Mi'kmaw author's first book showcases traditional practice of sweetgrass picking — through her cat

Emily Johnson works full-time with her dad's construction business, she's an artist who specializes in beading, and on the side, she's a doula for expectant parents at Sitansisk, also known as St. Mary's First Nation.

Now, the 24-year-old has added another title to her list — published children's book author and illustrator.

Johnson, originally from Listuguj but who grew up in Fredericton, wrote and illustrated a book in a class for the two-year Wabanaki visual arts program at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and now that book is in stores across the country.

"When I finally got the book in my hand, I was like, 'holy, I'm publishing a book,'" she said.

The book, Mitzy's First Time Picking Sweetgrass, shows Johnson's cat Mitzy doing the traditional Wabanaki practice of picking sweetgrass for the first time at New River Beach.

Pages of watercolour paintings show the grey and white cat adventuring outside with her mom, Johnson, rolling in the vanilla- and chestnut-scented grass, and learning how to pick it properly to leave behind the plant's roots for regrowth.

"It was just three weeks of painting, drawing, hairdryer up to the paper for like all night," she said.

Johnson tries to go sweetgrass picking every year, and she also takes her cat on outdoor adventures frequently, so the pairing of the two made sense. 

Sweetgrass, said Johnson, is used for a variety of purposes, including art, healing and smudging. 

Johnson said that during the class where students were tasked with creating a book, her studio co-ordinator Judy Acquin brought in the publisher for Fredericton-based Monster House Publishing to explain the publishing process.

The program recently formed a partnership with the publisher to bring more Indigenous stories to light — and Johnson was the first to have her book published through this partnership.

Acquin said the oral tradition course is about storytelling and gathering information from community members.

But Acquin said it was important to allow students to have the opportunity to release culturally relevant material to Indigenous communities and kids, as well as non-Indigenous readers "as a way of learning and understanding."

Acquin said a few years ago, a student in the class went to Monster House with the book she wrote to see about getting it published — and it was. But the partnership will make it easier to release books from the course every two years.