Through poems that move between two languages, Naomi McIlwraith explores the beauty of the intersection between nehiyawewin, the Plains Cree language, and English, akayasimowin. Written to honor her father's facility in nehiyawewin and her mother's beauty and generosity as an inheritor of Cree, Ojibwe, Scottish, and English, kiyam articulates a powerful yearning for family, history, peace, and love.