Sem’s Map: New picture book teaching young readers about Indigenous place names

Author and former Nova Scotia poet laureate Rebecca Thomas chats about her new children's book, “Sem's Map.”

A new children’s book about the importance of Indigenous place names and acknowledging traditional lands was released just in time for Mi’kmaq History Month.

“Sem’s Map,” by Mi’kmaw author Rebecca Thomas, tells the story of a young Indigenous boy who doesn’t recognize the map his teacher uses for geography class.

Thomas said she had previously been asked to write a book about land acknowledgement but didn’t want it to be an explainer.

“But rather kind of tell it through the eyes of someone who might know the land differently than many Canadians who know it now,” she told Your Morning Atlantic’s Crystal Garrett.

Thomas recalled a time in recent years when she went out with friends eel spearing and fiddlehead gathering and the group discussed traditional place names and words that explained what was around them.

“And a friend of mine had said beads and ribbon skirts and dancing and drumming is one aspect of being Indigenous, but the land is what shaped us,” she said.

“So to be Mi’kmaw, to understand Mi’kma’ki, is to go out and introduce yourself to the land and see what she has to say.”

For example, the traditional name for Halifax is Kjipuktuk, which means “great harbour,” while the name Sipekne’katik – also known as Shubenacadie First Nation – means “where the wild potatoes grow.”

“The Moncton region is ‘drainage place,’ it’s all wetlands, that’s where I grew up, Unama’ki, ‘land of the fog,’ Newfoundland is ‘land beyond the fog’ and then Kespe’k is ‘last land,’ that’s the end of our territory, where as down in Yarmouth is ‘lands end’ because the land ends, then it’s water after that, so it’s instructional,” Thomas explained.

“Sem’s Map” also features colourful scenes, animals and maps by Indigenous illustrator Azby Whitecalf.

“Every kids book that I’ve published has had an Indigenous illustrator. I’m a big believer in propping the door open behind me. There’s not as many Indigenous authors in the world and I wanted an Indigenous illustrator and I just fell in love with Azby’s colours, bright colours, the way that they do faces,” Thomas said.

“I feel extremely grateful for the imagination of an illustrator. I do the words, and I have an idea in my head of what I want the pictures to look like, but I have to let that go and trust in the illustrators to do a fabulous job, which they did.”

“Sem’s Map” is available in bookstores and online.