Ajijaak is a story about caring for the land and water. Do you care about the land? How can you be a voice for the water? Do you care about healing? Everyone can contribute to the healing of our land, water, and communities (Source).

This picture book was written in Ojibwe with English translation by Margaret Noodin.

Author(s): Cecelia Rose LaPointe & Margaret Noodin & Dolly Peltier

Cecelia Rose LaPointe is Ojibway/Métis and is Mashkiziibi (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe or LaPointe Band of Ojibwe) and Kchiwiikwedong (Keweenaw Bay Indian Community – Michigan).  They are enrolled in Mashkiziibi and maintain a strong community affiliation to Kchiwiikwedong. They are ajijaak dodem (crane clan). Nigig-enz Baapi – Little Laughing Otter is her Ojibway name given by relation and lovely elder Janice Shalifoe. Otters are responsible to bring medicine and knowledge to their people. The medicine is brought across the water. Otters are solitary and spend equally as much time on the land and water (Source).

Margaret Noodin received a PhD in Literature and Linguistics, an MFA in Creative Writing and bachelor’s degrees in English and Education at the University of Minnesota. She is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she also serves as the Associate Dean of the Humanities. She is the author of Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature, and two bi-lingual books of poetry in Anishinaabemowin and English: Weweni and What the Chickadee Knows. Her poems have been appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Michigan Quarterly Review and Yellow Medicine Review (Source).

Dolly Peltier is Anishnaabe kwe from Wikwemikong, Ontario. She is an experienced illustrator with a demonstrated history of working in the primary/secondary education industry. Strong arts and design professional skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Beading, Photography, Drawing, and Contemporary Art (Source).