First Nations Literacy Practice: Oral Storytelling Tradition

Responding to this week’s readings gives me the same feelings of uncertainty and lack of confidence in my thoughts which I had with the discussion around cultural authenticity.  I feel this way because I haven’t read too much First Nations’ literature and while I have taken courses in First Nations/Aboriginal studies in the past, I feel anxious about discussing the process and subject matters related to First Nation’s stories. Why could this be?  Is it due to the fact that I’ve had limited exposure to it or because First Nation literacy practices and literature is not fully introduced and discussed in the curriculum of all of my educational experiences? 

With First Nations stories, I feel that it is meant to be listened to and not be analysed or critiqued.  I say this not with the idea that critical analysis should not be done at all on the stories told.  However, given that First Nations people have long been silenced and continue to struggle to have their voices and stories heard and told, simply analyzing their varied and complex stories is propagating colonizing tactics of control and suppression.  Thompson (2007) highlights the value of “open dialogue” and quotes an elder who emphasize the “value of listening” and the “trust” that is needed “to listen well” (Yellow Hawk, as cited in Thompson, 2007).  From this I see the process of an ongoing conversation between the storyteller and her/his audience and the importance of listening (from all angles) as a significant piece in the process of storytelling as a whole.  First Nations people value the knowledge that elders profess in their stories and also what “younger people, even children” (Thompson, 2007) have to offer in the stories they listen to.  Oral storytelling traditions bear significant knowledge, “a distinctive intellectual tradition” (Moayeri & Smith, 2010, p. 414), that challenges beliefs of the inaccuracies and illegitimacies within oral stories, “oral histories” (Thompson, 2007).  “Scientific Knowledge” is but a single story and just as we’ve been encouraged to see that there are multiple stories it is important to acknowledge that “traditional knowledge” will have its merits (Moayeri & Smith, 2010, p. 415).

In reflecting on First Nations’ oral storytelling traditions, I am reminded by my own experience with oral storytelling and the value that I have for it.  I think about other cultures that strongly value this literacy practice in varying and complex ways and relate it to Thompson’s (2007) words:

The oral tradition represents ‘the other side of the miracle of language’…’the telling of stories, the recitation of epic poems, the singing of songs, the making of prayers, the chanting of magic and mystery, the exertion of human voice upon the unknown – in short, the spoken word’…[the oral tradition is] a literature ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’ (Thompson, 2007).

I am particularly drawn to the idea that oral storytelling traditions express stories and “literature [that are] ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’”.  I believe that it is very fitting to the nature of its practice.

Conversely, I also think about how this very practice is not always honoured and therefore, practiced to its full capacity in our Westernized education system,

different literacies are privileged in different institutions, which are controlled by a dominant power in each institution….literacy is most often taught in schools as decontextualized, technical skills…this disconnect between school literacy and home/community literacies is holding back literacy development for children, particularly those whose home literacies are undervalued and ignored by the schools (Moayeri & Smith, 2010, p. 409).

Literacy is still very heavily defined and practiced by the process of reading and writing and this significantly challenges, perhaps to the extreme of eradication of First Nations’ literacy practices of oral storytelling.  What can become of these people and other people who value this way of telling stories or passing on their traditions, beliefs, and so on?  We’ve seen children struggle or be left on the margins feeling confused or defeated when their learning styles and literacy practices are ignored.  How can we be ethical and honour their literacy particularities so that they are thriving instead of failing? 

Thompson invites us to think about how “the oral tradition could be fundamentally superior to written literature or that texts that privilege the Indigenous voice might speak more powerfully to Native students than literary masterpieces” (Thompson, 2007).  Moayeri and Smith (2006) encourages us to “familiariz[e] ourselves and valu[e] the diverse and multiple literacies that students of different cultures bring with them [which] enhances the learning potential of those students and that of the entire class” (p. 415).  They further provoke us to act on “diffusing the dominant power by creating opportunities for learning about multiple cultures by deconstructing existing [Westernized, white, middle-to-upper class, predominantly male perspectives] text, using materials, or by viewing curriculum through a broader lens” (p. 415).  These are just some possible yet very important suggestions to consider.

I end this entry by repeating the questions raised by an anonymous contributor in A broken flute (Seale & Slapin, 2006) because it speaks to the ethical practice which is necessary to consider especially when working with children:

Will you help my child learn to read, or will you teach him that he has a reading problem?  Will you help him develop problem-solving skills or will you teach him that school is where you try to guess what answer the teacher wants?  Will he learn that his sense of his own value and dignity is valid, or will he learn that he must forever be apologetic and try harder because he isn’t white?  Can you help him acquire the intellectual skills he needs without at the same time imposing your values on top of those he already has? (Seale & Slapin, 2006, p. 9)

References:

Moayeri, M. & Smith, J.  (2010).  The unfinished stories of two First Nations mothers.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(5), 408-417.  doi:10.1598/JAAL.53.5.6

Seale, D. & Slapin, B. (Eds.).  (2006).  A broken flute.  Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press & Oyate.

Thomson, M.  (2007).  Honouring the word.  Tribal College Journal, 19(2).