In I Will See You Again the narrator learns of the death of her brother overseas and embarks on a journey to bring him home. Through memories and dreams of all they shared together and through her Dene traditions, she finds comfort and strength. Lisa Boivin’s story touches on universal themes and experiences related to death, grief, family, and healing from loss.

The I Will See You Again Reader’s Guide provides support to parents, educators, and communities for sharing and discussing these ideas. Written to support discussions about Dene culture as explored through the author’s art, the guide also introduces a practice that can bring rest and healing: telling and sharing difficult experiences through art.

The guide includes the following topics:

• introduction to the story
• Dene culture and knowledge
• death
• loss and grief
• image-based storytelling
• art-making as healing and as ceremony

These subjects are meant to spark reflection and conversations among readers.

Allison Crawford is an Associate professor at the University of Toronto, and a psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. She also has a PhD in English literature. Allison was born in Toronto, Canada, and has Scottish and Irish ancestry. She has worked for many years in Nunavut and across the circumpolar north. She is interested in the use of the arts as a means of creating community and providing healing and wellness.

Allison Crawford's profile page

Lisa Boivin is a member of the Deninu Kue First Nation and the author/artist of two illustrated books, We Dream Medicine Dreams (shortlisted for the 2022 Rocky Mountain Book Award) and I Will See You Again (AICL's Best Books of 2020, nominated for First Nation Communities READ Award). She is an interdisciplinary artist and a PhD candidate at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Lisa uses images as a pedagogical tool to bridge gaps between medical ethics and aspects of Indigenous cultures and worldviews. She is writing and collaging an arts-based thesis that addresses the colonial barriers that Indigenous patients navigate in the current healthcare system. Lisa strives to humanize clinical medicine as she situates her art in the Indigenous continuum of passing knowledge through images. @redbioethics

Lisa Boivin's profile page