"The truth about stories is that that's all we are" Thomas King, (2003)The truth about stories: A Native Narrative p. 2  

   In Indigenous pedagogies, stories are used to "teach skills, pass on cultural values, convey news, record family and community histories, map geography and land use, explain other aspect of our world, or entertain." (Chrona, p161)  They can express "spiritual and emotional truths (through symbol and metaphor)"(p.161), as well as literal truths about actual events.  Stories and story-telling are cornerstones of Indigenous pedagogies.  

    As non-Indigenous Western trained educators, it is likely that when we think of stories, we have a specific story-arc in our minds, a chronological plot diagram model, with rising action and some kind of climax and a resolution usually centered around an individual struggle, as this narrative story-arc comes through Western thinking from the ancient Greeks.  It is important to note that stories in other cultures, including diverse Indigenous cultures, have a different story structures.   Indigenization Coordinator Jesse Halton describes that many Indigenous stories have a spiral and having many layers of meaning.  Characters are often archetypal characters who bring reminiscences of other stories to the story listener. For example, in many cultures Coyote is a powerful trickster character, who often has the ability to change form.  Coyote is an important teacher in local Ktunaxa and Sinixt traditional stories.  Metaphors are built into the stories, so stories have layered meanings and can be interpreted in many different ways, helping us reflect on our own identities and inter-connections.  Q’um Q’um Xiiem (UBC Professor Emeritus Jo-anne Archibald) of the  Stó:lō and St’at’imc Peoples provides this website for educators in preparing ourselves for Indigenous storywork.  

Other Resources for incorporating Indigenous Storywork:

• Archibald, J. Morgan, J. and Desanto, J. (2022)  Decolonizing Research Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. Bloomsberry Academic.

• Paul, E. (2019) As I Remember It - Teachings from the Life of a Sliamon Elder [website] UBC Press.  https://scalar.usc.edu/ravenspace/as-i-remember-it/index

• Thomas King's, 2003 Massey Lecture Series "The Truth About Stories" or "You’re not the Indian I had in mind”