Naaahsa is an Artist!

In her charming and impactful picture book, Naaahsa Is An Artist!, author and illustrator Hali Heavy Shield centers familial relations, in particular the special one between her and her impressive grandmother who are both members of southern Alberta’s Blood Tribe. Through this autobiographical memoir, the granddaughter reflectively focalizes attention on her elder, muse, and friend, Naaahsa.

The child-narrator boldly begins her eponymous, ode-like song-poem to her grandmother this way: “Naaahsa is an artist!” Someone who says that “making art can happen anywhere at any time” and that “You can make something out of nothing. Just use your imagination.” Readers learn that, together, the collaborating duo express their imagination through drawing, beading, singing, and storytelling. Furthermore, readers see them engaged in music-making via the first of Heavy Shield’s expressionistic visual images that make use of neutral and cool colours which capture the tenderness of the strong emotional and arts-based connection between the two.

The narrative line is advanced via double page spreads, such as the one describing Naaahsa’s fondness for “long walks” with the focalizer, the grand-daughter who recalls social-cultural practices of picking “berries”, gathering “twigs and rocks” among the “prairie grass” that “stretches all the way to Chief Mountain” and the inspiration afforded by walking and holding hands amid nature’s bounty with her beloved grandmother. Through their nature walks, the grandmother inducts her granddaughter in the ways of living, art-making, and being valued by their community.

For this granddaughter and grandmother, intergenerational relationality, as for many, is forged through embodied sociocultural acts/practices of doing: cooking, painting, taking pictures, cutting “paper dolls’’ and the encouragement of young collaborators to “keep doing [their] best” as is emphasized by Heavy Shield in words and illustrations.

The frequency of togetherness characterized through modelling and demonstrations of important social practices creates opportunities for the elder to share stories of her past/history, including, for instance, forced attendance at “residential school” as a child and the pride of knowing that “Blackfoot was the only language Naaahsa spoke as a child” until she went to “residential school” where it was “against the rules”. There, the grandmother mounted resistance by whispering in Blackfoot “I love you” to her siblings at the school. Through such storytelling, she passes understandings that oppression can and should be resisted by words and by art, even by children where and when they can. With that, Naaahsa underscores that “Art is a language everyone understands” and emphasizes to the child-teller the characteristics of art making practices: “use of any color”, “different materials”, playing “with shapes”, playfulness, “hard-work” creating and attending “art shows”.

A highlight of Naaahsa is an Artist! is the narrator’s recollection of attending her grandmother’s art show at the “National Gallery”. Riding on the plane and experiencing “butterflies”, doodling in her elder’s sketchbook and learning about the importance of having it at the at-the-ready, “hand squeezes”, blowing “bubble gum to make her ears feel better”, resting her head on Naaahsa’s shoulder, “staying at a fancy hotel”, walking and “experiencing the city” are significant recollections detailed by Heavy Shield.

The story concludes with details of the Naaahsa’s “opening exhibit” where the proud granddaughter wore her “prettiest dress” and stared “at the giant spider sculpture outside the gallery”. This scene is likely to resonate powerfully with many readers/viewers/listeners, particularly children. Of special note are memories of the words expressed by viewers of Naaahsa’s art: “Fascinating! Beautiful! Remarkable and Extraordinary!” So powerful was the impact of witnessing the celebration/adulation of Naaahsa, the artist, that young Heavy Child, filled with joyful pride, decided that “[s]omeday [,] she wanted “to be an artist just like her”, Naaahsa! And the book, Naaahsa Is An Artist! illustrates that she is on her way to doing just that! Heavy Shield’s celebration of art, artistry, creativity and art making is valuable for budding artists. Nonetheless, for this lucky author, and others blessed with loving grandmothers, it is the “hugs” that we cherish and hold on to, the longest!

Naaahsa Is An Artist! is truly a gem of a picture book!

Note that Naaahsa Is An Artist! is also available in a dual language edition, Naaahsa Aisinaki! = Naaahsa is an Artist! (Blackfoot [Kainai]/English - ISBN 978-1-77260-347-7).