Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior

Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior is a welcome addition to the genre of picture books that prompt investigation and discussion about important social issues —in this case, pollution, destruction of water resources and the disenfranchisement of Indigenous people.

Author Carole Lindstrom uses the real life activism of a First Nations teen, Autumn Peltier, to show that this is a contemporary issue that young people have taken up and are pursing justice and solutions. Autumn continues the struggle in the footsteps of her great-aunt, Josephine Mandamin, and those who came before.

Lindstrom is an Anishinaabe/Métis writer and Caldecott Medal winner (We Are Water Protectors) from Maryland. Her protagonist is the water, itself, which is dependent on humans for its care.

For a very long time,

all life on Earth cared for me.

Looking seven generations into the future

to make sure I was pure and clean —
for their children’s children.

But colonialists viewed the natural world as something to exploit and profit from, with no regard for the consequences for people who depend on it or for the future. Despite the example and advice of people who acted as stewards of the waters for untold number of centuries, waterways became polluted, dried up, diverted, dammed and ruined, damaging the lives of First Nations peoples. Lindstrom’s spare, short sentences are effective statements of truth.

Over time, more people came,

Demising their voices

Growing out their message.

Those people didn’t care for me.

But Grandma Josephine emerge to take up the cause of nibi — the water.

She walked miles and miles around the Great Lakes,

carrying my spirit in her copper pail

so people would see her.

And see me.

(Mandamin’s inspirational work led to the Mother Earth Water Walk, an event she began in 2003 and which brought together women from different First Nations clans to raise awareness about the state of water. She has been profiled in other writings, one being Joanne Robertson’s picture book, The Water Walker by Mandarin died in 2019).

Lindstrom chronicles how her great-niece, Autumn Peltier, took up where Josephine left off, motivating other indigenous communities and speaking to leaders all over the world:

Speaking out,

loud and strong,

for me.

The afterword shows a picture of Autumn, at age 14, advocating at the United Nations, her presentations animated from the example of her great-aunt and the women water-protectors who came before her.

Lindstorm’s writing is stirring without being preachy. It will prompt a child to notice, reflect and appreciate our natural resources and come to the conclusion that they must be respected and protected.

The text is enhanced beautifully by illustrator and author Bridget George’s blue-themed pictures. The deep blue waters flow, the leaves of water plants sway in the currents that dance, swirl and travel onward. The land is painted in greens and browns, showing the colourful flowers that grow on the banks of the waters, but also how trees wither and die from mistreatment of the water.

George was raised on the Anishinaabe nation of Kettle and Stony Point and now lives in London, Ontario. She draws people with big, expressive eyes, mostly wearing traditional clothing. She uses warm colours that invite engagement with the story.

The soft-curved font for the text reflects the flowing water, and some lines are judiciously set off in curves.

Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior would be an excellent addition to a unit about water, reconciliation, indigenous peoples, empowering young people, and more. It would also make an excellent book for young people to read at home to understand the power of raising a voice for a cause, despite the forces that work to silence it.

Who knows that one or more of the young people who read Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior might be the next nibi activists who will save our water for the next generations?