which highlights endangered languages across the globe. The collection was released Aug. 9 in Ottawa.

One of the books featured is Anishaanbe author Sunshine Tenasco's Nibi nigomon or Nibi’s Water Song, originally published in English and French in 2019 and then Anishinaabemowin in 2025.

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Tenasco, who is a mother of four from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg in Quebec, told CBC Indigenous she had no idea her book was submitted to be included on the list.

"I'm super honoured to be a part of this group of people who are doing this work," Tenasco said.

"I think this is a step in the right direction. I hope that people are buying them and learning."

Tenasco said creating Nibi nigomon in Anishinaabemowin was part of an effort to "see herself" and her community reflected, much in the same way French language is promoted in Quebec.

"If we have one children's book, then another one will come, and another one will come, and then a sign will come," she said.

"Maybe, like, that's just my part in contributing to the revitalization of [Anishinaabemowin]."

Tenasco said there needs to be more allies for Indigenous language books, including publishers.

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The IBBY-UNESCO collection features nearly 170 books in more than 150 languages — and Nibi nigomon is one of 25 books from Canada.

There are 20 books in First Nations languages — Anishinaabemowin, ʔayʔajuθəm (Ayajuthem), Blackfoot, Cree, Dene Kede, Mi'kmaw and Inuinnaqtun — plus three in Inuktitut and two in Michif.

"What I'm seeing is a really, really decisive action in Canada to showcase these languages and to value them and to push for them to continue to be very much alive," said Cristina Puerta, UNESCO's head of publications in an interview with CBC Indigenous.

Indigenous languages make up half of the world's languages, Puerta said, and "are really the ones that are more at risk."

UNESCO World Atlas of Languages considers languages with less than 7.5 million speakers "generally endangered."

"There are several reasons why these languages are disappearing, but one of the most important is the fact that elders are not transmitting their mother language to the younger generations," Puerta said.

Puerta said the books in the collection were chosen by an international selection committee from about 500 submissions from IBBY national centres, communities, publishers, book promoters and authors across the globe.

"Our selection was made on the basis of what was submitted to us. So this collection is by no means, you know, like a judgment on what is remarkable in the world and what is not in terms of geographical representation. We only work with what we received," Puerta said.

But she added, the project isn't just about gathering "a nice children's book collection."

"It has to fit, and we hope it will, into an ecosystem in fact that allows these languages to survive," Puerta said.

The collection is just one initiative supporting the International Decade of Indigenous Languages from 2022 to 2032, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.

Puerta said the purpose of the decade is to inform and mobilize people and resources "to preserve, revitalize, and promote Indigenous languages around the world, so that this treasure, that is linguistic diversity, is not lost."

The UNESCO collection with IBBY was meant to be a "one off," Puerta said.

However, she said, there are more and more people interested in the next call for submissions.

Joy SpearChief-Morris is an Indigenous Black journalist and member of the Kainai Blood Tribe in Alberta. She reports primarily on Indigenous politics, healthcare and sports. Along with CBC, Joy has had bylines in The Globe and Mail, The Narwhal, The Walrus, The Toronto Star and Sportsnet. She is the recipient of the 2025 CJF-CBC Indigenous Journalism Fellowship.