Growing up next to the cloud maker

Shamiso & Viviana

This story is realistic fiction and takes place in the First Nation Reserve Aamjiwnaang in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. It describes the life of residents living close to ‘Canada’s Toxic Chemical Valley’, where over 60 chemical plants and oil refineries sit in a 15-mile-wide section. The location in the past recorded the highest level of air pollution in a Canadian city. Factories have over the decades surrounded the reservation.

Growing up Next to the Cloud Maker aims to bring attention to the imbalanced levels of environmental injustice people of color and poor people experience. The story follows a day in the life of Aki, an Aamjiwnaang girl living on the First Nation Reserve Aamjiwnaang. It describes the impacts of the chemical plants and refineries on the everyday lives of its neighbours. In places where environmental injustice is occurring it is hard for the local people alone to overcome this injustice. Therefore, our approach for a solution was to make a children’s book that aims to help raise awareness to make people more sensitive to the topic, making them more likely to care and respond when seeing cases of environmental injustice.

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