I AM MY NAME

A Cree child struggles with complex emotions stemming from her adoption in this debut picture book about co-author Na’kuset’s life.

Na’kuset recounts her forcible removal from her community during a period known as the Sixties Scoop, when the Canadian government enacted policies taking Indigenous children from their families and placing them in non-Native households. The authors rely on elegant figurative language that may require clarification from adults; for instance, when Na’kuset is kidnapped at age 3, “Flashlight people… / “[lift] us. Like feathers.” “Plucked like tiny trees / from our roots,” she and her sister are separated, and Na’kuset is sent to live with a white Jewish family. Though she grows to love her parents, they shut her down when she asserts her Cree identity. But Bubbie, her loving adoptive grandmother, gives her the strength to survive childhood and eventually reunite with her older sister. Her adoptive parents’ erasure of her true name is a source of pain; an Elder later gives her the Spirit name Na’kuset, which means sun in Mi’kmaq. Realistic artwork by Cree and Métis illustrator Onedove deftly conveys mood—Na’kuset’s tranquil suburban home has an unnerving feeling, while natural settings have a healing quality. Though the pacing is choppy, the conclusion is uplifting; this is a gentle introduction to a historical injustice that still reverberates.

A poignant and important history told with dignity and fortitude.