February is Indigenous Storytelling Month. This month we have special opportunities to learn, to hear stories and to celebrate and understand another aspect of all of our story and history. It can also be a time for healing.
For Indigenous people, the tradition of storytelling has always played a vital role in the continuation of their culture and the passing down of knowledge throughout generations. In order to celebrate and continue this tradition as well as provide outlets through which it can grow, in 2004 The Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples designated February as Indigenous Storytelling Month.
Jesse Armstrong, Indigenous Success Coordinator at Good Spirit School Division (GSSD), is one of the main organizers of the storytelling sessions for schools within the division. She believes that the designation of February as Indigneous Storytelling Month is important in keeping the oral tradition alive. “Indigenous Storytelling Month is so important. It’s important for all people but particularly to our young people. ISM provides the opportunity to have Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students alike to take the time to listen and to hear stories that may help them build a better understanding of themselves and where they come from or to better understand their Indigenous classmates and community members.” she says.
“This recognition provides the opportunity for communities, schools and organizations to focus on incorporating Indigenous perspective and worldview in the month of February. It’s also a culturally appropriate time, as winter is traditionally a time to share stories and many sacred stories can only be told once the snow has fallen.”
Storytelling has deep-seated value in the Indigenous culture and continuing with this tradition is essential to its preservation. Due to this oral tradition, written records of the wisdom held by the Indigenous people are limited which means that events like Indigenous Storytelling Month are so critical to the life of the Indigenous culture in the present-day world. “Through the telling of stories, important knowledge is passed. There are many things that Indigenous people choose to not write down, sacred stories being just one. Indigenous storytelling and the transmission of knowledge in the oral tradition is important as it is an integral component of Indigenous culture. Without storytelling and the transmission of knowledge through the oral tradition, much of the Indigenous culture would have been lost. This is just one reason why storytelling is so important to Indigenous people.” Armstrong says.
This year, storytelling sessions had to move online due to the pandemic. Armstrong along with Indigenous Community Workers and Indigenous Student Success Coaches from GSSD created a schedule for February of storytelling sessions held via the video conferencing platform Zoom. Classes in schools across the division have the opportunity to join any of these sessions and listen to stories told by various presenters, speakers, knowledge keepers and Elders who have agreed to impart their wisdom to students and staff.
According to Jesse Armstrong, this year’s virtual storytelling experience comes with new challenges and has forced them to consider new ways of facilitating the storytelling. She says that it can be difficult for the storytellers to speak to a screen as it is easier for interaction with students to happen more fully in-person, not to mention the added element of dealing with technology and all of the problems that accompany it on a daily basis.
However, Armstrong says that the virtual storytelling sessions that are happening in GSSD as well as in other organizations show how events such as this may be augmented in the future. Having these events virtually allows for more wide-spread and in many cases more convenient access to the content as well as being more convenient for the storytellers who get to speak to classes “while still in the comfort of their own home.”
“It would have been nice to talk to our Elders, knowledge keepers, storytellers, and presenters in person but we must keep their safety and the safety of students in mind and at the forefront of all we do. I am lucky enough to work with people who have great community connections, and they were able to help navigate how we could respectfully ask people to help us without putting anyone at risk.” Armstrong says.
Armstrong is hopeful that the storytelling sessions during Indigenous Storytelling Month will have a positive impact on the staff and students who participate in them. “I hope that our students can learn from our storytellers, I hope that when they see our storytellers through Zoom, they can connect to them and to see the strength, beauty and perseverance of Indigenous peoples and culture. I hope that having speakers virtually leads to opening the door to (when the pandemic is over) more teachers having Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers and presenters in their classrooms. I hope that something is sparked in even just one Indigenous child that says, ‘I want to know more.’ and that that child goes forth into the world and seeks the people to best teach them about who they are, where they come from and what it means to be an Indigenous person today. For non-Indigenous students, I hope that they can connect with someone’s story, even if it is different from the stories of their own people or culture.” she says.
“Our stories have many lessons built in them and people will walk away from a storytelling session with an Elder or traditional knowledge keeper with something that they learned; it may differ from another person that heard the same story but that little piece that stuck with them is what they were meant to take away from that particular story. We are all on a journey and I believe hearing the stories told this month will help many on their road to a deeper understanding of and respect for Indigenous people.”