The Land Remembers

In the form of a gentle lyrical poem, Courtney Defriend's debut picture book The Land Remembers follows Tumuxw, Mother Earth, as she comforts her children through the passage of time. A woman gives birth to five daughters and raises them on an island, teaching them the relationships between animals and plants and people, until they became women and had children of their own, passing down these teachings. When unnamed others came to the island, they brought sorrow, replacing totems with crosses and taking the grandchildren away to schools, separating them from their sacred teachings and connections. This book is a reminder that near or far, the land is part of who we are. Tumuxw, Mother Earth, will stay the same, strong and unbroken, and no matter how hard others may try to take her children away, she will tend to them again. She will help them remember who they are, despite what the others may have convinced them to be.