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Peace Dancer
The children of the Tsimshian village of Kitkatla love to play at being hunters, eager for their turn to join the grown-ups. But when they capture and mistreat a crow, the Chief of the Heavens, angered at their disrespect, brings down a powerful storm.
The rain floods the Earth and villagers have no choice but to abandon their homes and flee to their canoes. As the seas rise, the villagers tie themselves to the top of Anchor Mountain, where they pray for days on end and promise to teach their children to value all life. The storm stops and the waters recede. From that point on, the villagers appoint a chief to perform the Peace Dance at every potlatch and, with it, pass on the story of the flood and the importance of respect.
With eighteen new illustrations from Roy Henry Vickers and exceptional narrative, Peace Dancer will delight readers of all ages and add to the collection of global flood stories.
The rain floods the Earth and villagers have no choice but to abandon their homes and flee to their canoes. As the seas rise, the villagers tie themselves to the top of Anchor Mountain, where they pray for days on end and promise to teach their children to value all life. The storm stops and the waters recede. From that point on, the villagers appoint a chief to perform the Peace Dance at every potlatch and, with it, pass on the story of the flood and the importance of respect.
With eighteen new illustrations from Roy Henry Vickers and exceptional narrative, Peace Dancer will delight readers of all ages and add to the collection of global flood stories.
40 pages, Hardcover
Published May 28, 2016
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 24, 2018
This is an Indigenous story of the great flood and its meaning to the Tsimshian people of British Columbia. Its part of the Northwest Coast Legends by authors Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. The art is crisp and colourful and the story itself has a great message about respect for all living things. There are some end notes that add to the reader's understanding too.
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June 13, 2021At the risk of sounding overly flippant, I feel like many cultures and religions have some version of the basic rule of living: don’t be a dick. Maybe it’s couched as the Golden Rule, or it’s a more expansive description of being respectful, but ultimately it boils down to don’t be a dick. In this story, kids are being jerks — they trap and restrain a crow. This prompts a massive flood that endangers all living creatures. But after experiencing the fear of divine retribution, the people are all like, “we need to do a better job at teaching our kids to be respectful,” and they create a dance ceremony as a reminder.
Beneath the trappings of the flood, the fear, the birds, and the Chief of the Heavens, is the clear lesson: don’t be a dick. Some people can absorb that lesson by simply being told “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Other people can be taught through practice and repeated examples to be respectful and caring of the world and beings around them. Still others can hear the story and dance the dance and be generally good folks. But some people seem to need the flood and the near-death experience, or the fear of an almighty presence.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever fully understand why people can’t just try to be nicer to each other, but as long as there are people, we will probably need stories like this.
Beneath the trappings of the flood, the fear, the birds, and the Chief of the Heavens, is the clear lesson: don’t be a dick. Some people can absorb that lesson by simply being told “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Other people can be taught through practice and repeated examples to be respectful and caring of the world and beings around them. Still others can hear the story and dance the dance and be generally good folks. But some people seem to need the flood and the near-death experience, or the fear of an almighty presence.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever fully understand why people can’t just try to be nicer to each other, but as long as there are people, we will probably need stories like this.
February 1, 2017
Text-to-Teach
This book would be great to teach about diversity and cultures. For an activity, the students would make their own traps. Another activity would be to have parents, or even grandparents, from different cultures come in and teach the students dances from their cultures. Another activity could be where students' parents join them for lunch and bring traditional dishes from their culture.
The author of this book actually became the Peace Dancer for his head chief of the House of Walkus. The illustrations in this book are very tribal and some have very dramatic colorings.
This book would be great to teach about diversity and cultures. For an activity, the students would make their own traps. Another activity would be to have parents, or even grandparents, from different cultures come in and teach the students dances from their cultures. Another activity could be where students' parents join them for lunch and bring traditional dishes from their culture.
The author of this book actually became the Peace Dancer for his head chief of the House of Walkus. The illustrations in this book are very tribal and some have very dramatic colorings.
January 31, 2022
I have visited Roy Henry Vicker's Gallery in Tofino several times and have greatly admired his paintings, prints and sculptures. When searching my local library for books focussed on 'peace,' I was delighted to find this one. It did not disappoint. The artwork is beautiful. The simple story has much to say on many levels. I now plan to purchase my own copy of this delightful book to share with my grandchildren. I know that it will lead to many important conversations.
February 1, 2019
Our library may have some really weird books in its collection, but it apparently has some great examples of local cultural literature, too.
