 Aiswaiheil, Kwam Kwam Huyaam, Tuskwith, good day. My name is Kwam Kwam Huyaam, which means strong clear water. I'm also known as Joanne Archibald, and I'm from Stalo Nation. And I also have Statlum Ancestry in British Columbia. Indigenous storywork is a term that I developed during my PhD research. And it's a term that a part of it comes from Kosilish ways, where in a cultural gathering, we have a spokesperson who will often say something like, my dear ones, the work is about to begin. So when we're in a cultural gathering, when we hear those words, then we stop our talking and moving about. And we know that it's time to pay serious attention to the cultural work that brought us all together. And so with the idea of Indigenous storywork then, it's similar in the way that with Indigenous stories, and these could be traditional stories and life experience stories that when we might see and hear the term storywork, then it's time to become serious or pay serious attention to the work of stories or to find ways to work with, make meaning from, and with Indigenous stories. So that's the meaning of the term Indigenous storywork. Well, I'd say the aim of Indigenous storywork is it's multi-dimensional, really, that our Indigenous stories really, I think, help us to be the best person that we can be or become in the way of finding ways that we're good to ourselves to become a whole healthy human being, and also ways that we develop our values, our beliefs, about our relationships with others in our family and in our communities, and also how we have good relationships with our environment and the resources of the environment. So our Indigenous stories can help us do that. Maybe I want to return to the idea of the aim of Indigenous storywork. And in this discussion, I want to highlight the seven principles of Indigenous storywork that include respect, responsibility, reverence, reciprocity, and wholism into relatedness and synergy. And I'll highlight just some brief aspects of each of these principles, but I'll mention that they are included in this particular book, Indigenous Storywork, Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit, published in 2008 by UBC Press. So if anyone is really interested in knowing a lot more, I'd suggest that you read the book and it will give you a much deeper, maybe understanding of these seven principles. Well, I think that the age groups really could go from early childhood education. I started telling my grandchildren ages three and five, some of the stories, all those stories. And I've also used stories with K-12, post-secondary education students, undergraduates, graduates, and then practicing educators. So really, all the way from early childhood through to adults. And one of the questions asked is, how does Indigenous storywork contribute to educational goals and priorities? So when I think about traditional Indigenous philosophies, that goal that I mentioned earlier about becoming the best individual or the best human being that we can become, is I think an important goal that the Indigenous stories can help be a reminder about some of the values, such as respecting our environment or ensuring that we have positive working relationships with people in our community. And I feel that's part of the traditional philosophies. At the same time, I think about the 1972 Indian control of Indian education policy, where the principles of local control and parental responsibility were core parts of that policy and the place of Indigenous culture and knowledge and language was positioned as very central to education. So I think that Indigenous storywork contributes to those kinds of goals, because it really encourages people to work with, learn from, and with Indigenous family members, community members, elders, cultural knowledge holders. And also suggests that Indigenous families and communities have control over their stories and how their stories are represented and how they are placed in educational contexts. So I think that Indigenous storywork helps fulfill those goals of the Indian control of the Indian education policy. And when we think of today with the truth and reconciliation, you know, calls to action, that the suggestions about ensuring Indigenous curriculum is embedded within all levels of education, you know, and that students develop intercultural understandings, empathy, and mutual respect, all that can happen through the processes of Indigenous storywork. I want to maybe talk about the four Rs as ways to get ourselves ready to work with Indigenous stories. So the four Rs are respect, responsibility, reverence, and reciprocity. So when you think about respect, to me that's being open to learning from and with Indigenous people, being, you know, open to learning how they, you know, have developed or developed their Indigenous stories or ways they want to have them portrayed in education. I recall the late Chief Simon Baker, Dr. Simon Baker, who often said that we need to listen with our three ears. So he meant, of course, the two that we hear with, but the one in our heart. And it's a way to listen, you know, in many, many different ways. And so we can show respect that way, being able to be patient, to ensure that we are hearing what people are saying and that we ensure that the people's Indigenous peoples' voices and perspectives are given the space and time that's required to really listen, you know, to what they say and find ways to, you know, get ourselves ready to listen to the stories and also to acknowledge and be aware that there is diversity amongst Indigenous peoples that, you know, there are many different types of stories. There are many ways that stories are told in different settings. And so it's important to learn about what we call protocols that relate to stories. So it's getting ourselves ready, you know, to learn a lot more about not only the Indigenous stories, but all the cultural contexts that goes with them. So that's part of respect. Now, the other R of responsibility, you know, could mean to take time to develop working relationships with Indigenous families, community members, storytellers, elders. And, you know, that to me is so important because as educators, if we want to work with Indigenous stories, it really means that we work with the local Indigenous peoples and especially the families and communities of the students with whom we teach. And I know this could be from all levels, not only schooling, but through university. So taking time to develop those kinds of positive working relationships means that we are open to learning the story protocols that I just mentioned. And at the same time, it's being open to learning about the impact of colonial history because the colonial history of Canada, you know, has had great impact on all people, not only Indigenous people, but everybody. And so as an educator, it would be important to understand, you know, the ways that the federal government, you know, banned the practice of Indigenous cultures through law and thinking, you know, what that does to a family or community when the deepest part of your cultures are denied, you cannot practice them. And that relates to our stories. So I've heard many of our elders say that, you know, during the time of the potlatch ban that the stories were put to sleep, you know, they couldn't, and the stories are also part of culture and the practice of culture. So that was denied. So therefore the stories were also denied. So a kind way that elders have talked about this is that they, you know, have put the stories and some of the knowledge of those stories and they put it to sleep for a while. So part of this understanding about the colonial history is knowing that now, you know, the stories are being reawakened and the knowledge that comes with them, you know, that is being revitalized. And that is a process that also takes time to understand how, you know, the indigenous stories might have been told, were told in the indigenous language to begin with. And then there has been a translation process from the indigenous language to English. And then sometimes it's a translation process that goes from the oral to written to multimedia. So a lot of things are occurring when stories are being revitalized. So part of the responsibility then of an educator, you know, is understanding, you know, the impact of colonization, understanding the recognizing, you know, the revitalization process that might be happening in which to have the indigenous stories used in education. I also think that part of the responsibility is, we know where educators could learn more about, you know, the impact of the Indian residential schools and their, you know, people have told their life experience stories. And I think we can learn from those stories too, because we could learn about, you know, the type of education received or not received in those educational systems and kind of the impact of that on many people and generations of people where today, you know, there may be many indigenous people that do not feel comfortable going into a school because of their experiences or their family's experience of residential school. So I think there's that part of the recognition or responsibility of understanding that. And at the same time, we could say, well, we can recognize the resilience of indigenous peoples and also the resistance that indigenous peoples have carried out in ways that they kept the stories alive in their hearts and in their minds, waiting for it to be reawakened. And so I think that's part of resistance. And so I think there's an appreciation, I would hope educators would have by learning, by hearing, you know, learning about those indigenous life experience stories. The third R of reverence then, I think, you know, is very much aligned with the sense of spirituality and, you know, that can be very subjective. And for me, I think of it as a way to, you know, take care of one's inner spirit, you know, some of the understandings that one may acquire after learning about the impact of residential schools, maybe they're difficult emotionally for people. And so, you know, I think it is important to take care of one's spirit. And part of the reverence could also mean learning to understand the relationship that indigenous people have to the environment, to the resources of the environment. And in that way, many of our stories will talk about those relationships, that kinship, feeling of kinship that we may have to areas of the environment or place names. And the last R of reciprocity would mean that, you know, if you've been fortunate enough to receive the teachings, some of the knowledge, the understandings about indigenous stories based on relationships, the respect, you know, responsibility that one has carried out, then it's important to then give back to share with others. And that is almost a form of what has been known as intergenerational learning where, you know, we learn from those who have walked before us, the elders, our grandparents, our parents, you know, and then we receive their knowledge and then we have that responsibility to pass it on to the younger generations or to others, you know, who are interested. And by doing that then, that keeps that story knowledge going. So I think, you know, with those ways, to me that's really important work to do and takes time, takes patience to do all of that. But, you know, that's part of what I think educators would need to do to be ready then to use stories in respectful, responsible, ethical ways with their students. The other three principles of indigenous story work include wholism, interrelatingness, and synergy. So I'll use those, or I'll talk about those in, and maybe connect them to, you know, how they could be used by educators. So when you think of wholism, you know, what that means in the context of indigenous story work is a way of developing and strengthening our intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual self, are these, you know, sort of realms of human development. And within that we also have these circles of influence, which should be one's self, one's family, one's community, and the wider society. So we think of, you know, these circles of influence. And then in relation to that, it's the development of our, in my indigenous story workbook, I call it Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit. So that's part of the wholistic approach. And so sometimes when we hear a story, you know, we might relate to our empathizing with the characters. We, you know, our various emotions, whether it be sadness, happiness, anxiety, fear, you know, that might be something we relate to as far as the characters in the story. You know, when you think about intellectual, it might be, you know, what new understandings that come about as we think about the story. It could be forms of, different forms of knowledge. When we think about the physical, that could relate to actions. Sometimes in the stories, especially