A Prince Albert woman is set to release her newly co-authored children’s book, Anahareo Saves the Beaver.
Carol Crowe has been working on this idea to share her Aunties story.
“My auntie Anahareo Gertrude Bernard was a conservationist really ahead of her time as a Mohawk/Algonquin woman,” said Crowe. “She was really concerned about the whole trapping industry and was concerned about the trapping that was happening and the way it was happening. She saw a lot of beaver pups abandoned, and she went on to stop the inhumane trapping in Canada because she wanted to make sure the younger population wasn’t just left to suffer and become extinct if we weren’t careful.”
Anahareo’s advocacy for the beaver stopped the inhumane trapping of the beaver during peak trapping time in history.
“For an Indigenous woman to step up and speak up about that at that time was very difficult,” explained Crowe.
The book is illustrated, interactive, and beautifully shows, in a kind and thoughtful way, how the beavers struggled during the early trapping days when they faced inhuman trapping.
“It is all illustrated, and Carla Joseph is an amazing Metis artist who did all of the illustrations, and what I love about it is that she had all of the animals smiling,” said Crowe.
The book is co-authored with a couple authors from Riding Mountain National Park, Anne Nesbitt and George Hartlen.
The funds raised from the book will go to the environmental programs at Riding Mountain National Park.
There will be a launch event this July, and that is to be announced. The event will have a puppet show, book signings, and readings from the book in Waskesui.
The book will be available for purchase at Waskesui in mid-July, from Friends of the Park.