Sweetgrass First Nation illustrator Azby Whitecalf with their book, Buffalo Wild! (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Celebrating Indigenous culture

Sweetgrass illustrator Azby Whitecalf uses talents to bring stories to life

Sep 30, 2022 | 8:00 AM

Local Indigenous artist Azby Whitecalf said being able to create the art for a new children’s book has been a fun opportunity to get in touch with their (preferred pronoun) own inner child at the same time.

The Sweetgrass First Nation member completed the illustrations for Buffalo Wild!, by author Deidre Havrelock (Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Alberta), which was released last year by Annick Press.

“It’s very exciting for me,” Whitecalf said. “It’s the first book that I’ve done since I graduated university. It was my first big professional project. So it definitely holds a special place to me.”

Whitecalf said the book tells an Indigenous-themed story, which hits home for them.

“It’s something that really speaks to me obviously, being an Indigenous person and an artist,” they said. “I‘m so glad that a lot of the people in the community of North Battleford, that they are so excited to see the book. They have been very supportive of me. It’s a little unreal for me, for the town I grew up in, for so many people to know about it and to show so much support and interest. It was kind of mind-blowing.”

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The book was recently featured in the Battlefords Early Childhood Community Planning Network’s StoryWalk event.

The story is about a young Indigenous boy named Declan who is obsessed with buffaloes and lives with his grandmother.

“His kôhkom is telling him stories about the buffalo,” Whitecalf said. “He is wondering where all the buffalo are now. She tells him that they are up in the sky. Then, one night he can’t go to bed and he is looking up into the sky wishing that the buffalo were around again. Then, he sees this herd of buffalo in the sky. He uses these little sculptures that his grandma got, and he throws them up into the sky with the lacrosse stick and he frees the buffalo.”

Whitecalf, who majored in character design while studying at the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly known as the Alberta College of Art and Design), was first scouted by Toronto-based publishing company Annick Press, which asked her if she was interested in the project to illustrate the Buffalo Wild! book. They jumped at the chance.

“I really like doing children’s books because I think there is something there that it kind of speaks to my inner child,” the 24-year-old said. “It’s like now I have the skill-set to make the books that I wanted to see when I was a kid. And it’s a really fun space to experiment and explore. With kids’ books, you can kind of be as silly, as goofy as you want because the kids they’ll like it. They’ll like anything that is really kind of crazy and funny.”

Whitecalf now has another children’s book coming out soon they worked on, called We Belong To The Drum, about a child who develops a sense of belonging through the music of the powwow drum. The author of the book is Sandra Lamouche, while Whitecalf completed the illustrations. The publishing company, Orca Book Publishers, is currently taking pre-orders. We Belong To The Drum will also be available in a dual-language version – English and Plains Cree.

Whitecalf said it’s an important time in the world when more people want to hear from more Indigenous voices, and learn about the many Indigenous stories.

“Finally there is a spotlight on Indigenous voices, and people and stories,” they said.

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW