La conteuse Nicola I. Campbell donne un sens aux mots « se tenir debout comme un grand cèdre » dans une touchante exploration au sein de la nature sauvage. On y apprend le nom des animaux en langues nłeɁkepmxcín et halq’emeylem ainsi que les enseignements qu’ils ont à nous offrir.

In just four days young Shi-shi-etko will have to leave her family and all that she knows to attend residential school. She spends her last days at home treasuring the beauty of her world -- the dancing sunlight, the tall grass, each shiny rock, the tadpoles in the creek, her grandfather's paddle song. Her mother, father and grandmother, each in turn, share valuable teachings that they want her to remember. And so Shi-shi-etko carefully gathers her memories for safekeeping.

Shi-shi-etko is about to return for her second year at residential school, but this time her six-year-old brother, Shin-chi, is going, too. The children's time is filled with going to mass, school for half the day, and work the other half. The girls cook, clean and sew, while the boys work in the fields, in the woodshop and at the forge. Shin-chi is forever hungry and lonely, but, finally, the salmon swim up the river and the children return home for a joyful family reunion.

In this extraordinary memoir, best-selling author Nicola I. Campbell deftly weaves rich poetry and vivid prose into a story basket of memories orating what it means to be an intergenerational survivor of Indian Residential Schools. If the hurt and grief we carry is a woven blanket, it is time to weave ourselves anew. We can't quit. Instead, we must untangle ourselves from the negative forces that have impacted our existence as Indigenous people. Similar to the "moccasin telegraph," Spíləxm are the remembered stories, also "events or news" in the Nłeʔkepmx language. These stories were often shared over tea, in the quiet hours between Elders. Rooted within the British Columbia landscape, and with an almost tactile representation of being on the land and water, Spíləxm explores resilience, reconnection, and narrative memory through stories. Captivating and deeply moving, this exceptional memoir tells of one Indigenous woman's journey of overcoming adversity and colonial trauma to find strength and resilience through creative works and traditional perspectives of healing, transformation, and resurgence.

When you go for a walk in nature, who do you see? What can we learn from the animals around us? Follow along as we go on a journey through the wilderness to discover the animals of British Columbia, their names in the Nle7kepmxcín or Halq'emeylem languages, and the teachings they have for us.