Learning through storytelling
Mi’kma’ki storyteller hopes workshop encourages Indigenous narrative artists
Editor’s note:
As part of her work toward decolonization of language and mindset, shalan joudry chooses not to capitalize when referring to herself in the first person, either as her name or I, to be consistent with not over-emphasizing myself in relation to the collective.”
SYDNEY — "Let me tell you a story."
This is how Nova Scotia oral storyteller, playwright, and poet shalan joudry opened a teaching exercise as part of her recent virtual storytelling workshop hosted by the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia.
She told a short story about the trickster Coyote and his friend the Owl and a search for a missing bone needle. Afterward, she asked the participants, all Indigenous women living in Nova Scotia, to repeat the story, first a few minutes after she first told it, then a week later, two weeks later, and again on the last day of the four-week workshop.
The exercise was a practice in retelling a story in the narrator's own words and style, while keeping the necessary elements to convey the important teachings in the story, something joudry says is at the heart of oral storytelling.
Her second book of poetry, "Waking Ground," was published by Gaspereau Press in 2020 and has been put on the shortlist for a number of awards, including the 2021 Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award and the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for published poetry in English.
She has worked as a professional oral storyteller for the past 10 years and said the way a story is created to be told through speech and physical movement, rather than written, and the way information is learned through listening, rather than reading, requires different skills, such as visualization.
“In my lifetime I have experienced that shift, reading and writing in university and then learning from the elders simply by listening, and I had to really work at strengthening my memory based on listening and imagination of what the elders were saying,” said joudry, who is from L's tkuk (Bear River First Nation).
In oral storytelling, the learning takes place in the presence of the storyteller and the story and the person telling it cannot be separated, joudry said, whereas the written word allows the reader to have their own relationship with the information independent from the writer. Whereas written work tends to be static over time, oral storytelling allows the narrator to adjust the story to fit the audience and situation and can change the way the listener feels while listening.
“The moment that person says, ‘Let me tell you a story,' i just know there's something in the audience that switches, almost like gearing down and they relax and don't have to be anxious about the data that's about to come out,” joudry said.
“I feel that in mainstream Canadian culture we put so much emphasis on teaching children how to learn by reading and to write notes, but i feel we're doing disservice to their sense of orality, their ability to listen to visualize, to learn and not be afraid that if they don't take notes they'll forget and fail.”
Oral storytelling has played an integral role in L'nu and other Indigenous cultures as a way of passing on wisdom, knowledge and history through generations, with less emphasis on written records than in Eurocentric culture.
The arrival of European settlers to what is now Canada and the subsequent aggressive and systematic assault on Indigenous identity through racist legislation such as the 1884 provision to the Indian Act that banned potlatch, powwows and other cultural ceremonies where stories would be told, disrupted the transmission of knowledge and Indigenous way of life.
She said oral storytelling, with its aspects of entertainment and playfulness, is one tool to share stories that is not better than the written word but is a complementary and valuable way of teaching that, for her, brings more balance to her life.
“I'm going to continue to publish books, i hope, in the future. I love books. But if we are going to work toward a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, the Mi'kmaw perspective includes things like orality and we need to make sure we're strengthening that part of our brain, and that's something that I've been working on in my adult life and am so thankful for,” she said.
The six participants of the four-week workshop all had experience writing and some had prior experience in oral storytelling. For some, it was a chance to hone their skills and connect with other storytellers in the province, joudry said, and for others it was about reconnecting to the oral tradition of their Indigenous cultures.
María José Yax-Fraser is of Mayan descent and moved to Canada from Guatemala 30 years ago. She sees many similarities between her own Indigenous culture and that of the L'nuk of Mi'kma'ki — a deep connection to the land, the experience of colonization and the important role of storytelling.
“I was really grateful for the opportunity for mentorship with an Indigenous facilitator that is taking back the methodologies that she sees important in her life as a First Nations woman,” she said.
“For me, as a migrant to Mi'kma'ki, I have tried to connect with Indigenous communities and that has allowed me to, in many ways, reclaim my cultural identity that was taken away from many people of my generation, and oral storytelling is one of the ways of decolonizing our minds and our spirits.”
Yax-Fraser said storytelling can be healing and a way to celebrate the strength and resilience of Indigenous cultures and peoples, and that sessions like the one offered by the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia can play an important role in reconciliation.
Through both these workshops and the recognition her latest book of poetry is receiving, joudry hopes more L'nuk storytellers are encouraged to share their stories.
“I just hope that we can continue to have more important conversations about Indigenous history and art and narratives, and that there is going to be this beautiful increase in Mi'kmaw storytellers and narrative artists in all forms and i'm excited about that.”