(Photo: Daphie Pooyak)
February is Indigenous Storytelling Month (previously Aboriginal Storytelling Month), and there will be several events happening across the province, both in-person and online.
The Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples (LSSAP) has been working on phasing out the term Aboriginal to be more inclusive of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations people.
Saskatchewan is one of the only provinces to recognize Indigenous Storytelling Month, and the month has been recognized for over 22 years now.
“I haven’t heard of any other provinces doing it, but this project has helped other provinces create projects similar to this one,” explained project coordinator Jessica Generoux.
Generoux stated that Indigenous Storytelling Month helps bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people across Saskatchewan as well as advances reconciliation.
“It’s an opportunity for reconciliation; in reconciliation, it’s very important to recover from the effects of colonization in our Indigenous communities, and that is a relationship that is nurtured with every opportunity that we can get,” she said.
The month-long celebration kicks off in Broadview on February 1 at the community’s new public library.
Throughout the month there will be something for everyone with schools, libraries, and cultural organizations taking part in the events. There will be multiple forms of storytelling shared, including dance, music, poems, and hands-on workshops.
This year there will be nearly 130 storytelling events for people to attend in 76 locations as well as online.
A key feature of Indigenous Storytelling Month is that roughly 75-80% of the events are being held in rural communities.
“There’s going to be an event in Beauval, so we’ll be having a storytelling week at the Beauval Public Library. There’s also going to be a storytelling project that’s going on through the Lakeland Regional Library, so the Lakeland Library region has various branches, and one specifically in Meadow Lake, so we’ll be seeing those up north,” explained Generoux.
You can find the full schedule for Indigenous Storytelling Month at the link below.