[1] Heart Berry Bling highlights multiple aspects of native history and culture such as the food, Anishinaabe language, their suffering under Canada’s Indian Act, and – most importantly, the traditional art of beading.

Granny happily greets her by offering fry bread and hot chili to Maggie, but instead she opts for a peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich.

Beadwork also helped Granny persevere and connect to her identity as she faced the Indian Act, a brutal period for Indigenous people and culture, especially women.

[2] Dupuis explains that even though this can be a hard subject to talk about, it is crucial for school systems to uphold their educational standards to be able to tackle these topics: “Educators really need to ask themselves what the intent of these systems are, and that’s to really prepare students to be culturally competent and responsive in terms of thinking about how they are going to interact with others in a very respectful and meaningful way without oppressing others, and so literature can actually help.”[4][5] One review of Heart Berry Bling examines Indigenous beading as a valuable way to reclaim cultural identity: “Research findings show that learning, teaching and practising Indigenous crafting is associated with increased intergenerational cohesion, cultural connectedness, and well-being for both teachers and learners.

Dupuis worked with the illustrator, Eva Campbell, to create a familiar setting with these small details based on her own life: “We decided to model a woman like my Granny.

"[3] Dupuis referenced personal aspects of her own life through this book as she describes in the author's note: "Heart Berry Bling brings together some of my own real-life experiences and those of many others in a story that touches on how the rights of thousands of First Nations women in Canada and their families were taken by the Indian Act.

Dupuis examines this in the author's note and shows the effect of the Indian Act on generations of family members, explaining how people lost or gained status through marriage.

[2] A review from John P. Broome describes Heart Berry Bling as “a soulful children’s story that reminds readers of not only the importance of family and culture, but also the generational harm caused by laws against Indigenous Peoples".