CALGARY—At four years old, Moby Calf Robe has three long black braids that already fall to his waist.

He’s proud of them — they’re a symbol of love and affection, his mom, Latasha Calf Robe taught him.

“That’s why I sit with you every day and braid your hair,” she tells the boy.

It also represents a tradition in his family. Latasha’s brothers, father and grandfather, had braids, and so did the generations of men before them. The braids mean strength and protection.

But among his young peers at school and when his family is about town in Calgary, Moby noticed he seems to be the only one to have them, and he wonders about it.

“There’s never anything that reflects him and his identity and something so strong and prevalent about him, which is terrible,” Latasha said. The pair, along with her two daughters and husband, are from the Blackfoot community and live in Calgary.

So she decided to write a book for him as well as for other young Indigenous boys.

On Saturday, the book launched at the Calgary Central Library alongside 11 other Indigenous children’s books authors, each representing a Treaty 7 community, and each written in their respective language.

The authors worked on their books in a writers workshop over the course of three weeks with Richard Van Camp, an author and member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories.

The launch of the books also marks the opening of the Indigenous languages resource centre at the library. The new centre will be a space to meet with elders and learn Treaty 7 languages, said Alayna Many Guns, a service design lead at the library. It also features traditional items, Indigenous art and a ceiling light display that mimics the night sky and constellations — a practice tied to traditional oral storytelling.

Many Guns said there has been an appetite for material written in local Indigenous languages since it’s not prevalent, especially in children’s literature.

The books will be added to the library’s permanent collection.

In Latasha’s book, titled “Niitsippooktsistaanitsi,” or in English, “My Braids,” the character takes the reader through his world and the meaning of his braids. It’s based on Moby, or Siipisaahkomaapi (meaning “night boy” in Blackfoot). It’s written in Blackfoot and English and is illustrated with photographs of the child.

The braids are the first thing you notice when you look at the boy, Latasha says, and that’s something he’s proud of.

“It’s such an important part of who he is,” Latasha said.

“I wanted to be able to write a book where my son can see himself reflected.”

Growing up, she said she never saw herself reflected in any form of mainstream media or books, just the oral stories told by her father.

“Mainstream media, it was like, why are we never there? Why does nobody ever look like me or why is no one ever the same colour as me or have long hair like me or have parents that look like my parents?”

She hopes her book will be at least one way boys with braids can relate and feel good about their own heritage.

“I’ve known quite a few young boys who have struggled with this, and some of them have decided to cut off their hair,” she said.

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She added it’s important for her to see Indigenous people tell their own stories, rather than have their stories told by others.

“Lots of colonial approaches to writing and talking about Indigenous people, unfortunately, are done by non-Indigenous writers … Some of the messaging often gets lost,” Latasha said.

The books are also a means of preserving a language.

She said the writing process has helped her in her journey to learn Blackfoot. Her parents and grandparents went to residential school and opted not to pass the language on to her, she said. All three of her children are also learning the language and are picking it up faster than she can.

“We’re kind of in an interesting turmoil where they’re teaching me new words,” she joked.

Trent Fox, an author from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, wrote “Watâga Wîyâ A’s, Â’s and B’s ze yuthpe îkiyabich” (”Grizzly Bear Woman Teaches the A’s, Â’s & B’s”). It’s a story in honour of his late sister, Kim Fox, who was once an educator of the Stoney Language.

He said even though the nation’s language has held on fairly strong, it’s on the “rapid decline,” and, now more than ever, it’s important that children are taught from a young age.

“I really believe that we need to appropriate literacy, so that we can start having our children learn, over time, the language, from K to (Grade) 12. So that by the time they’re in Grade 12, they’re writing the language and hopefully writing essays, meaning they’re thinking in my language,” Fox said.

“That has been interrupted by this colonization process — there’s been language loss affecting our communities.”

Fox’s mother, Tina Fox, also wrote a book titled “Îyâ Sa Wîyâ Wahogu-kiybi Cha” (”Red Mountain Woman Receives a Teaching”).

Both books will be gifted to the schools in Morley, part of the Stoney Nakoda reserve.

Correction - Dec. 16, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Latasha Calf Robe is the Siksika community. She is from the Kainaiwa First Nation and a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy. As well, Siipisaahkomaapi means night boy” in Blackfoot.

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