Little Badger and the Fire Spirit
a standalone illustrated storybook by Maria Campbell
AN AUTHENTIC CREE TALE OF COURAGE FROM AN AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
From award-winning writer and elder Maria Campbell comes a new series of spoken stories from the Cree oral tradition, which she has compiled and translated herself. She has been careful to preserve the lessons, language, humour, gentleness and simplicity of the spoken Cree originals that were told outdoors at night around the campfire out on the land, or in the winter around the kitchen table after dinner. These stories are suitable for an audience of both adults and children, and would make for valuable course adoptions in university faculties of Law, English, and Indigenous Studies in addition to the general reader.
In Little Badger and the Fire Spirit, young Ahsinee asks her grandparents for a story as a birthday gift. Mooshoom and Kookoom recount the heroic tale of Little Badger, who is born blind but finds himself undertaking a dangerous journey up the mountain in order to ask the Fire Spirit to borrow flame to heal the land from a cold spell. It is a journey of courage, humility, and friendship, replete with rich illustrations by Kate Boyer.
Kokum Rap
Featuring Maria Campbell, Rita Bouvier, Maxine Roy, and Louise Halfe—make some noise!
PRAISE FOR HALFBREED BY MARIA CAMPBELL
“The daring account of a strong-willed woman who defeated poverty, racism, alcohol and drug addiction by the age of thirty-three.”— SATURDAY NIGHT
“Here speaks a voice never heard before with such direct frankness, such humour: the voice of the true Canadian woman.”— RUDY WIEBE, author of The Temptations of Big Bear
“You can almost feel this book vibrating in your hands, it is so compelling. You read it with a kind of agonized heart-in-the-mouth sensation, halfway between laughter and tears…. Truth is stronger than fiction.”— VICTORIA TIMES-COLONIST
“Sometimes a book tells us what we have always known but in a way that makes it seem as if we have not heard it before.”— THE TORONTO STAR
“Powerful, simple, direct, and passionate without being bitter.”— CBC RADIO VANCOUVER
Read an overview of Halfbreed and the Kanata Classics series in the National Post
Maria Campbell granted the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence
The Walrus celebrates 50 years of Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed
CBC The Next Chapter: What reading and storytelling means to Maria Campbell
Maria Campbell talks to CBC Radio about the heavily redacted portions of her 1973 memoir
Read an excerpt
See all author’s titles
89 pages
Final proofs now available
RIGHTS SOLD
North American English: McClelland & Stewart (August 2026)
Photo: Ted Whitecalf
ABOUT MARIA CAMPBELL
Maria Campbell is a Métis writer, playwright, filmmaker, scholar, teacher, community organizer, activist, and elder (born 26 April 1939 in Park Valley, SK). Campbell's memoir Halfbreed (1973) is regarded as a foundational work of Indigenous literature in Canada. She has authored several other books and plays, and has directed and written scripts for a number of films. She has also worked with Indigenous youth in community theatre and advocated for the hiring and recognition of Indigenous people in the arts. She has mentored many Indigenous artists during her career, co-established shelters for Indigenous women and children, and run a cultural centre at Gabriel’s Crossing.
Campbell is the winner of the 2023 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence, was named a fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in 2012, was appointed for Stanley Knowles Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Brandon University, and has served as Cultural Advisor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law and Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching since 2017. She is an officer of the Order of Canada and holds eight honorary doctorates.