Large Fierce Mammal

“Storytelling has a special place in indigenous culture.  It’s a cultural torch passed from one generation to another, and from it flows teachings, lessons, and continuity.  Storytelling is a powerful force for cultural survival and it can be many things – funny, profound, educational, a force of resistance, and a tool of reconciliation.” ~ Shelagh’s extended conversation with Thomas King and Leanne Simpson, The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers

I embraced storytelling myself, in my own way, in early childhood, and as an adult it is from that foundation that my own writing springs. It was back then that I realized the power of words. How, once woven into a story, words could change the mind, the mindset, and alter the feelings of another person simply through their juxtaposition, choosing one word over another, or the mere placement of a comma. In their mastery lay the magickal power to touch individuals or multitudes at a distance, for many a year, for good or ill.

But my own stories don’t come through me to my audience on a thread that winds its way back to the beginning of my people, at places now tattered and all but severed by the persistent actions of others who would rather those stories never be told, and the ones that have been told, forgotten. My stories, however much I may need to tell them, are not a cornerstone of my cultural identity.

Yesterday I was enthralled by a CBC broadcast that is the point of today’s piece – Shelagh Rogers in conversation with Storytellers Thomas King and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Set aside an uninterrupted 45 minutes and 20 seconds, click here, and give it a listen.