Shannen Koostachin is a real-life
role model who will provide inspiration in comics, MP says
A new comic superhero for D-C Comics will take the form of a
teenage girl from James Bay. Toronto cartoonist Jeff Lemire says
Shannen Koostachin a young Cree activist from Attawapiskat
helped inspire him.
Lemire said the 15-year-old, who led fellow students to Parliament
Hill to lobby for a proper school, isn't far from his thoughts in
drawing up the new superhero.
"I think if I can capture some of that heart and some of that
essence in this character, perhaps she'll almost be a guiding spirit
in the creation of this character," he said.
He came up with the idea of a Cree superhero because he was
fascinated with the culture he saw while visiting Northern Ontario
as a child, he said.
Lemire will write the stories and work with an artist on the
depiction of the unnamed hero.
"This
is not just a story that will be told in Canada, these comic books
go all over, they go all over the world," he said.
The shadow of Shannen'
In two weeks, Lemire said he'll visit schools in Moosonee
and Moose Factory to talk to students.
He's organizing a contest in which students will suggest new
super powers for the character.
"There would be the cultural strengths," he said of the character.
"The family ties, the knowledge of the land, the rich, rich symbolism
of the Cree on James Bay."
The MP for the area, Charlie Angus, said there's a huge need
for role models and heros who First Nations can look up to. Koostachin
is a real-life role model who can speak to them, he said.
"This shadow of Shannen, looking down on these youth today,
is certainly something that would work within the comic book format,"
he said.
Shannen Koostachin was killed in a car crash, in 2010, just
before her sixteenth birthday.
A new school bearing her name is scheduled to open in Attawapiskat
next September.
Lemire said the comics should come out sometime next spring.
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