Library celebrates storytelling

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To celebrate the City of Regina's 100th birthday, the Regina Public Library has spent the last year celebrating the art of storytelling.

Through the Honing Urban Myth and Memory (Urban H.U.M.M.) Storytelling Project, the library worked to promote oral storytelling, both traditional and contemporary, as a form of expression and communication as well as to promote literacy and heritage.

Diana Chabros, co-ordinator of the library's Centennial Storytelling Project, said that she came up with the idea for the project as a way of making the community more aware of what the library does. When she asked herself which art form best relates to that role, the answer she came up with was storytelling. She started talking to members of the community and library staff, and the Centennial Storytelling Advisory Committee was born.

"It's been incredible, just an incredible experience," Chabros said.

"The people were so excited that the idea just grew into a project for our centennial year. It's been so rewarding and so amazing. It's built lots and lots of relationships in the community for a blend of people from children right through to seniors as well as First Nations, Metis and multicultural groups," she said.

"I'm sure that there is some sort of sustainability for storytelling. I mean it is an ancient art form and we have really strong storytellers in the southern part of the province and we are now looking for storytellers from the northern part of the province as well. I believe that storytellers haven't been visible and I do not think that a lot of them have found each other so this is part of what this year has been about," she said

A storytelling festival was held in October 2003 as part of Urban H.U.M.M., and three storyteller/researchers were hired to research old stories and develop new ones, then share those stories with audiences across the city.

One of those storytellers was Sharon Shorty, who in addition to being a traditional storyteller is a playwright, performer, researcher and educator. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Shorty, who is also known to audiences far and wide as Grandma Susie, was a storyteller in residence at the library from the beginning of October 2003 until the end of February.

As a storyteller in residence, Shorty told stories at a number of city schools, and offered workshops both at the library and in the community.

"She is funny and she is also a really, really good teller," Chabros said of Shorty. "I mean, when you sit down to listen to her she just connects with all types of people, whether it is with the Elders, adults or teens. And she is that way even when she is not in costume. She has that persona going."

Shorty said she believes that storytelling in Aboriginal communities is important. Proud of her heritage, Shorty said her grandmothers always told her to make sure she knew who she was. and that to her is what it means to be cultural.

"The Elders up there would reinforce it. The first question that an Elder would ask is 'Who are you? Who is your clan? Who is your mama? What is your Indian name?' And I was scared that I might not know the answer so I learned who I was. It worked because it was a way for them to teach us to know who we are, and that was very, very important. I think that Aboriginal storytelling needs to be promoted and celebrated this way because it is part of our culture that is not practiced as much as it should," she said.

"At the end of all this I hope that there's been enough stimulation in the community about storytellers," Chabros said. "And I'm already seeing the ripple effect, that it has not only touched the city of Regina but that it has also touched other provinces as well and new people are being introduced to this old art form. The public here is already starting to incorporate it in schools and they're hiring storytellers to come into the classrooms."