One of Canada’s most beloved children’s books, “Love You, Forever” by Canadian author Robert Munsch, was translated into many Native languages several years ago and became a symbol of language preservation efforts within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Ahkwesahsne Mohawk Board of Education’s Kanienkeha Specialist Margaret Peters oversaw the book’s translation into Mohawk and it was a hit in Akwesasne. Now, Peters is even more excited that AMBE had produced a new version of the book that includes all new illustrations with a Haudenosaunee theme.

The book tells a heartwarming story about a mother’s love for her son as he grows and grows until the mothers is an elderly lady. It’s a tearjerker no matter how many times a mother reads it.

When the Mohawk version - Tsi Nen:we Enkonnoronhkhwake -was released, it was accompanied by a CD that included the Mohawk narration, as well as a song by Mohawk singer Bear Fox called “The Baby Song.”

Recently, AMBE hired a Seneca artist, Bill Crouse, to draw new pictures for the book. Now, the cover features a First Nations child and all the artwork throughout the book represents the Haudenosaunee people. Rather than a baseball bat featured in the original book, a lacrosse stick is pictured. Plain artwork hanging on the wall of the mom and son’s house is now a painting that shows the Creation Story. There are rattles, moccasins, drums and Kastowas seen throughout the book’s pages as well and as the son and mother age, they maintain the physical features of First Nations people.

Peters said that the images are meant to represent not only the Mohawk people but all Haudenosaunee, as the book has been translated into the Seneca and Cayuga languages as well. The remaining Haudenosaunee nations - the Oneida, Onondaga and Tuscarora - are also in the process of translating the book from English into their own languages.

The new release of the book with its new images will be sold as an entire unit kit which teachers throughout the Haudenosaunee Confederacy can use in their classrooms to teach not only their language, but social studies, math and science as well.

Each kit will include the book with the language of their preference, along with a CD which children and adults can read along with, a DVD if they want to “watch” the book and hear it read page by page, a stack of Haudenosaunee specific flash/activity cards, and a poster that includes Fox’s “Baby Song” in its Mohawk translation. Students will be able to listen to the CD and sing along each time the Baby Song is played and read in the book.

Peters said AMBE has agreed to sell the entire unit kit for just $35, in order to give all teachers and parents access to it as they view it as a priceless tool for encouraging Mohawk fluency as well as reading and learning.

“The networking (between nations) is really important too,” Peters said. “Our language programs need to be working together.”

Peters said she has many contacts from different nations and they’re able to use each other’s resources all in the name of preserving language.

The original book cover

The Mohawk kits are expected to be available this week and sold through AMBE. Anyone interested can email Peters at margaret.peters@ambe.ca or contact the AMBE office at 613-933-0409.