Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings is the second book in a series by renowned Ojibwe storyteller Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch, following on The Trail of Nenaboozhoo and Other Creation Stories (2019). Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings is a collection of traditional Ojibwe/Anishinaabe stories transliterated directly from Murdoch’s oral storytelling. Part history, legend, and mythology, these are stories of tradition, transformation and community, involving powerful spirit-beings in serpent form. The stories appear in both English and Anishinaabemowin and are illustrated with Murdoch’s beautiful, traditional-style Ojibwe artwork.

Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch is from the fish clan and is from Serpent River First Nation. He is the author and illustrator of The Trail of Nenaboozhoo (Kegedonce Press, 2019, some illustrations by Christi Belcourt). He grew up in the traditional setting of hunting, fishing and trapping. Many of these years were spent learning from Elders in the northern regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Bomgiizhik is well respected as a storyteller and traditional knowledge holder. For many years he has led various workshops and cultural camps that focuses on the transfer of knowledge to youth. Other areas of expertise include: traditional Ojibwe paint, imagery/symbolism, harvesting, medicine walks, and ceremonial knowledge, cultural camps, Anishinaabek oral history, birch bark canoe making, birch bark scrolls, Youth and Elders workshops, etc. He has committed his life to the preservation of Anishinaabe cultural practices and has spent years learning directly from Elders.

Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch's profile page

Patricia Big George grew up in Naotkamegwanning First Nation. Pakwangwetook ndigo, Makwa indoodem. She is a mother, sister, aunty, grandma, also a Genocide School Survivor (IRS) and survivor of Indian Day school. She is a Treaty #3 member. She grew up speaking her traditional language, and preserving ceremonies and land knowledge in spite of the IRS disruption. Her first language is Anishinaabemowin; she went to school to teach the language. She has done some translation for NAN Legal Services, worked with a radio skit for a hospital situation, translated cartoon skits with her dialect and a Manitoba dialect. Patricia has a western education but holds her traditional knowledge closer to her heart that another educational standard, because that is who she is as Anishinaabe. She says that she has done pretty much what she wanted to do in life but needs to awaken knowledge of the Anishinaabe traditional ways of life. She worked in westernized society until she retired from Customs, was an Indian Act elected chief for her community and is always willing to pass on the traditional knowledge that she has.

Patricia BigGeorge's profile page