Long Powwow Nights

I received a nice surprise today, a copy of 'Long Powwow Nights' by David Bouchard and Pam Aleekuk, with paintings by Leonard Paul and music by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Buffy's contribution is the marvellous 'Darling Don't Cry' (written with Edmund Bull), her song about the pow wow trail criss-crossing the Canadian and USA border, a song I heard her sing live just last week.

The book is a slim volume, a poem about the pow wow keeping traditions alive written from the perspective of a boy talking about his mother, a pow wow dancer who inspires him to be proud of his heritage and the dance. She danced her magic in the pow wow, in feathers and beads, and now so does he, years after she died. With two verses per page in English and in Mi'kmaq with lovely paintings of pow wow dancers on each facing page, it's a well produced book. Inside the front cover is a CD with the poem read in English by David Bouchard and in Mi'kmaq by Patsy Paul-Martin, both readings ending with Buffy singing 'Darling Don't Cry', the perfect ending.

It's a lovely little book.