 Front cover of Orca's Song | |
| Author | Anne Cameron |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Nelle Olsen |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's picturebook |
| Publisher | Harbour Publishing |
Publication date | 1987 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 25 |
| ISBN | 0-920080-29-4 |
| OCLC | 633301107 |
Orca's Song is a 1987 picturebook written by Anne Cameron and illustrated in black and white by Nelle Olsen. Published by Harbour Publishing, the book is an adaptation of a Pacific Northwest Indigenous story. Orca's Song is a pourquoi story about a black orca who falls in love with an osprey; the two mate to create a baby orca with the black and white patterning found on the whales.
While some reviewers appreciated the art and text of the story, it received criticism from Indigenous authors and scholars who disputed Cameron's claim of sole authorship and copyright for the story. Consequently, reprints of the book began to attribute the storyteller Klopinum for the story's inspiration although Cameron retained sole authorship credit and copyright. The story has also been noted as an early example of a lesbian relationship (between Orca and Osprey) in picturebook literature and one of the few such picturebooks published before 2000 to lack a moralising tone.