trickster stories, the trickster may get into trouble because the trickster forgets about or ignores the good teachings. And so the story may stop abruptly. There isn't a clear ending. And the trickster is in some sort of trouble. And that is in a way a signal for the listener to start to engage with the story in some way, to think about, you know, what the trickster should have done or what the trickster could do to get out of the particular problem that the trickster finds itself. And the spiritual may again relate to, you know, our own inner feelings about and how we feel about our inner spiritual nature. And we could also think about, you know, how the story may relate to, you know, our family, for example, you know, and the different emotions or feelings that we would have about our family in some way that the story triggers that feeling. The principle of interrelatedness then, you know, could be when two or more of those realms, it could be the physical and the emotional kind of interact with each other. And, you know, we think about, you know, ideas, some meaning that comes about from that story, especially if we think about the trickster and try and do some problem-solving and to think about, well, perhaps we should have, you know, had more respect towards others. And because we didn't, we had some difficulty. And the third part, the very last principle then, is about synergy. And to think about synergy is more like when a spark happens, you know, when you might hear an idea, you know, that somebody else shares and perhaps it triggers a thought or maybe a new idea is formed or deepened. And so those, these three principles of holism into relatedness and synergy could be used when an educator or a teacher, you know, is then using a story with their students. I thought of a Stalo story that might help us think about, perhaps understand or use some of these Indigenous story work principles. So I'm going to tell the story, but I wanted to point out that this particular story is in a storybook that was developed through the work of Stalo elders for elementary school curriculum. And this particular story is called Mr. Magpie and Mr. Crow and was originally told by Harry Edwards from the Chiam community in the Stalo area. And Mr. Edwards, you know, was a chief of his community for many years. And when this story was being developed by the elders, then another Stalo elder also remembered her grandfather telling a similar type of story. So, you know, we find that in our communities, when people, you know, practice the oral tradition, you know, that stories will be common to that particular community. And so I'll tell this story about Mr. Magpie and Mr. Crow. You know, and often in our stories, the animals will take on different, you know, it almost becomes like human characteristics and sometimes the smallest creatures can be good teachers for us. So with this story, we always say, you know, sort of sit back, you know, relax, let your imaginations be free to think about, to feel these stories. So one day, Mr. Magpie told his wife and his family that he was going to go out hunting for deer because their meat supply was getting low. And so he took his bow and arrow and he went out into the forest. And as Mr. Crow was by a small hill, you know, it was in a bit of a clearing and as he was standing there, he saw something coming towards him, just rolling down that hill quite fast. And then it was flat where he was standing and when he looked down, he saw that there was a deer and the deer had been shot by another hunter with the bow and arrow. So Mr. Magpie thought, well, it's somebody else's deer so he very carefully removed the arrows because he didn't want to wreck them and, you know, he wanted to be respectful to the hunter who had caught that deer. And so when he took out the arrows very carefully, he just waited and a while later the hunter comes by and he thanks Mr. Magpie for being careful with these arrows and he said, you can have this deer, you can take it home. He said, but what you will find is this. When you start out carrying that deer, it will be quite light and it will be easy for you to travel, you know, to your home. But when you get closer to your home, that deer is going to get heavier and heavier. He said, and so Mr. Magpie thanks the hunter for his generosity and the way he goes and sure enough his load is really light and so he, you know, makes good time getting to his house but when he gets closer, the load gets heavier and heavier and he just barely makes it to his house. But he calls his family out and tells them the story and they start to cut up the deer and gave some to some members of the community and they had a nice feast. While this was happening, his neighbor Mr. Crow was watching and he was kind of jealous that Mr. Magpie, you know, got in this deer and that everybody seemed to be very happy with Mr. Magpie and so the next day Mr. Crow decided it was his turn to go out hunting for deer. So he got his deer together and the way he went, you know, went to the same area as Mr. Magpie had been the day before by a little hill and he also saw something come tumbling down the hill very quickly and it landed right in front of him. And when he looked down, he saw it was a deer that had some arrows in it. Well, Mr. Crow was kind of angry because he thought, wow, how come, how come somebody else got this deer before me and he's really not happy. So he proceeds to take the arrows and he pulls them out very roughly and breaks one of them and, you know, he's still kind of angry that he wasn't the first to get this deer. But along comes the hunter who shot the deer and he looks at the broken arrows but he still tells Mr. Crow that, you know, you can take this deer home if you want and he said, but what will happen is that when you start out, your load is going to be really, really heavy and he said, but as you keep going closer to your home the load is going to get lighter and lighter and so that's exactly what happens. Mr. Crow is starting off and the deer is really, really heavy and he can hardly manage. But as he keeps going he gets closer to his home the load is really, really light and he throws it down onto the ground and he goes into the house and tells his family he's got a deer out there and tells him to get out there and cut it up. They go outside and they call Mr. Crow out and say there's no deer here on the ground and when Mr. Crow looks what he sees is a pot pile of bark from a tree. So that was