This 7-year-old Yellowknifer just published his first book

On a shelf of the Yellowknife Public Library, there's a book about a young boy who travels from Alaska to Yellowknife. He makes friends, learns about the outdoors, and when his hands are cold, elders give him warm handmade mittens to wear.

It documents the adventures of seven-year-old Sebastian Bernabe, who wrote, illustrated and then published 100 copies of The Alaskan Boy Who Explored Bushkids.

Sebastian and his family have been in Yellowknife now for a few years. He told CBC he was sad when his family initially moved, because he didn't have any friends. His parents enrolled him in Bushkids, an on-the-land learning program that connects Indigenous knowledge with western learning systems.

"After a few hours, I started to be happy because everyone was nice to me," he said.

As for those mittens? An illustration of them graces one page of the book.

"On my second day of Bushkids, my hands were cold because my mittens were not warm enough. So the elders gave me new mittens and then I felt warm again," he said.

Sebastian's mother, Oyuka, said those handmade mittens are among other gifts Sebastian has brought home. One day, he came home from Bushkids with a gift wrapped in paper. When she opened it, there was meat inside.

"I said, 'Oh, what is that?' He said, 'This is bear meat!'" she recalled.

"I never before ate bear meat in my life, and then my first time I eat [it], my son gave me it for a gift ... We are so happy, because he enjoys the program and he learns."

Wendy Lahey, one of the cofounders of Bushkids, said she was struck by how the illustrations in Sebastian's book show his love of the land and animals around Yellowknife — and for his sister, who has joined him in the Bushkids program.

All of those are important aspects of the program, she noted.

"Him and his sister spend a lot of their days together when they're there, and he really takes care of her," Lahey said.

"I think he's really proud that she's there with him now, so seeing him include that relationship in his book is really special."

Her own kids also loved his book, she added.