How Wolverine created the world: new children’s book tells Innu creation story 

Annie Picard remembers being six years old, sitting on spruce boughs in a traditional Innu tent. She listened to the fire crackling and watching a single candle burn. It was there that her grandmother, Annie Michel, told her where Innu came from. 

Now, Picard is sharing her grandmother’s stories with others, continuing the Innu storytelling tradition. The Sheshatshiu resident has just released her first children’s book, Kuekuatsheu Creates the World.

“I was so privileged to be able to hear these stories from her,” Picard said, speaking of her grandmother. “I thought it would be nice if we could capture the stories and be able to share them to the Innu children in our communities, even like non-Innu [children] outside of our communities.”

From when she was growing up and spending time in the country, to the technology-filled world today,  Picard said there’s been a lot of rapid change in the world so it’s important to share the old stories with others, and to remember them.

Kuekuatsheu Creates the World begins with a great flood; all the animals travelling together in a canoe. One-by-one, they try to reach the Earth to create a new land, until the most humble animal gives his life. To honour the sacrifice, wolverine—Kuekuatsheu—creates the world. 

The book was funded by Mamu Tshishkutamashutau Innu Education and Running the Goat Publishing. 

“It’s important that we share those stories and we don’t lose it,” said Kanani Davis, with Mamu Tshishkutamashutau Innu Education. 

There are two different hard copies: one in the Mushuau Innu dialect and one in the Sheshatshiu dialect. Davis said this is the first Innu book to be printed in both dialects. 

Picard tells the story each time she presents a timeline of Innu history to conferences. It was there that author Camille Fouillard heard it for the first time and encouraged Picard to turn it into a children’s book. 

Picard said the illustrator, Elizabeth Jancewicz, was chosen because of her years living with Innu in northern Quebec. 

She says this may be just the beginning of her work as a children’s author, as her grandmother shared many stories with her, including one about a lazy moose. Picard dreams of Innu children hearing it in schools and one day sharing it with their own children. 

“My hope is that this will help them to see how beautiful our own culture is, how extraordinary our stories are, and that they have something that they can be proud of and be able to say, ‘This is who we are, this is what we’ve always been,’” she said. 

“It’s something that’s so old, it’s beautiful.”

Kuekuatsheu Creates the World is available for purchase on the publisher’s website and in local bookstores.