Nicola I. Campbell

**Biographical Information**

Nicola I. Campbell is Nicola I. Campbell is half Métis and half Interior Salish. She is From Nicola County, British Columbia. Growing up, Nicola was influenced by the books of her Grandmother Maria Campbell. Maria Campbell wrote *Halfbreed*, *Little Badger*, and *Fire Spirit*. These books inspired her her life-long interest and passion in First Nations' traditions and oral histories. Growing up, Nicola had other meaningful experiences with her aunts as well. One of her aunt's, Ethel, was not forced to attend a residential school as many Native Americans were, so she retained her knowledge of many traditional Salish practices which include food preparation, medicine making, hide tanning, cooking, and language. Ethel was often called on to cook and babysit in her community in order to keep these traditions alive. This experience with her aunt Ethel inspired Nicole to write the book *A Day with Yahyah* which is based on Nicola's memory of her aunt Ethel and adventure they take with some childhood friends. She writes beautiful childrens' books that center First Nations' stories and perspectives.

**Themes/ Motifs**

Nicola's books focus on empowerment rather than tragedy in centering First Nations' voices, stories, and experiences. Nicola has stated that "too often the narratives of Indigenous peoples are colored with sadness, violence and addiction." In addition, she has stated, "looking at our future generations ... what are the stories we're sustaining?" said Campbell. She said if the only First Nation stories being told are ones of tragedy, it shapes a future without hope for coming generations.

"It's the only story being told and that's problematic," said Campbell. "Because this is what we're telling our children, this is who we are, that we're a people living in despair and there's no way out." With this goal of changing the narrative, and using her position as an author to continue the work of her grand, aunts, and ancestors, Nicola writes with a passion to teach future generations land-based teachings that focus on respect, endurance, healing, and reciprocity.

One of her most famous books, a finalist for numerous children’s literary awards, *Shin-chi’s Canoe* won the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award for illustration. This book demonstrates these themes as it is about two Native American children's experience at a residential school. Shin-chi, a six-year-old boy, lives with his family in an Indian reservation. Shi-shi-etko, his sister, is about to return for her second year, but this time she is not alone because Shin-chi is going too. Sibling relationships are a strong theme in Campbell's books.

**Writing/ Artistic Style**

Campbell includes First Nations' language and oral histories into her books. For example, her most recent book is titled spíləx̣m, which in the Salish/ Nłeʔkepmxcín language which are stories often shared over tea in the quiet hours between Elders. In this book, and many of her other books, Campbell roots the story within British Columbia landscapes, and with an almost tactile representation of being on the land and water in order to draw the reader into the illustrations. Campbell's writing is typically narrative and pulls from the real experiences of her family members and ancestors with vibrant illustrations that draw the reader into nature and the reciprocity between nature and self.

**Criticism**

A criticism of the book "Shin-chi's" Canoe is that it participates in the construction of the trope of the vulnerable child at the mercy of arbitrary confinement vs accountability of the state and policies that allowed and supported the atrocities of residential schools. The book relies on Shin-chi's individual feelings of loneliness and homesickness as within the individual which might suggest that the reader might identify with him as a sad child away from home vs as a consequence of very intentional and cruel government polices of assimilation. Someone reading this book, with little to no knowledge of the systemic aspect of Native American Boarding schools, might conclude that they were just bad boarding schools. In the book "Affect, Emotion, and Children’s Literature: Representation and Socialisation in Texts for Children and Young Adults" the question is asked, " how might we read Campbell's book in ways that resist foregrounding the individual child as victim and instead come to understand the systemic nature of schools that includes feeling as a part of knowing"? Overall, the criticism reminds us that feeling the pain of others might not lead to real change or investment in knowing these histories but how we talk about it, read it, and move forward with it, can.

**Bibliography**

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nicola-campbell-book-1.4430951

https://books.google.com/books?id=iaQzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT161&lpg=PT161&dq=criticism+nicola+campbell&source=bl&ots=CkV8MYXYKj&sig=ACfU3U1mTcyIFBWHA3vErJ3b6QDNEXRIXw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi\_\_syw7N7zAhWKXM0KHawlAE0Q6AF6BAgPEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false

**Other**

Here is a link to Nicola's books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/nicola-i-campbell/297087/