When I called on Spadina Library in 2011 with my camera, it was fortunate that the branch was uncrowded, for I was able to gaze at dream catchers, artwork, and the extensive Native Peoples Collection without annoying patrons who might have needed to navigate around me.
As a viewer taking her time to look around carefully, I appreciated the diversity of the First Nations, Inuit and nature-themed objects that rested on shelves and hung suspended in the air.
For example, two hand puppets with fur-lined parkas stood a shelf away from a miniature canoe woven from plant fibres. A flamingo marionette hung next to a striking assortment of dream catchers that kept aerial company with a flying wooden duck.
Closer to the ground, librarians had created a path to the Children’s Collection by laying down animal tracks on circles of blue, green, and yellow paper. The book-loving animals that had imprinted their paws and hooves on the carpet included bears, raccoons, and deer.
Animal themes also animated the collection of Eleanor Kanasawe’s artwork on the walls. Placed overhead at well-spaced intervals were striking portraits of owls, spirit fish, turtles, baby robins, a bear reaching for a bee hive, a frog catching flies, a red-winged blackbird, a squirrel, a cricket, a raccoon, and a porcupine. I loved the way each piece embodied stand-alone integrity while simultaneously remaining part of an integrated whole.
Moving down the walls from art to books, the Native People’s Collection included novels and non-fiction material about culture, art, religion, history, and languages (plus DVD’s and videos on these subjects). The reference shelves displayed dictionaries in Cree, Micmac, Mohawk, Anishinaabe, Métis Cree, and Chippewa.
Although Spadina Library’s multilingual collection was small, it did contain language kits for most of the languages listed above, as well as Tlingit, Cherokee, Persian, French, Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali, and Hungarian. Crouching on the floor to study the kits, the plastic boxes seemed hopeful, holding the promise of travel and communicative adventure.
Inspired by the possibilities of new words and new perspectives, I closed my notebook and made tracks to Spadina subway station.
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