SURVIVING THE CITY

A debut YA graphic novel finds a
teenager emotionally and then physically adrift as her home life worsens.

Miikwan and Dez are Indigenous
Canadian teens. Miikwan, who is Anishinaabe, has lost her mother. Dez, who is
Inninew, lives with her grandmother (or kokum). The girls are best friends—like
sisters—who completed their yearlong Berry Fast together (which teaches girls
entering womanhood patience). One day, Dez learns that her diabetic kokum might
need to have her foot removed. Further, Dez would have to live in a group home.
In school, the girls choose to present their Berry Fast for a class Heritage
Project. Before starting work on the project, they visit the city mall, where
Miikwan’s mom “always used to tell me to be careful.” When the girls notice the
predatory stares of older men, they leave and visit the Forks historical area.
The last time they were there, they attended a rally for No More Stolen Sisters.
A memorial sculpture dedicated to missing women reminds Miikwan of her own beautiful
mother, whose spirit still guides her. Later, Dez returns home only to see
through the window that a social worker speaks with her kokum. Devastated, she
wanders into a park. Her cellphone dies, and she curls up on a bench as night
falls. In this harrowing but hopeful tale, illustrator Donovan (The Sockeye
Mother, 2017) and author Spillett spotlight the problem of “Murdered and
Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People.” While this is a global
issue, the graphic novel focuses on the Winnipeg area and highlights for its
target audience situations that may pose risk. While Miikwan travels alone on a
bus or in the city, readers see both benign and ghoulish spirits present.
Spillett knows when to hold dialogue back and allow Donovan’s superb facial
expressions to carry the moment, as when Dez spots the social worker in her
home. Radiant colors and texting between characters should draw teens into the
story, which simply and effectively showcases the need for community solutions
to society’s worst ills.

This engrossing Indigenous tale remains
a tribute to the missing and murdered and a clarion call to everyone else.