This Land Is a Lullaby

Author Tonya Simpson, a member of the Pasqua First Nation in Alberta, Canada, narrates for young children an Indigenous mother’s rhyming lullaby to her baby, singing of the land and her infant’s connection to it: “This land is a lullaby your heart already knows. / You carry the song from a lifetime ago. / It flows in your blood and echoes in your soul. / Listen, my baby, to the sweet song of home.” As the mother tenderly holds her child, she sings of the wild grasses, rising winds, honking geese, speckled frogs, blue herons, and many other creatures. She also sings about her other Indigenous beliefs—of spirits dancing in the night sky and the songs of the ancestors. As her child falls asleep, she sings, “As you slip into dreamy slumber, / know, my baby, that you are a sacred wonder.”

Illustrator Delree Dumont’s striking, energetic artwork painted in the pointillism style captures the mother’s intense love for her baby and for the land that shelters them. Dumont is a member of the Onion Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Christian parents or caregivers who share this book with children have an opportunity to talk with them about similarities and differences between Christianity and Indigenous spiritual beliefs, and to nurture understanding and connection to Indigenous neighbors.

(Orca Book Publishers)