Storytellers provide an alternative history

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The story goes that the Yukon International Storytelling Festival came into being after Angela Sidney, one of the last speakers of the Taglish language, had to travel, in the mid-1980s, all the way to Toronto to find a large audience. It was obvious then that a northern festival was necessary, a festival that would bring together storytellers from many traditions and countries.

The festival would encourage participants to tell stories in their original languages, with translations (either summaries or full translations) alongside. It was also agreed that such a festival would focus on stories and storytellers from the circumpolar world (countries surrounding the poles.)

In 1988, the first official storytelling festival in the Yukon was held, and storytellers from six countries (four continents) came to tell or sing their stories in 23 different languages. June 19 to 22 marks the 1Oth anniversary of the festival, which incorporates costume, dance, theatre, drums, mime and music [and] transports visitors across miles of land, years of history and lifetimes of experience.

Among storytellers and others, there is a very deep concern that the history of their people continue to be preserved as it is through stories. Esther Jacko of Whitefish Reserve, Manitoulin, Ont., speaks of "values, beliefs and traditional practices enshrined in stories." "Everything is tied into it," she said. She first heard her stories from her grandparents, and it came naturally to retell them to her own children. In time, for her, the "circle widened to include children from the community." Even now, when she's traveling locally, she takes apprentice storytellers from her community with her, in order that they too can learn to "make it a way of life," for it is through the young that the tradition will continue.

Jacko attended the Yukon festival once before and said she's going back as much to listen as to perform. Her trademark story is of "Lupi the Great White Wolf", which she tells in Ojibway. Since she learned it from her grandmother, she once asked her why the wolf had a Latin name. Her grandmother didn't remember why, which demonstrates how stories and languages sometimes evolve and how easy it is for connections to be forgotten. Jacko also wrote her Lupi story as a play. It was produced at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brooklyn, New York, which made her grandmother very proud.

Louis Bird of Peawanuck, near Sudbury, Ont., will also be making a return visit to the festival. He was, in fact, one of the original headliners for the 1988 event. Like Jacko, Bird remembers first hearing the stories of his people from his grandmother. He said she was the favorite babysitter for all the children of his generation because of these stories. In 1973, he began to collect both history and legends seriously himself.

Bird described how he is quite methodical about this collecting. He takes his tape recorder and, with their permission, interviews all the Elders of his community, asking them what they remember, what their grandmothers and grandfathers told them and also what stories their grandmothers and grandfathers remembered having heard. What arises out of all this research is an alternative, first-person history of the past which stretches back several generations and balances what is found in the history books. The only problem is that, like all oral histories, because it is not recorded in a book it may be lost. Louis Bird's dream is to have all his 180 taped conversations and stories transcribed into print.

Roddy Blackjack, who lives 60 km north of Whitehorse, isn't sure whether he and his wife, Bessie, will be able to come to the festival this time. He says his favorite stories to tell are of the "olden days, when the world began and the land was flooded with water." He too learned many of his stories from his grandmother and grandfather, and he too would like to make a book of them.

Wes Fineday is a veteran of storytelling festivals, havig previously performed at the Yukon festival, as well as at the Toronto Storytelling Festival. From his office at the Albert Branch of the Regina Public Library, Fineday is also the first urban Storyteller-in-Residence, charged with incorporating storytelling into the community. He hopes that other libraries and educational institutions follow Regina's example. Fineday's specialty is something he calls "healing stories . . . stories that make you laugh; stories that make you cry, that give you an awareness of who you are as a human being."

Jacko, Bird, the Blackjacks and Fineday are just a few of the First Nations and non-First Nations tellers of tales who will gather at the Rotary Peace Park in Whitehorse on the last full weekend in June. To make things easier for families, there's to be special entertainment and activities for children. There'll also be tea and bannock and other refreshments available, as well as an Elder hostel program which aims to help the observers find and tell their own stories.

For more information, readers are invited to call Brad White at (403) 633-7550 or to e-mail the office at bwhite@knet.yk.ca.