the story of Mr. May Pie and Mr. Crow. Now sometimes in the traditional indigenous stories they sort of stop and there may not be a nice tidy ending to the story and this particular story there could be many different meanings that one could make from the story. When I heard it many years ago I thought yes, perhaps this story is teaching us about respect where we're taught to respect other people's property and where Mr. May Pie respected the hunter and the arrows of the hunter and treated them respectfully whereas Mr. Crow didn't and they were rewarded in a way that seemed applicable to their behavior about the arrows. And then after a while I started thinking more about this that sometimes we can think in metaphors too where a story might make us think about something such as the deer maybe could be like our indigenous stories. So if we're like the May Pie we might then have been taught and we practice ways that will treat the story respectfully which means we treat the people and their knowledge in a way that honors that knowledge and where we then are kind of two individuals and we perhaps take time to practice that kindness and that respect and where perhaps if we don't like Mr. Crow if sometimes we're in a hurry like I sometimes think as teachers or educators we want the answer now we want the way to do something now and which means we don't then really learn the protocols the ways of treating people and their stories and so when we use them well we might not get as much out of the stories as we could have and in Mr. Crow's case the stories that turned to bark well it wasn't something that would feed the people that would feed the families so they would be healthy and be able to carry on in a good way. So I think that that particular story may help us maybe think more about how we would get ourselves ready those four R's of respect, responsibility, reverence and reciprocity so if we were Mr. Magpie or maybe we should say Mr. Crow how could we help Mr. Crow become ready to treat the stories in a good way so part of that would be taking some time and patience to learn from others and I think that's really important because often I think today we may not have as much patience as we could have in our learning and then then we could think about the understandings that we have or share those understandings with others perhaps if we think about a teacher it could be K-12, it could be a post-secondary to think of how a teacher might use this story of Mr. Magpie and Mr. Crow perhaps once getting ready to you know with the four R's of respect, responsibility, reverence and reciprocity but then using it in a classroom where I have used this story with university students and in that case we started talking about leadership and trying to think about while here are the two characters Mr. Magpie and Mr. Crow now what kind of leaders are they and we then had a talking circle and where people in the talking circle could relate or share their thoughts, their questions about the type of leader you know Mr. Magpie was seen as perhaps you know somebody who's patient, who's kind who cares about others by showing that he cares about others' property and you know and to think of well how does that make one an effective leader whereas we think about Mr. Crow and somebody who you know is disrespectful or who doesn't really care about others as much as he cares about himself and trying to be someone who's who wants in a sense the glory of being somebody out front so you know it's a way that perhaps individuals in that situation talked about aspects of leadership and then also thinking about what might that deer symbolize and then we also wondered while the hunter you know we raised questions now why did the hunter then decide that he was going to give both characters the deer you know so that just you know is a way that we could you know start to explore other ideas sometimes another pedagogy that I have experienced is with the late elder Ellen White Kawasaki one of those sail-ish peoples where she was a wonderful storyteller and she often said you know sometimes when you hear a story you can just go away take it away and think about it and maybe dream about it and then there's a time then you can talk to somebody else that may have heard that story and sort of you know as you're that story something that somebody says might tickle a thought as she often said you know or tickle a feeling and that way you might share that and it becomes a shared story of course with younger children you could role play you could have puppets you know and it's a way that that could become a shared story about you know being you know Mr. Magpie when you're kind and gentle or sometimes you could be Mr. Crow and where you're not being gentle with others and you're a bit rough or you know and there are important things to consider in that way and the implications of types of behavior and so I think you know in that way sometimes a story that shared you know becomes a common reference and so the teacher then could just use that story to say oh remember Mr. Magpie, Mr. Crow and what happened you know to them and their families when they weren't respectful or when they were respectful well I think the success of Indigenous story work you know would really depend on you know what the goals of the lesson were for what intention the educator or the teacher had in mind when using the story and so if part of the goal was to see you know the reaction of the students were they engaged were they involved in the discussion you know did they talk about their feelings did they talk about or did they write about or did they draw you know some of the behaviors or actions or be involved in problem solving so one could go back to that holistic approach to see you know what might a student learn or share a meaning about the story kind of the intellectual maybe user creativity you know what might they have felt you know what actions what problem solving might they suggest or how did it make them you know feel as them you know as who they are and all of that could be either oral in discussion or it could be in written form or it could be in acting it could be in drawing could be making up a poem a song so there are many different ways to assess the learning and then the other part would be you know just being aware of you know are the students you know talking about the story another time you know maybe a week or two later did they remember the you know different parts of the story