(submitted photo/Saskatchewan Polytechnic)

By Derek Craddock

STORYTELLING AND PARABLES

A good wolf and stories for youth highlight Aboriginal Storytelling Month

Feb 28, 2023 | 8:00 AM

As February comes to a close, so does another memorable Aboriginal Storytelling Month in Saskatchewan.

One of the many events that happened this past month took place at Saskatchewan Polytechnic in Prince Albert with Indigenous storytellers Leah Dorion and Curtis Breaton.

Both spoke to paNOW about the event and what storytelling means to them.

For Dorion, she said storytelling was traditionally a time when families came together during the cold, winter season.

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“We shared all sorts of knowledge through stories,” she said. “It was something that brought a lot of comfort and peacefulness to the community members during that tough season.”

Dorion has published many children’s books and has used those to speak to children and youth at various events throughout the year.

“It’s kind of an exciting thing to be able to meet the two worlds: the traditional storytelling, oral storytelling and then having published some of that.”

When talking about the event at SaskPolytech, she said the response from the student body was incredible.

“It was really nice to come into that beautiful library space and bring that recognition of our stories to the community.”

Meanwhile, Breaton, who was also at that event shared why storytelling matters and even shared one of his favourite parables.

“There’s a teaching on ‘Good Wolf, Bad Wolf’. There’s one wolf that’s very loyal, the leader of the group and then there’s a wolf that’s vicious and mean and attacking things and the story goes, whatever wolf you feed the most will survive,” he said.

“Don’t be angry and be that kind sort of leader of the pack wolf and be loyal.”

Breaton believes that stories carry the history of what happened with Indigenous peoples and that parables like the story of the two wolves, teach people how they should behave in their communities.

“I think that’s really important that we share those things so they’re not lost as well,” he said.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock