Right now, I am currently going through what I call my “Indigenous Joy” era. 

As a child growing up on the Misipawistik Cree Nation, I noticed very early that whenever my home community was mentioned on the news, it was often for a bad reason. I hated that whenever I would see an Indigenous woman mentioned on the news, it was because she had committed a crime or was the victim of one.  

When I grew up, nothing really changed. I saw a void when I was a kid that wasn’t filled when I became an adult so I thought I should do something about it. The majority of my artistic work has focused on showing positive representations of Indigenous people. 

I knew Michael Champagne from around the community. Winnipeg is small, especially its Indigenous community, so you’re bound to run into folks often. I knew him back when my writing career was something I did when I was goofing off at my day job between tasks. I was pitched by my publishing company to write a story about an Indigenous figure of note. I made a few lists but on all those lists, there was always Michael’s name. 

I knew I made the right decision when I interviewed him for the first time to talk about his life and found out he was a huge fan of the book series Animorphs, by K. A. Applegate. I was a huge fan and told him about my ex-university roommate who had the entire series including the weird one-shot books. 

I also knew that Michael and I shared a common bond regarding representation of our communities. He and I were both aware of the realities of what impacted our communities but it was the struggles that made all the joy in the face of it stand out to us. Hope is easy when you are given everything. Hope is a lot harder when the world is trying to convince you it’s a bad idea. 

It was also nice to connect with another like minded Neechi (slang Cree for “Friend”, used to refer to other Indigenous people) who saw the world as changeable. 

I spent my teen years becoming enamored by the idea of punk and what it represented. My activism began with my obsession with the band U2. I would write letters to politicians about issues in the developing world that were common in my own community like access to water and health care. It was because of my obsession with U2 that I began looking at my own community and began developing ways I could bring about change specifically through art. 

I believe you can’t be what you don’t see so of course art presenting Indigenous folks in a positive manner is important. Essential even. During our talks for the book creation, Michael and I often agreed how hard it was to find Indigenous people being presented in a positive way. In the telling of his story, we knew we wanted to be honest but also color it with the Studio Ghibli tint that helped us survive our hardships in the first place.  

Joy in the face of hardship is also very punk rock. 

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Learn more about Little By Little: 

Michael might be young, but he’s got a big heart and a strong sense of right and wrong. He knows it’s right to help people when they need it—but what can he do when so many people need help? 

When Michael finds out about an upcoming youth conference, he sees his chance to learn more about helping others. But when he gets to the conference, he’s the youngest person there! And the speaker on stage is saying things about his community that aren’t true. Will Michael be brave enough to use his voice to stand up for what he knows is right? 

Little by Little is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel about how one Indigenous child sparked change and inspired others.