Rabbit Chase

(Paperback)

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Description

Anishinaabe culture and storytelling meet Alice in Wonderland in this coming-of-age graphic novel that explores Indigenous and gender issues through a fresh yet familiar looking glass.

Aime, a non-binary Anishinaabe middle-schooler, is on a class trip to offer gifts toPaayehnsag, the water spirits known to protect the land. While stories are told about the water spirits and the threat of the land being taken over for development, Aime zones out, distracting themselves from the bullying and isolation theyve experienced since expressing their non-binary identity. When Aime accidentally wanders off, they are transported to an alternate dimension populated by traditional Anishinaabe figures in a story inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

To gain the way back home, Aime is called on to help Trickster by hunting down dark water spirits with guidance fromPaayehnsag. On their journey, Aime faces off with the land-grabbing Queen and her robotic guards and fights the dark water spirits against increasingly stacked odds. Illustrated by KC Oster with a modern take on their own Ojibwe style and culturalrepresentation,Rabbit Chaseis a story of self-discovery, community, and finding ones place in the world.

Author Bio

ELIZABETH LaPENSE(she/they) is an award-winning Anishinaabe, Mtis, and Irish writer and illustrator whose work appears inMoonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collectionseries,Deer Woman: An Anthology, and more.

KC OSTER (he/she/they) is an Ojibwe-Anishinaabe comic artist and illustrator. They live in the Rainy River District of Northwestern Ontario.

Aarin Migiziins (Little Eagle) Dokumndizhinikaas, Wiikwemkoosing, Wiikwemkoong ndo njibaa. (My name is Aarin Dokum and my Nishinaabe noozwin/Anishinaabe name is Migiziins. I am from Wikwemkoosing, Wikwemikong Ontario, Canada.)

Aarin was raised by his fluent Nishinaabemwin speaking family and community. He left home at an early age to live in Moosonee, Ontario, Canada and spent three years as a restaurant cook in an isolated Cree community. After a short return home to Wikwemikong, he moved to Lansing, Michigan where he has been living ever since. He shares Anishinaabemwin as a language consultant through Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center. He is grateful for fluent elders and active givers of what he considers the most important part of any culturelanguage.