Nova Scotian author releases debut Black and Indigenous-inspired fantasy novel

Artist and author Tonya SamQwan Paris chats about her debut fantasy novel.

A Nova Scotian artist and author is writing a fantasy book which passes down Black and Indigenous teachings to a new generation.

The River Remembers: Ayla & The River Beneath the World follows a girl named Ayla who enters a fantasy world beneath a river following her mother’s disappearance. It’s the first book in the series.

The author, Tonya SamQwan Paris, says she wanted to give Black and Indigenous kids a book to connect to.

“Usually stories are passed orally through our community, and they get lost. I have grandchildren now, and I wanted to make sure that at some point they would be able to read about who they are, and not in documentary form, research form, but just fun, just loving who you are,” she said.

“Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, we didn’t get those stories, and we didn’t have characters that looked like us and I wanted to preserve those stories with characters that look like us and that we can relate to.”

She says she used stories passed down from her grandmother as inspiration for the novel.

“It’s a fantasy version of Indigenous and Black teachings that I was taught as a child, we don’t really get those teachings regularly, so I thought the easiest way to do it was to engage children fantasy-wise and they get knowledge and fun out of the novel hopefully,” said Paris.

Paris says she really connected to the novel as she was writing it.

“When I was writing the book, I didn’t actually realize I was actually writing my story, so I just, I guess the little kid in me put myself in the positions of the stories I heard as children,” she said.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page