A children’s book from the 1930s is under review this week in Winnipeg for its stereotypical depictions of indigenous people.
The Winnipeg Public Library says it has removed copies of TinTin in America while it reviews the material.
On the book’s cover, its white main character, TinTin, is shown tied to a pole while a Buckskin-wearing chief wields an axe and points angrily at him. Similar depictions of indigenous people are shown throughout the story.
The library will review TinTin in America in the context of its selection guidelines and materials reconsideration process, before making a decision about the future of the book in its collection.
The book, along with TinTin in the Congo, had already been pulled out of the library’s main circulating collection before 2006 and placed into a research collection of children’s historic books due to a concern at that time.
In 2013, this research collection was disbanded because of a changing library mandate, lack of use, and other libraries, like those in Universities, are better suited for research collections.
But in the last year or so, the city says TinTin in America was added back into the library’s collection as part of a re-order process. TinTin in the Congo was not added back in that same process.
The city says it will review its reordering process as a result, and that it has received no complaints since the title was added back.
Selection guidelines are available online at http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/pdfs/MaterialsSelectionGuidelines.pdf
