 There's so many guidelines to follow for selecting Indigenous text. I think, however, one of the most important things is keeping it very authentic, so thinking about your authors as being Indigenous or the illustrators as being Indigenous and ensuring that the book is written with Indigenous people and not about Indigenous people. The other thing you want to make sure about is appropriating, right? How is it showing Indigenous people? Is it through a historic lens or a contemporary? So always making sure that the pictures are right for the content. Yeah, you want to make sure that it's not perpetuating stereotypes. So one is to look at the characters, what they're wearing. You want to think about dates, when was it written. You want to make sure that it's authentic, that it was written with an Indigenous person not about Indigenous people. I think teachers really need to consider their text that they're using in their classroom, looking at authorship, looking at who's writing the text, especially when you're looking at First Nations' Métis Inuit literature, trying to really make purposeful choices around authenticity. So if people are in doubt, maybe opening the jacket flaps, when an author identifies his or her home territory, settlement, Métis settlement, are they from the North? Are they from a First Nation? Are they from a Métis settlement or community across Canada? Really, most Indigenous peoples will always identify themselves and the land that they're from, where they hail from. And so that's an inherent way with one another, how we identify one another. So when we do introductions, we always say who we are, where we come from. And usually when we say where we come from, it tells us who our parents are and tells us who our grandparents are. So it's a great way to kind of research, just simply by opening up the flap of a book and checking to see that relationship. Another way of course is to check your illustrator. And of course we know that with Indigenous literature in Canada and the U.S. or Turtle Island, as we call it, we see a lot of relationship taking place between non-Indigenous authors or non-Indigenous illustrators and Indigenous authors. And that's beautiful, that's part of reconciliation. But ensuring that there's a mutually respectful relationship and that author or illustrator has those permissions to kind of navigate certain stories, so really following protocol, making sure that protocol is honoured. Other pieces that they might consider when they're selecting Indigenous texts are how old are the texts? Have they been in the library for 50 years? When were they published? Are they 20 years or older? Considering do they portray assumptions, stereotypes, bias, myth? Is it the old Hollywood kind of Cowboys and Indians theme? Do you see children in stereotypical garments and loincloths and one feather kind of like the Disney misrepresentation? So really considering are they telling the everyday story? Are they telling the everyday lived reality of going to the grocery store or riding in your minivan or making your way to hockey? So there's a time and a place for creation stories, myths, legends, absolutely when the snow falls and when certain people are gifted to share those stories. But when we're picking Indigenous literature for our classrooms as educators, as teacher practitioners, really trying to represent our children in diverse ways. Just as we see multicultural children presented in respectful ways in the classroom, we're trying to ensure that Indigenous youth have those same opportunities and with that lens all children will be able to see Indigenous children living in a positive good way. I think it's important to pick text from all around Turtle Mountain and really telling Indigenous stories, parallel Indigenous stories, universal Indigenous stories, common themes because really they have such a thread weaving through all of the stories and when children can kind of draw out those commonalities and see those parallels it's telling a very similar story throughout Turtle Island. I think if you're a teacher and you want to bring Indigenous literature into your classroom, first of all I say a huge must-see show. Here's the great news about 2017. It is now physically impossible to read everything that's ever been published in the realm of Indigenous literature. So here's where I come in. I want everybody to write to me at vancamprichard at gmail.com. Write to me if you have let's say a reluctant reader who's Cree or you have somebody who's a jibway or you have somebody who's Creecho Denne who loves graphic novels or first readers or one-page novels. Get in touch with me. I will put out my feelers because I read Indigenous literature all the time. I will help you find the Indigenous writer for you and your students and your classrooms. Never be afraid to actually just reach out. Every author's dream is to know that their work is being taught in classrooms. Get in touch with them. Or get in touch with me. I'll put you in touch with them. Pull me to work. You have me for life.