When I purchase a book for the business, I research it, price it, catalogue it and put it up onto our Abebooks site, if $50 or over. Then, I find a spot for it in the book room. Although books are reasonably stored with like companions, it doesn’t take long before the book gets covered or just melds into its surroundings. I often forget about it. When I get an order for a book, the first thing I do is look up the photos of the book’s cover to refresh my memory and to help me find it.
And so it was for this musing’s featured volume. I bought it just over a year ago, got the order yesterday, looked up the photo and went to the indigenous corner. I found it right away and I recalled getting it and discovering that it was not only a beautiful book of legend and illustrations but very scarce, especially in the fine condition it was in. At the time there were only two other, very inferior copies for sale, so I had no problem about applying a premium price on the little book.
I always read the description of a book when I get an order for it, to make sure I described it correctly. More than once, I have reached out to the tentative buyer, with a perceived change in the description. No change required here. In fact, I decided I should use this book as the subject for this musing. I took more pictures of the book, to share with you, then I packaged it up and sent if off into the postal stream to its new home in British Columbia.
Both the author and the illustrator are Ojibwe, from up around Georgian Bay. She is from the Bruce Peninsula, and he is from Manitoulin Island. This collection of Ojibwe legends, passed down by word of mouth, was put together by her and published in 1970. Her only other book was a biography called “I am Nokomis too.” The artist is best known for the illustrations in this book. So, neither of them was prolific with their work. They collaborated on this little gem and went their separate ways. There are so few copies of what should be an important volume of foundational stories and legend.
Tales of Nokomis; Patronella Johnston; illustrations by Francis Kagige; Charles J. Musson Limited, Toronto, 1970.
Here is the description of the book that had been entered into Abebooks.
Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is an important character in the poem. According to the poem, From the full moon fell Nokomis/Fell the beautiful Nokomis. She bears a daughter, Wenonah. Despite Nokomis' warnings, Wenonah allows herself to be seduced by the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis, Till she bore a son in sorrow/Bore a son of love and sorrow/Thus was born my Hiawatha. In the Ojibwe language, nookomis means "my grandmother," thus portraying Nokomis of the poem and the aadizookaan (Ojibwe traditional stories) from a more personal point of view, akin to the traditional Ojibwa narrative styles.
Verna Patronella Johnston (1909-1996) was an Ojibway and Potawatomi (Anishinaabe) author, mother, grandmother, mentor, and community activist, known for helping Indigenous youth who had travelled to the city of Toronto for secondary and post-secondary educational opportunities from the 1960s through to the 1980s. She became an important leader within the urban Indigenous community in the city. In 1970, she published a collection of stories passed down to her through the oral tradition, Tales of Nokomis, this book. In 1977, she collaborated with Rosamond Vanderburgh to publish a biography of her life, titled I am Nokomis too.
Francis Kagige, or Kakige, was born in 1929 and went to school in Wikiwemigong. He was one of the first generation of Manitoulin artists born before World War II whose career became possible because Norval Morrisseau had broken the taboo against sharing the stories that were the foundation of the Anishnaabe concept of the universe. Kagige's hard edged images emulated Morrisseau's and defined him at the time as one of the new Woodland or legend painting artists. He tried to express the feelings and the impact that he experienced hearing traditional Ojibwa stories, but he was best known for the paintings he provided to illustrate Tales of Nokomis by Patronella Johnson.
Enjoy Kagige’s vibrant illustrations.
