Libraries and schools across Saskatchewan will be celebrating Aboriginal Storytelling Month in February.
To celebrate, the Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples (LSSAP) will be helping schools and libraries highlight the power of Indigenous storytelling.
The LSSAP will be doing this through a month-long series of events both online and in-person presented by a group of 72 storytellers from across the province who are looking to share their work and teachings.
“We’ve all faced huge challenges during the pandemic, and we are drawing on the cultural teachings to persevere,” said Saskatchewan Aboriginal Storytelling Project Coordinator Jessica Generoux. “We can draw on the strength and power of our stories to build community and bring healing during these troubled times.”
For two well-known storytellers in Saskatchewan, the opportunity to share their stories is a reclamation of their identity and a help for future generations to find their identity as well.
“For a long time, because of residential schools, these stories were something we had to hide but, when I grew up, I got to choose my own path,” said Darwin Atcheynum, a sculptor and storyteller from Sweetgrass First Nation. “It doesn’t matter your background. The kids love hearing the stories and are inspired by these teachings.”
Solomon Ratt has dedicated his life to preserving Cree stories told to him as a child.
“Before I was taken away to residential school, my mother shared these stories with me,” said Ratt, an Associate Professor of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature at the First Nations University of Canada. “I’ve been writing them down and sharing them for the past 40 years. These are stories are about adventure, love, and life. They teach us how to behave as a human being.”
Both storytellers have indicated the importance of sharing these stories with the next generation and Atcheynum believes there is now a renewed excitement surrounding traditional stories.
“A lot of kids have lost their culture, they’ve forgotten who they are,” says Atcheynum. “These stories help them find their way back. They regain a pride in who they are and where they come from.”
The LSSAP is hoping the upcoming Aboriginal Storytelling Month can help make Indigenous culture as accessible as possible through events at libraries across the province and several of these events available through online platforms.
A full schedule of the month-long series of events can be found on the LSSAP website lssap.ca.
(PHOTO: Darwin Atcheynum with a young person at a storytelling event. Photo provided by the LSSAP.)