Photo: Children’s book and writer Wilfred Burton
By Shari Narine
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
An incident that happened approximately 25 years ago is the focus of Michif writer Wilfred Burton’s latest children’s book The Best Gift Ever.
At the time a teacher for the Métis-specific Saskatchewan Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) at the University of Regina, one of Burton’s students surprised her grandfather—and everybody else—at a university outing in the Qu’Appelle Valley.
“It’s September, so the evenings aren’t that long…We’re sitting around and it’s quite dark…and we have this huge bonfire going on and everybody’s just visiting… And, all of a sudden, we could hear in the distance…a fiddle being tuned…A little bit of time passed and all of a sudden we heard this fiddle quite close and then out of the darkness emerged this girl playing the fiddle,” Burton recalled.
He hadn’t known that his student had been given a fiddle and had taken lessons. She played a waltz as she approached the group and her grandfather, who was in his mid-80s and a fiddle player himself, stood up shaking.
“Everybody had tears. It was really quite amazing. He couldn’t believe that she had learned to play the fiddle,” said Burton.
The Best Gift Ever tells the story of the fictitious Gabby who loves the fiddle and her fiddle-playing Mooshoom. He gives her his fiddle. Shortly after, Gabby moves away to the city with her mom, who is taking classes at the university. Over the years, Gabby struggles to learn to play the instrument. Eventually Mooshoom stops asking her how her fiddle-playing is going. In the end, she surprises Mooshoom with the ‘Red River Jig’.
Burton has since lost touch with the student who the book is based on, although years ago she knew he had written a short story about her. He’s sure her response will be “joyful” when she finds out about The Best Gift Ever.
The book is richly illustrated by Métis/settler Natalie Laurin. Burton calls her work “dynamic and colourful and full of movement.”
Although it’s the first time Burton has worked with Laurin, all his children’s books have had Indigenous illustrators
“They all understand the culture from the inside and so they add things in the pictures that really enhance the story and make it a true Métis story. Natalie did this,” said Burton.
The Best Gift Ever is written in both English and French and both versions include Michif translation by Norman Fleury. The majority of Burton’s books have been translated into Michif.
“Michif has always been important to me. I’m a teacher. And it’s also good culturally, because if you don’t speak the language, you lose a part of your culture,” said Burton.
Burton didn’t grow up with his language even though he grew up with much of the Métis culture in his small community of Midnight Lake, Sask. His mother was fluent in Michif but because of the racism she faced when she attended school, she didn’t teach her children her language. Burton’s father was an English settler who didn’t speak Michif. However, when Burton’s mother gathered with her Michif family, they spoke their language.
Burton is thrilled that his books are being used in the SUNTEP program now and says he’s noticed a “bit of a revitalization” of the language. When he moved to Saskatoon 14 years ago, he says, Michif was never spoken at events.
“But you know what? Now you go to different things and you hear Michif being spoken…A lot of people introduce themselves in Michif now if you’re in a circle. I know they’re not fluent and they might even be intermediate, but people are proud of what they can say,” he said.
While Burton is not confident that what’s happening now is enough to save Michif, it does make him happy.
The Best Gift Ever is published by Heritage House and will be released April 21. It marks the first time Heritage House has offered a Michif bilingual picture book. It can be ordered at https://heritagehouse.ca/collections/new-books-spring-2026/products/the-best-gift-ever-kishchi-li-miiyeur-prayzoon