Encounter

A powerful imagining by two Native creators of the first encounter between a European explorer and a Native North American that celebrates our ability to acknowledge difference and find common ground.

Meet Fisher. His ancestors have paddled these waters for generations.

Meet Sailor. He has come from far away, to explore lands beyond his own shores.

What will happen when they meet each another?

Based on the real journal kept by French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1534, ENCOUNTER imagines a first meeting between a French sailor and a Stadaconan fisher. As they navigate their differences with curiosity and openness, the wise animals around them note their similarities, illuminating common ground.

This extraordinary vision by Brittany Luby, Professor of Indigenous History, is paired with art by Michaela Goade, winner of 2018 American Indian Youth Literature Best Picture Book Award. ENCOUNTER is a luminous telling from two Indigenous creators that invites readers to reckon with an uncomfortable past, and to welcome, together, a future that is yet unchartered.