This causes the story to wash over the reader like a flowing brook, with long, fluid currents that periodically tumble over smooth stones. We are still here!” (Lindstrom, 2020), which are set inside a circle of indigenous people drumming. 3) are interspersed with a repeating staccato refrain of “We stand. Water is sacred, she said” (Lindstrom, 2020, p. It nourished us inside our mother’s body.
In these eight words, author Carole Lindstrom, tribally enrolled with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, firmly establishes her tale as one of ancient wisdom – as Nokomis is the archetypal grandmother in Ojibwe folk stories (“Nokomis,” 2021). We are Water Protectors opens with “Water is the first medicine, Nokomis told me” (Lindstrom, 2020, p. Throughout the story, and especially at the end, the images work with the text in a way that is larger than either component part – the force and simplicity of the text combining with the grandeur of the images to create something that feels simultaneously timely and timeless, a tale that is both ancient and relevant to us all right now. As the story builds to its end, the intricate and allegorical illustrations give way to reality in a two-page spread showing modern-day Standing Rock protestors, arrayed in all colors and styles of dress, holding protest signs as they fight against the dreaded great black snake – the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Similarly, the bravery of the Water Protectors is conveyed through images – their straight backs, clasped hands, and stoic gazes showing that they are determined and unafraid, ready to battle the black snake together. Because of the paucity of the prose, the illustrations provide the bulk of the characterization present in the story – the great black snake towers over the tiny narrator, his evil clearly expressed in every line and point of his sharp fangs, the blood red of his eyes, and the tense coil of his tongue. Each picture is intricate and strong, and done in watercolor, as there could be no other medium for a story like We are Water Protectors. Water is everywhere in this book – it flows from page to page, it nourishes a baby inside its mother’s womb, and it dances in the flowing curls of the narrator as she tells us that the rhythm of the water is in her veins. When a book wins the Caldecott Medal, the first element to discuss must be the illustrations, and my notes for this work include every possible synonym for the word breathtaking.
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