From brain injury to boreal children’s books and album

A Yellowknife woman has successfully raised the funds she needs to complete the publication of a children’s book and album.

Miranda Currie suffered a brain injury in 2011 after a series of falls, including an accident while kite-skiing on Great Slave Lake without a helmet.

Her recovery partly involved escaping into a world of children’s music and literature.

“I found the things I reverted to were kids’ songs,” she told Cabin Radio. “I found them really comforting. I just started thinking about kids’ music and wrote kids’ books at that time, too. A lot of songs came out at that time that were a bit more kid-focused.”

Those songs are now being collected into Currie’s first children’s album, to be mixed by Canadian sound engineer Howard Bilerman (who recorded Arcade Fire’s debut album, Funeral) after the two met at the Banff Centre two months ago.

Currie raised more than $9,000 online to hire Bilerman and simultaneously complete the publishing of her fifth children’s book, Fishing with Ehtsee.

“I couldn’t really walk or talk for a few years. I was in bed a lot, thinking,” said Currie.

“My mom is Cree and I thought a lot about Indigenous issues and what’s the best way I can use my skill and my talents to be able to forward those issues?

“As a teacher, as an educator and creative mind, I believe if we can influence the younger generation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids to be proud of Indigenous culture, that’s a way I can make a difference.”

Ehtsee is the Wiilideh Tłı̨chǫ word for grandpa, said Currie, whose book will feature 12 Tłı̨chǫ words “to help people learn Tłı̨chǫ words here in Yellowknife and hopefully across the country.”

The album will be mixed in Montreal over the May long weekend, with the finished album and book to follow.