Additional information
by Courtney Defriend (Author), Courtney Defriend (Illustrator)
In the form of a gentle lyrical poem, Courtney Defriend's debut picture book The Land Remembers follows Tumuxw, Mother Earth, as she comforts her children through the passage of time.
A woman gives birth to five daughters and raises them on an island, teaching them the relationships between animals and plants and people, until they became women and had children of their own, passing down these teachings. When unnamed others came to the island, they brought sorrow, replacing totems with crosses and taking the grandchildren away to schools, separating them from their sacred teachings and connections.
This book is a reminder that near or far, the land is part of who we are. Tumuxw, Mother Earth, will stay the same, strong and unbroken, and no matter how hard others may try to take her children away, she will tend to them again. She will help them remember who they are, despite what the others may have convinced them to be.
Author Biography
Author and illustrator, Ti'yuqtunat (Dr. Courtney Defriend) is a member of the Stz'uminus Nation, with mixed Scottish and Danish ancestry. Courtney is supported by her family, living in the Snuneymuxw territory with her loving partners and their two daughters. As a social scientist with ongoing training in matriarchal systems, she works in health and human services with a foundational lens of child development. Courtney is inspired to apply her relationships and experiences into every aspect of her personal and professional life for the service to the next seven generations. This book was composed to support children in their spirit's inner knowing that we are all connected to the land and each other. She is based in Nanaimo (Snuneymuxw Territory), BC, Canada.