Peace Dancer is a flood story. One day, when the adults are out hunting, the children get into mischief by trapping a crow. After they mistreat it by pulling out its feathers (preventing it from flying), the Chief of the Heavens causes it to rain and rain and rain, flooding the earth. The villagers get into their canoes and anchor themselves to a mountain to wait out the storm. While they're there, one of the elders has a vision and realizes that they must teach their children love and respect.
But that's not the end of the story. The Chief of the Heavens sees that all the birds are having a tough time, unable to land anywhere because of the waters. Their feathers are falling into the ocean. The Chief of the Heavens figures that it isn't fair for the animals to suffer because of a stupid thing the humans did (I love that part!) so he stops the rains.
Afterward, the villagers decide they need a special ceremony to remind them of the need for love and respect. So they appoint a Peace Dancer, and part of this person's job is to shake out eagle down as a reminder of the birds' feathers falling on the floodwaters.
I really enjoyed the story. The pictures, though... Not so much. I have a couple of family members who are really interested in Northwest Coast indigenous art, so I've been exposed to quite a bit of it in my life. The artwork in this book looks a little too modern, and some illustrations almost look like they were slapped together in MS Paint. The flat colours and simple lines didn't really impress me. There were a few illustrations I did sort of like (such as the full-page spread showing all the birds in the sky after the floodwaters had receded), but most of them left me cold. Perhaps if the drawings had been done by hand rather than with a computer, I would've liked them more.
But I would still recommend this book for the story alone. It's a great example of indigenous culture and adds another interesting story to the collection of global flood myths.
Quotable moment:
Peace Dancer is a flood story. One day, when the adults are out hunting, the children get into mischief by trapping a crow. After they mistreat it by pulling out its feathers (preventing it from flying), the Chief of the Heavens causes it to rain and rain and rain, flooding the earth. The villagers get into their canoes and anchor themselves to a mountain to wait out the storm. While they're there, one of the elders has a vision and realizes that they must teach their children love and respect.
But that's not the end of the story. The Chief of the Heavens sees that all the birds are having a tough time, unable to land anywhere because of the waters. Their feathers are falling into the ocean. The Chief of the Heavens figures that it isn't fair for the animals to suffer because of a stupid thing the humans did (I love that part!) so he stops the rains.
Afterward, the villagers decide they need a special ceremony to remind them of the need for love and respect. So they appoint a Peace Dancer, and part of this person's job is to shake out eagle down as a reminder of the birds' feathers falling on the floodwaters.
I really enjoyed the story. The pictures, though... Not so much. I have a couple of family members who are really interested in Northwest Coast indigenous art, so I've been exposed to quite a bit of it in my life. The artwork in this book looks a little too modern, and some illustrations almost look like they were slapped together in MS Paint. The flat colours and simple lines didn't really impress me. There were a few illustrations I did sort of like (such as the full-page spread showing all the birds in the sky after the floodwaters had receded), but most of them left me cold. Perhaps if the drawings had been done by hand rather than with a computer, I would've liked them more.
But I would still recommend this book for the story alone. It's a great example of indigenous culture and adds another interesting story to the collection of global flood myths.
Quotable moment:
The canoes were thrown this way and that in the stormy seas. The waters were rising swiftly, but the canoes made it to the tall mountain not far from Kitkatla.
March 11, 2017
Many different cultures have stories of a great flood that once covered the land. This one comes from the Kitkatla village of the Tsimshian nation. I agree completely that, "the lessons taught may be more important now than they were thousands of years ago." It's a powerful reminder of our intimate relationship to the natural world, whether or not we are aware of it.
Vickers glorious illustrations with layered supernatural figures provide extra depths of meaning and reveal to us a connection with a different reality.
Vickers glorious illustrations with layered supernatural figures provide extra depths of meaning and reveal to us a connection with a different reality.
September 29, 2023
The art in this retelling of a flood tale from the Tsimshian village of Kitkatla is incredible. I love hearing the different flood stories that are present in different cultures. Now if we can just stop Dewey classifying the Christian ones under "religion" and the Indigenous ones under "mythology", that would be great,
January 1, 2018
the kids enjoyed this story - a flood myth
August 29, 2018
Very beautiful illustrations!
July 4, 2021
I appreciate these collaborations between Roy Henry Vickers and Robert ‘Lucky” Budd. Each book contains a simple yet oft overlooked lesson along with beautiful paintings.
September 12, 2022
Beautiful images. Absolutely breathtaking. I read it a few times on my own after having read it to my son just to enjoy the illustrations again.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews