 And now I'd like to take a few seconds to introduce Roger Fernandez. He will be hosting this event today. He's a Native American artist, storyteller, and educator whose work focuses on traditional arts, legends, and teaching of the Coast Salish tribes of the Puget Sound region of Western Washington. He is a member of the Lower O'ahuas Klaylam tribe. He has a degree in Native American Studies from the Evergreen State College and Master's Degree in Whole System Design from Antone. Anyok University, he has also studied graphic design at the University of Washington and has focused on learning, creating, and teaching Coast Salish art for the past 20 years. So, Roger, if you wanna come up here. And then also... APPLAUSE Not to use a microphone unless the room people can't hear me. So can people in the back hear me all right? Good. Because I was taught by my teachers. When I speak from my heart to your heart, I want nothing between us. No technology. We just speak to each other. There's this thing called the sacred breath, the teaching of our people. We share the same breath. That's the most powerful time when we communicate. But of course, you know, we share the breath with the animals, the plants, the trees. We share our breath with them. And that's something that has helped me understand how I'm supposed to live in the world. So I won't use a microphone. I do teach a class here on Native American storytelling. Monday, Wednesday evening. I'm happy to see some of my students are here. I might ask them to volunteer and come up and help me. We'll see. Don't worry about it. But I am from a tribe called the Lower Elwok. That's a river outside of Port Angeles. It's called the Lower Elwok. Clalem people. Like a lot of the tribes, our names are mispronounced because the English speakers couldn't say them. Our real name is not Clalem. Clalem County is named after us. Our real name is Nixklaem. And Nixklaem, I guess you could see, where Nixklaem came close, I guess. But our real name is Nixklaem, which means strong people. The city of Seattle is named after... Chief Seattle. Chief Seattle, not his real name. His real name is Siak. At the end, Siak. For the city of Seattle, they couldn't figure out how to do it in English, so they said Siak, Siak, Siak. Close enough. So, again, that misunderstanding starts really basically simply with even pronouncing our names, our words. And so those are kind of things that we're hoping your generation can change using our real names, speaking our language instead of us only having to speak yours. So, I'm really happy to be here. I took a long route to become a storyteller. I studied graphic design at the University of Washington, which led me to learn more and more about Native people and Native art. Then I became an artist, but to learn the artwork, you got to learn the stories, so I learned the stories. And then it began to become a storyteller. And so... But at the bottom of all this, I believe people need to understand I'm not here to put on a show piece. It's not a show. I'm not an actor. I'm not a performer. I'm not an entertainer. Although you will be entertained. Don't worry about it, okay? I am a teacher. Storytelling is teaching. It's the oldest kind of teaching there is. You know that reading and writing have only been around for the past few thousand, a couple of three thousand years, maybe more. But writing and reading were kept by the higher class people to control those of us anyway. But now we accept it as a given. Reading and writing are how we communicate, how we share and learn. But imagine, what did human beings do before that? To remember, to share, to teach, to learn. They told stories. Within the stories, they kept all the knowledge they needed. And so that's why I'm a storyteller, to keep those old ways alive as best I can. And looking at the topic of today, looking at the intent of today to talk about how human beings today, we suffer trauma. We have things, our minds, our bodies, our spirits cannot really handle. That's trauma. That's what's been finding me, that something that happens to your mind, your spirit, or your body, that your system can't incorporate. There's a struggle there, a painful struggle. And how do we address that? For native people, the trauma of a genocide against our people, where, depending on who you're talking to, in the Western Hemisphere, up to 100 million natives were killed in the conquest, as the Western people called it, of the New World. And this region right here, the Puget Sound region up to Alaska, the Northwest Coast, a lot of people who studied this said, this was probably the most densely populated region of native people in the Americas. The most densely populated, because this region we live in is a paradise with salmon and clams and oysters and nears and berries. Everything you need to live in the world was right here, is right here. But when the great plagues of diseases that the Europeans introduced came through here, people theorized that 80% of our people died. 80%, a village of 100 people, at the end of a year, 20 people left. And so again, that's trauma. You see your people dying around you in terrible ways, caught by diseases. You see people being taken away to prison, your children taken from you to go to the boarding schools. You see all these things happen. Your mind, your body, your spirit cannot deal with it. That is trauma. And trauma never goes away. Trauma stays with you because it's part of you now. And this is what I learned a long time ago. You pass it on to the next generation. Without knowing it, without meaning to, you pass it on to the next generation. And they pass it on to the next generation. So trauma is not a condition. You can take a pill and it's gone. You cannot unkill people. You cannot get rid of that painful thing that caused the trauma. So I was taught the best thing you can do for trauma. And I know this is a field that people are studying so it might have changed since I first learned about it, is to talk and tell your story of that struggle, of that pain, of that suffering to other people who share it with you. And that way you will leave some of the pressure that I'm at least able to tell the story of my suffering, my pain. So again, trauma is a powerful thing. The African-American community has it because their ancestors were taken from Africa and enslaved in very cruel ways. Many, many of them died. And so that struggle continues that day to deal with that trauma. And the Native American people, the same thing. So all groups have to look at their history and realize what terrible things happened in the past might be still working with us today. But the Native people, way back in the day, way before Columbus landed, they're human beings. And because they're human beings, they tell human stories. And so within their stories, hopefully another human being can hear it and learn from that story. As we can learn from any cultural story that speaks from a human being to a human being. So I'm going to tell you a story with the idea of what we're talking about today, the idea of trauma, of finding strength, of all these things we're going to talk about. Struggle. This happened because we're human. And so I found a story found me. A story found me that allows me to talk about certain concepts that outside the story are really hard to talk about. But we talk about them through the story. It makes that a little bit easier. We can find a way to converse and talk. So I'm just going to do it. I'm going to tell this story. This story is from out around here. I learned this story from a Native storyteller. His name is Gene Taggabat. He's from Alaska. But he learned it from a storyteller in California who was really from Oklahoma. So this story went from Oklahoma to California to Alaska now to here. He's a storyteller. And if you remember this story, you want to tell it? Please do. It'll travel with you. So I'm just going to tell the story. Now, I have many of my class here. So they know what we do. We talk about the story when it's done. So you guys might get it started. We'll see. A long time ago, the animals had a big problem. The animals had a big problem in their village and no one could solve the problem. They all talked about it. Now, because it affected all of them, this big problem, they couldn't find an answer. They could not solve this problem. Well, the animals know as we should know. If you have a big problem one person cannot solve is what you do is you go to the big house. Probably about the size of this room might hear a big house in the middle of the village. And in the middle of the big house is always a fire. So everyone goes to the big house. They sit around the fire in a big circle and they talk about the problem. One by one, everyone stands up to talk about the problem. One by one, everyone gives their thoughts, their ideas, their solutions and through that the people find the idea, the solution because all of us have a chance to speak. So that's how you solve a big problem. Go to the big house, sit around the fire in a big circle and one by one, everyone stands up to talk about the problem. So the animals did this. They start talking about the problem inside the big house. Outside the house, they hear this noise. The animals say, what is up? Who's making all that noise outside? And the animals go outside and standing outside the house in a little rabbit with his hand drunk singing and playing really loud. The animals say, little rabbit you've got to be quiet. We're having a big meeting in the house. It's really important you make too much noise out here, little rabbit. You can sing when we're all done. So little rabbit be quiet. The animals go outside the house. They sit around the fire in a big circle. They start talking about the problem. When from outside the house they hear whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. The animals say, what is up with that rabbit? He's still out there making noise. Somebody make him be quiet. Bear, I'll take care of the rabbit. I know what to do. And Bear lumbers out of the house and says, little rabbit, we totally be quiet. We're having a big meeting. We're making too much noise out here, little rabbit. We're listening to Bear talk. And when Bear isn't talking, little rabbit goes whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. So Bear reaches over, grabs when the rabbit's arms and pulls it off. He'll get your arm back when the meeting is over. Now you be quiet, little rabbit. Goes back into the house to care that rabbit. He only has one arm. Can't play his drum and he can't bother us now. So the animals start the meeting again. When from outside the house they hear whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. He's holding the drum between his legs still singing really down and the animals getting more angry. What is up with him? Somebody make me quiet. Wolf, I'll take care of the rabbit. And Wolf goes outside and says, little rabbit, you're still making noise, you've got to be quiet, but little rabbit still playing like this. So Wolf reaches over, grabs rabbit's other arm and pulls it off. You'll get this arm back when the meeting is over. Now you be quiet, little rabbit. Goes back into the house to care the rabbit. No arm, can't play his drum and he can't bother us now. So the animals start the meeting again. When from outside the house they hear whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. Little rabbit stomping his foot still singing really down. And now the animals getting very angry. He's still out there making noise. Somebody take care of that rabbit. Coyote, I'll take care of him. Coyote goes outside and says, little rabbit, you've got to be quiet, but little rabbit keeps stomping his foot like this. So Coyote reaches over, grabs one rabbit's legs and pulls it off. You'll get your leg back when the meeting is over. You be quiet, little rabbit. Go back into the house to care the rabbit. No arms, one leg can't bother us now. So they start the meeting again. When from outside the house they hear whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. Little rabbit's hopping around in one leg singing really down. And now the animals are very angry. Somebody make that rabbit be quiet. Make him be quiet now. Eagle, I'll take care of the rabbit once and for all. And eagle goes outside and says, little rabbit. Little rabbit hopping around in one leg so eagle reaches over, grabs rabbit's head and pulls it off. You'll get your head back when the meeting is over. Now you be quiet, little rabbit. Goes back into the house to care the rabbit. No head, no arms, one leg can't bother us now. Let's finish the meeting. And so the animals start the meeting again. When from outside the house they hear the little noise. Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. And then the animals realize something. They realize something. They realize that song was coming from rabbit's heart. That was a song in his heart to sing. And so the animals realized everything they did to that little rabbit was wrong. Because if something comes from someone's heart, there's nothing you can do to stop it. In fact, if you're their friend, you should be helping them. So the animals were really bad. Everything they did was wrong. They went back outside and an eagle put back rabbit's head. Baron Wolfe put back rabbit's arms. Coyote said, it's almost lunchtime. Can I keep the leg? They said no. Give it back to rabbit. So there was a little rabbit all put back together. He got his drum. He taught the animals a song. And they sang it with him. It's a gambling song. A little rabbit, obviously a gambler. Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. And that is all the story called the little rabbit. So I told you that story to teach you something. But my job is not to explain it to you. It's to figure it out. You have to figure out the meanings within the story that might relate to the topic we're here to talk about or other elements of your life. You have to figure that out. My job, real simple. I tell the story, your job, more complicated. Figure it out. Why did the storyteller tell that story to this event? Why did the animals behave a certain way? What was rabbit doing? You have to figure all that out. And the cool thing about that is each one of you in this room is telling. I'm not here to tell you. Here's the answer. I'm telling you, asking you what answer did you find in this story? So, now my class is here. I'm going to ask them the model. What's happening in the story to you? Anything jump out in terms of what you think the story is teaching? Some of my class? Time's traumatic, but you'll still find a way to do it if you really love it. Okay. I don't know if you want to stand up and say that when we paraphrase it for you. That was good. He said sometimes traumatic events prevent you from doing the work you want to do. But something else, you'll find a way to get the work done regardless. So sometimes we have to work through that trauma to get work done. Wonderful. Did little rabbit in all the things he did, did anyone ask little rabbit why you're doing what you're doing? Did anyone know? They did. So, the little rabbit had to work that out. He was sending them a message. He was trying to teach them something. Any other thoughts here? Any other thoughts from the room? Yeah, what do you think is happening in the story for you? I think that when you're doing the meeting it's only the animal. So, rabbit was also the animal to work part of it. So, for them, rabbit was just simple. So, they should also add it to the meeting instead of keeping it outside. So, basically, I'm trying to say that in the society right now we should care about every human being. Not about different color. Not about different money thing. Not about different countrymen. We should care about all the human beings together. Thank you. Hopefully, you heard him. The idea that little rabbit was excluded from that important meeting. And maybe because he's little. Maybe he has no power. Maybe he's a troublemaker. Who knows, but he was kept away from the meeting. And he's saying, but if you're going to solve this problem, every voice has to be heard. Every person has to be listened to. Regardless of income, or education, or gender, or whatever it is, include every voice. And so, sometimes we forget that. We allow other people to speak for us. And they are very exclusive in the way they operate. So, again, listen to every voice. Wonderful. Any other thoughts about this story? Yeah, uh-huh. Real. Real. Real. Human. That act will be prevented. Okay. Prevention against, like, an act, contract, and that act, after filming the fabulous, it's kind of like a faking, you know? Okay. So, like, a double, double side of human behavior. Okay. Well, thank you for sharing that. The idea that, um, the community at the end of the story, did they learn something that Rabbit expected them to learn? And, again, a simple apology sometimes, we're sorry we didn't mean to, is that really sufficient to face trauma? That, oh, we're sorry. Now, that's a whole other conversation, but I'm glad you brought it up. How do people apologize? How do we accept the apology? How do we move forward after the apology has been accepted? Because so many terrible, traumatic things have happened in so many groups that it's really sometimes symbolic, but maybe it's the start of something, that the change can come out of that. But one of the stories I share, a young boy is abused by his uncle, beaten and starved and, uh, his little spirit is attacked, his uncle calls him stupid and ugly. At the end of the story, the uncle apologizes. I should never have done those things. The elders told me I was wrong. The boy does not want to accept the apology, because he remembers the pain of that. But another character remembers him. Your uncle is telling the truth. So, again, that idea of apology, that idea of, um, trying to make atonement for this, that's a whole other conversation into itself. Any other thoughts about this story? Because there's a lot way in the back. Yeah, what do you see? We just sent this story from the beginning. We're so interested, they were so interested in getting to the process. The group is not always correct to get to the process that that process occurred that process. Yeah, so he was standing up for something he wanted to present to the group. And I love the connection of these ideas. It makes me see the stories and new lights. But I'll tell you what one ten-year-old boy told me when he heard this story. Kids love this story because a little rabbit being torn apart by a bunch of animals. They like that. But, he said the animals had a problem to solve. And they went to the big house to solve the problem. So the big house became because they were trying to solve the problem with their brain. And the big house became this big brain trying to solve this big problem. He said that rabbit didn't want to go to that meeting. He stood outside drumming and singing and little rabbit was telling them the problem's not with your brain, it's with your heart. This is where the problem lies. You're approaching it in a way that's not going to solve the problem. Little rabbit was trying to tell them that. But by doing that, they began to punish him tearing off his arms and legs. What do you mean? And that's what storytelling can do. It allows you to be philosophical and children are natural philosophers. So the little boys explained. And I said that his perspective shifted my entire understanding of the story. That we look at racism. I don't believe it's a purely intellectual exercise. In fact, science put out some reports a few years ago that said, well actually, race is not a... You can't use science to validate it it's a social construct. And so the idea that racism can be solved here well it needs to be solved here at some point but it really needs to be addressed in here, in my opinion. And until we can speak about these topics from here and not purely put into words and laws and numbers then we might be speaking the wrong language to solve the problem. I'm not saying I have the answer if I did I would tell you, I really would, but I don't. All I know is the story reminds me. How do we solve the problem of racism in here? What language do we use in here as we speak to each other? And again, we live in a culture that dismisses this and glorifies this so the answer is in here. So that little boy helped me understand that thing so I took it some more because once someone puts me on a path of understanding the story I take it again. A couple years ago Bernie Sanders was running for Democratic nomination for president and he came to Seattle. He was speaking at Westlake Park and a thousand people showed up here to speak. But before he got to the microphone two African American women jumped up, ran up grabbed the microphone and said we got something to say. And Bernie Sanders, either in his wisdom or whatever, he backed away and let them speak and they said we're from blind lives matter we're here to talk about something nobody wants to talk about and that is the acts of violence against our people and they talked about the police shootings in the street of unarmed men, women and children across the country and nobody seemed to care people vilified them in the news and social media how dare they jump up and talk about how dare they grab the mic they were attacked for bringing up this very important topic that no one wanted to talk about and I looked at them and I said the little rabbit right here the little rabbit is right here just came from their heart they're speaking of 400 years of suffering of a people and we're still not doing anything about it it's a message for 500 years but whatever it is this country doesn't want to address it at pretty much any level so that reminded me then I looked at more people Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a little rabbit because you're all young you probably didn't exist when he was doing his work I remembered he was not beloved in America nobody said we're going to make a special day for you on your birthday we're going to close down the post office they never said that don't dare you talk about a race of King he was ultimately killed because he refused to back down he refused to give up the words from his heart on behalf of his people and I looked at the little rabbit there he is again Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the national anthem because I believe he interpreted it as a a false anthem if it didn't serve everyone and in his conscience he couldn't do it is he ever going to play pro football again no I don't think he is but he knew that I knew he knew that the price he might have to pay but that little rabbit Colin Kaepernick knelt and said I'm not going to do this but of course he was vilified he was cussed out he was accused by our president of being an SOB all these kind of things he was willing to tolerate for native people there's a place called Standing Rock a reservation over in South Dakota and a pipeline was being built in the reservation and so these native people gathered they said we have to stop the pipeline because of the pipeline of eruptures it will contaminate the water beneath it and it will pollute the land and the water we have to stand up for this they went unarmed against police dogs against fire hoses helicopters they did it because they're the little rabbits so the little rabbit has always been around us this story allows us to talk about this topic through the story with the little rabbit kind of standing in for hopefully who we can be that we would be willing to stand up to injustice we see it see that we are willing to frame things in such a way that would reach the hearts of other people and be willing to be again vilified having your head torn off the idea that they were trying to silence you they didn't want to hear what you have to say so the little rabbit to me I hope I have the courage of the little rabbit I really do so you understand what I'm trying to do with the story here through this story we can get philosophical through this story we can extrapolate and start to talk about other topics we can bring history into it we can bring all kinds of topics into this where the story allows us to talk that way so that little rabbit story is a story of hope to me because we need little rabbits and like I said I hope when that time comes I can be a little rabbit and I can say this is wrong this is wrong we can't do this anymore the me too movement of women being able to hear their story be heard after generations and being told to be quiet keep it secret we don't want you to tell anybody that is a powerful little rabbit movement as well so for me then there are so many ways to take this story and say little rabbit right now right in front of us but then that turns around to me and says will I be little rabbit will I have the courage to do that so then I use story telling to try to connect these very very old stories with who we are today because they do they were told by human beings were human beings therefore they should touch us at a level that maybe it's hard for us to explain so I've learned different stories from all around Native America cultures some of them like from Africa I heard an African storyteller from the Masai people tell this story and I learned it because I heard him tell it and then like a couple weeks later I found a book and said this story is trying to track me down here I better learn it I'm going to tell you a story that I learned from Africa the Masai people of Central Kenya and people say why is a Native American storyteller telling African stories they're human second off they live in villages third off they fish and hunt they're just like us they're just on the other side of the world so many connections that are there that I want to hear their stories because I know within those stories I might learn something so this story I love this little story a long time ago rabbit little rabbit another rabbit rabbit built his house and he was always inviting friends over and having dinner with people he loved his little house one day rabbit left his house and rabbit went out to the woods to gather food while he was gone a little caterpillar came creeping into rabbit's house the caterpillar looked around and said I like rabbit's house it's a really nice house I'm going to stay here so the caterpillar crept up the house post went to the rafters of the house the roof of the house and went to sleep rabbit came back he saw there was a little trail going into his house but none was coming out so rabbit went into his house and said who is in my house no answer so he was louder, who is in my house and he woke up the caterpillar and the caterpillar did not show himself he was hiding in the shadows of the woods at the roof of the house but the caterpillar said in a very loud voice I'm a great and terrible monster I'm a great and terrible warrior get out of this house before I eat you up and chew your bones in the dust rabbit said wait a minute this is my house and the boys came out I'm a great and terrible monster get out of this house before I eat you up and chew your bones in the dust and rabbit ran out of the house oh no a terrible monster was taking over my house what can I do, what can I do I lost, wait a minute, wait a minute jackal is as smart as all the animals so rabbit went and found jackal and explained the terrible monster was taking my house jackal can you help me get my house back and jackal said I will help you rabbit they came back jackal put his head into rabbit's house and said who is in rabbit's house and out of the darkness came that voice again I'm a great and terrible monster a great and terrible warrior get out of this house before I eat you up and chew your bones in the dust and jackal pulled his head out and said I've never heard a monster like that and he ran out to the woods rabbit sitting there oh no lion is big and strong and brave lion will help me so he got lion lion came back put his head into rabbit's house and who was in rabbit's house the voice came out of the darkness I'm a great and terrible monster I've never heard a voice like that it sounds so powerful I can't help you rabbit and lion ran away rabbit is crying who can help me not jackal not elephant lion is the biggest and strongest of all the animals elephant can do it and so he found elephant elephant came back put his head in rabbit's door and said who is in rabbit's house the voice came out of the darkness again I'm a great and terrible monster elephant pulled his head out if this monster is not afraid of me and I'm the biggest and strongest of all the beings it must truly be a great monster and elephant ran away so there was little rabbit see they're crying and crying jackal not lion not elephant and then he heard a little voice hello rabbit and he turned around and there was little frog little frog said rabbit why are you crying oh he lost my host to a terrible monster nobody can help me not jackal not lion not elephant little frog said let me talk to the monster and rabbit said no little frog you can't do it it'll eat you like you're a piece of candy or something but little frog said I will talk to the monster little rabbit hopped into rabbit's house and said who is in rabbit's house the voice came out of the darkness I'm a great and terrible monster a great and terrible little frog said show me your face I want to see who you are the voice came out again I'm a great no no show me your face I want to see who you are and little caterpillar leaned over the board and said it's just me caterpillar little frog said you should be a stranger for yourself you get out of rabbit's house right now so little caterpillar they creeping down the house creeping out the door and how do you think rabbit felt when he saw the terrible monster coming out of his house how do you feel jackal and lion and elephant fell because they were hiding in the woods watching the whole thing unfold that is all the story I call this terrible monster so again I tell you these stories that don't have anything to do with our topic but at a deeper level I believe they do they do we have a culture that is afraid to confront some of the terrible things they've done in the past their history they've hidden that for so long in my opinion they've hidden it for so long now the stories are starting to come out we people of color of different groups women, transgender all kinds of people are coming out and say this is my story you've told me to be quiet for so long but I'm going to tell you my story now and for me when we really want to get to know other people we must hear their stories so the story about the little rabbit is fascinating to me it's about transformation it's about changing how rapid change but also how change itself happens and so hopefully again we don't need to analyze every story but to realize within the story there are teachings there are things that your human ancestors sent in the story to teach you right now they knew you would be here I was taught by my Indian teachers that our ancestors knew you would be here and you would need a story to help you learn to live in the world that's why they sent us stories so my class knows this I'm going to share with you I challenge you to look at the stories of your ancestors to look at those old ancient stories because those people understood that they were connected to the earth beneath them and out of the earth beneath them came these stories that helped them understand how to live in the world and that is a wisdom now we don't do much wisdom do you have a wisdom class here in Highland? do we have? wisdom is something you gave to experience and learning and your human heart and so wisdom is something that I think we sorely need now we can do facts and data and reports and those kind of things but in my opinion those things don't feed your heart your brain appreciates them because it helps shape what we need to do but your heart needs to be moved first so again I tell the story because they come from the heart I'm telling them from my heart to your heart I said that's why I need a microphone I want that to be pure and good so I'll tell you one more story again my job is to tell the story your job is to figure it out and then connect it to our topic today the idea of we have trauma among many of our communities and we're struggling to correct the course of the world the course of this country's history we're trying to change the lives of our community members all the time we have trauma and so I'm going to share a very simple story with you it's from the so quality people you know who so call me fall so call me pass so call me river so call me casino and the so call me people they're still here and so call is the moon that in their language so call is the moon so so call me remember I said earlier all these names are mispronounced their real name is so call buke so call so call is the moon buke means people love so so call me means people of the moon so they are the descendants when the moon came to the earth and prepared the world for humans they are descendants of those birth people but they tell the story and I'm going to ask you to help me tell it at a certain point you have to help me tell it alright got that no no right a long time ago well first off you guys from college you should know the answer to this question could all of you show me where is the sky very good highlight who can tell me how high is this how high is the sky what the sky is very high in case you want to know the sky is very high but this is no common story these people up in the mountains so they tell mountain sky stories you're closer to the sky than the rest of us they tell of a time when the sky was not way up there and it was heavy it was way down here here was when the sky was right here and because of that the people had to walk around like this all the time bent over like this this is how they walked all the time because they stood up they bumped their heads in the sky so it's not fun walking like this you keep bumping your head your back starts to hurt you can't see where you're going you can only see your feet beneath you and so the people began to argue all the time arguing with each other all the time and then they began to fight pushing each other, hitting each other get out of my way you made me bump my head and so the people were arguing and fighting all the time can you imagine such a time arguing and fighting all the time well there was a little girl in a house in this village and she saw this she said this is not right my people should not be arguing and fighting all the time there must be something I can do and so she thought and she thought and she thought some more and she had an idea she walked out of her house to the middle of the village put her hands in the sky and she pushed up as hard as she could and guess what she felt the sky move a tiny bit she said huh if I call the other people out of their houses and we push together maybe we can push the sky up a little bit more and so she called the people out and told them her plan but they were grumpy crazy idea that'll never work she said please try this once they said alright they all put their hands in the sky and they pushed up as hard as they could and guess what they felt it move a little bit more now this was a very smart little girl she said I know if we invite all the Indian tribes around here to come to our village the Duwamish from Seattle the Piwala from Tacoma from Rainbow Island and we all pushed together maybe we can push the sky up push it out of our way push it where it belongs and the people said now this is a girl that's a very good idea so all the Indian tribes would call but that's Duwamish village up in the mountains and the plan was explained to them how they were going to push up the sky and everyone agreed it was a really good idea but someone in the back yelled out hey hey there's a big problem here there's a really big problem there's different languages and it's true they do we all speak different languages so we don't have a different word for push how can we push together how can we work together while the people talked and thought and argued and talked about it but they couldn't think of anything the people knew if you have a problem you can't solve this is a variation you go to the old people the elders they find the edge of the village and they explain the problem he said let me think about it come back in 4 days and I'll tell you they came back and the old man said you shall use the word yahout yahout means work together yahout means push together when I say yahout we all say yahout and push up on that heavy sky so can you all say yahout yahout just pretend you're pushing up the sky with your hands right here this is called audience participation it's relatively painless so push your hands right here when I say yahout here we go yahout yahout yahout yahout is that high enough? no it's not let's get some big long poles yahout yahout yahout we did it we pushed this guy up to where it is today and so this don't call me people today if we work together we can do great things we can even push up the sky so this is a story called pushing up the sky told by this don't call me people what does that have to do with the topic we're talking about today any thoughts on that how does this connect with the place we're at the things we're talking about today any thoughts yes if we come together as we've done today we can solve any problem we can solve the problem before us so come together work together but sometimes you find we speak different languages we speak different languages cultures cultural backgrounds we come from different levels of education different everything so how can we work together so the elder who was really smart but he also had the wisdom so it's through the heart so the elder said let me think about it for 4 days which means he's telling them I really think this is an important question let me think about it for a while and then he came up with the word yahout that will help us to work together one person said we need a word a belief, a philosophy that unites us all together to do this work because we're all going to have different perspectives we're all going to have different ideas but as long as we have one idea that we hold in common then we can make this work because again we're coming from the African-American experience that Native American experience the Asian experience the there's Latino experience there's all these experiences we're coming you have different stories but can we find one thing that will hold us that we always agree on this one thing and again that's what the story the wisdom of the story is yes we can work together but we have to work to make that happen that makes sense what I'm trying to say there alright so any other thoughts about the story in my culture we we look back into history in order to move forward they're the same in order to move forward you have to face the past and walk backwards and I think in I'm going to stand up and say this this is heavy wisdom this young woman brings from her Hawaiian background Hawaiian Native background and so I'm humbled that she shares this all the time in the class and go ahead and share what you just said and make sure everybody hears alright in my culture Hawaiian culture history and genealogy is really important for us so our belief is in order to move forward we must look back so we have a saying where you must face the past so I see the elder as like history like a living story and I think a problem in Western cultures they don't deem history as important so they keep making mistakes because when they look back they refuse to look back and fix what's in front of them they refuse to use those from the past in order to fix what's happening now thank you I have an idea though that this story links a little girl who has an original idea and an elder who comes up with a solution to make this work that we need the enthusiasm the energy for the genius of young people to say we need this this is how we can solve the problem how are we going to do this though go to an elder and the elder will help you find the idea to tell you how it might work and so again can you see that the man who shaped the story said he changed it in the beginning was another character he changed it to a little girl to make sure we understood the young people have the answers they know they live in this world they have answers we must listen to them as elder people we must help them refine it so we can make it into not just an idea but an action so wonderful thank you for sharing that any other thoughts about this story as I said in the story the people were arguing and fighting all the time my life in America of 65 years I've never seen a like this before I mean it's been pretty ugly pretty contentious but right now there seems to be so much harder than fighting the story seems I have to keep telling the story because people face these things there are times when people are culture falls apart there are all times when people face struggles they cannot imagine how to solve but this is a story that appears within this story possibilities so again for me this this story is a lot more than just what it seems to do pushing up the sky but then I looked at it and thought about it some more I told this is probably one of the oldest stories I know for about 30 years of story jelly I thought about what does that dark and heavy sky represent what might it represent it could represent depression that I feel like the way the world is upon me I can't stand up I can't see where I'm going I don't know where I am and that's depression but it also could represent old pressure pushing you down and you have to live according to their rules you have to follow their orders all the time but how do we live either depression or oppression off of us yeah what you said one of the most basic things to do ask for help help one another work together work together that means we must ask each other for help so I really believe that asking for help is not a sign of weakness a sign of strength that I recognize I'm among friends if they ask for help they will give it to me and if they ask for my help I will give it to them so again in the culture view asking for help is woven in our stories all the time ask for help if we are truly a community and so the idea though to me is we cannot move forward until we move that weight upon us we cannot move forward until we live that heavy sky upon us that oppression or depression we must do that first this is where you're going so if we can't see where we're going how can we plan for that we must put that depression that oppression off of us this is what I've found in the story for myself you might, could you carry the story and tell it a few times you might find something different because that's powerful, that's wonderful I'm not saying you have to agree with what I say I'm only interpreting it from who I am project matter, artist, storyteller educator, social worker, grandfather all these things totally differently and that's a good thing but still we find a time that it's almost describing our time right now something is weighing down upon us we can feel it so heavy and it depresses us so we can't even see the future how do we live that off of us we must do it together but to do it together we must understand the words are easy to say but difficult to do so we must come to some agreements how we work together how we can work together that's why I tell stories these words are not new ideas these words are not my ideas they're the ideas of people way before me and I'm happy to learn them and share them I would like to add my territory what incident happened it was first of all history is really mad because I didn't knew about that after studying on sociology by our professor I get to know the history is really mad so I'm from Bangladesh next to India but we have our own country on 1971 we got five in Pakistan and we won the battle and it's our independent country but from 1967 till 1971 the Pakistan people they took our land everything they're killing people and we are like helpless on that time so there was only one person like a little girl his name is he said no I'm gonna make my country free everyone on the street because from the Pakistan all the weapons the Bangladesh people was nothing we have only like just a sword or knife that's all we have so India they helped us a lot so Bungalow in the Sheikh Mojib Ram I told if we get together all together we think we can freedom our country and it really worked on 1971 they took action against the Pakistan and only by hand and a couple of guns but they have tanks too but we make our country independent on that time so for me whatever your story is matching with our country too and as well as Martin Luther King Jr because he took also the action then Black Lives Matter it doesn't matter you can come all together but if you all together we can force the sky all over the land thank you this gesture I'm completing the storytelling now because I know they had kind of a schedule here this gesture among our people native people right here my tribe is just from 60 miles of the Lower Elba but all the tribes around here are like this all the time this means thank you hello you're welcome goodbye we call that putting where has to be this is our surrender this is what we do this is thank you so I want to say hot mix it which means thank you for inviting me to a special event on a special day thank you for allowing me to share the stories with you thank you for sharing your thoughts and beyond the stories and I look forward to seeing you all again thank you to class here Monday was a nice storytelling I don't know if I'll do it again this quarter's going pretty good right they want to pass they want to pass so again confidence in thank you and the strategy confidence in see how special people and we're going to take a break and then maybe question after further discussions so thank you very much does anyone have any questions that's for Roger what got you like interested like where in your life have you got interested in storytelling and want to like do that I read a lot so I love reading and acquiring stories through books when I was 15 one of the pivotal books I read I didn't even plan on reading was somebody left my locker called the dubious battle by John Steinbeck and he wrote the book which is about the struggle of the Oklahoma refugees trying to come to California and they were being abused by farmers and ranchers they're poor they're desperate they'll work for anything so the idea of the book was that labor organizers try to unionize the fields back then they came to help people organize strikes and things like that the first time I ever through a story understood that you can stand up and fight for something greater than yourself as a kid you might see it in a movie but in story form labor organizers back then working in the food orchards of California it's like they should have painted a target on their chest because they were going to get killed and they knew that but they were willing to sacrifice for the good of making sure that children were not starving that old people were not dying of exposure that people were dying from diseases in the hospital to get cures for but they had no money so they were fighting for something greater than themselves and they were willing to die for that again for me as a human it was like whoa I didn't know them 50 years old but that shaped me that was a story that shaped me but when I came to the Native American part recognizing working with Native American children in the schools and seeing their struggles Native American children are smart just like every child is smart in the school every child in the school is intelligent genius that a human being and so it was the question came to me as an educator if I accept the fact that every child is intelligent and smart and creative and motivated that there's nothing wrong with them it must be the system so how do you change the system which led me to the question how does the system work how do you learn versus how do you how does the system expect them to learn and those are two very different processes and for me looking at the history of human beings if that's that good children learn these stories and we've taken that from their education and had them focus on abstract concepts like reading and writing and math when many of them are not physiologically ready for that so the system has dictated how children learn when humanity says that they learn these stories so I became more and more interested how do you storytelling to help children learn because that's their that's their strength so the more stories I learned the more stories I learned I mean I started to get more and more stories I remind people that I started one story 37 years ago I only knew one story but because of that interest and because of the opportunity I know many stories my teacher Johnny Moses he was being interviewed by a reporter so how many stories do you know Johnny and Johnny said more than that how about 2000 a little bit more how about 2500 Johnny said yeah maybe that many so this teacher reminded me that we humans have the capacity to learn many many stories and the children do that as well and putting those stories together gives them a comprehensive foundational knowledge so I approach storytelling as a way of teaching as an educator there is so I would say it's probably 30 years ago I shifted into this is how children learn there's a great author, her name is Vivian Bailey she teaches kindergarten preschool 40 years and she said children learn to story, fantasy and play to do anything else other than that you're portraying that I took her words to heart because she is an educational warrior this 70 year old woman is ready to take on the whole system of how children truly learn and why is the system of training so sorry for making that a big answer but that's kind of how I really came to it thank you other questions or reflections so earlier you mentioned about your books and writing talk a little bit more about that sure again reading and writing have not been around that long if you look at the scale of human history and storytelling creating artwork and that there's a book in my class he does that very question he said the book in the beginning the book was he said if you meet another adult and you're going around school or whatever and the person says to you I can't read and write and you're wrong to that person and mostly it's going to be what's wrong with you so we've gone to the point where we use literacy, reading and writing as a measure of who that person is he said how did that come to be this is a non-native academic just asking a very simple question how did that come to be that reading and writing has become the measure of humanity and he said telling and remembering through your voice and memory and heart and literacy where you've translated to writing and reading and several chapters are very very insightful to me when he wrote the book back in the 1950s there was still a lot of research going on with cultures that don't read and write there was still a lot of illiterate cultures in the world and because again he's approaching literacy is not a measure of that it's just part of their condition doesn't make them good or bad he went to Russia and there was a big study that he was a part of where they were asking in these Russian villages where there was hardly anybody would read and write he asked them some really simple when you begin to read and write everything from a really directive he would say and we're used to this he would ask them a question like can you tell me who you are and the person would look at him and say ask my neighbor they'll tell you or he would ask so what is a tree and they would look at him and say look out the door there's a tree out there so they were using a different a whole different view of communicating a whole different view of how language is used because we've gotten used to reducing it to a word putting the word on the page and therefore that becomes our way of describing the world so that's a wonderful book we have everyone to get more in depth but the main thing I think to me is literacy is a powerful gift and it's a powerful technology a powerful gift but every gift has a price and what is a price we've forgotten how to hear and remember stories and we've shifted away from our heart to our brain so without lecturing you too much more that would be the way I explain it that literacy is wonderful I read right all the time but I have to always remember it comes with a cost and I have to be aware of that cost and recognize that I can learn stories I can learn from stories I can tell stories and I'm not going to give that up for the idea that literacy replaces all of those things I've had my class I told them stories for like a couple of weeks then I had to read a story to each other in small groups and I asked was there a difference and was there a difference to you reading a story versus telling how would you describe that difference is there a way to explain it so there is a connection storytelling connects us we're reading and writing the sharing what you're getting out of the book becomes internal it becomes inside you and you don't share it you said something about words being trapped words being trapped I'm not a poet or a form anyway because it's the beginning of trying to figure something out I said they took the sword they called a pen and they captured the word they took the word and they put it in the cell they called the page they took the page and they put it in the prison they called the book and they said it was good so for me that's my nature is a challenging question I'm an artist and I'm the oldest brother and I'm a Virgo there's another way here so what is that cost and I don't think most of us have given the luxury of figuring out there is a cost to it so as long as we're aware that there is a price and we try to balance that out then I believe it can work but as long as we're told that oral tradition that's old nobody understands that then we forget we're forgetting part of our humanity and storytelling does connect us my breath, shared with your breath in the same space that is what my teacher calls sacred and that's what holds us together when you think it's dangerous to give wrong people voices let's say Hitler people leave during those times when the German the power used by the people and then wherever it came out at the time from this point he totally shifted that energy into a wrong direction and then we still have this problem like today all these like that furthers and then like anti-Brexits they leave their feet compressed the majority in their mind they're probably like a little rabbit don't you think it's like sometimes to like give voices to like that is one of the deepest questions I've heard I would be the old man and say come back to me in four days because you asked a very profound question should every voice be heard and sometimes a voice is preaching hate and discrimination they're preaching violence and should we allow that voice to be spoken so what do you think do you have a gun on that yourself so I would say I need time to think about that one and we have thought about it quite a bit because we are in front of people that are espousing racist supremacist stories I know there are much more philosophical people than me but for me then it's a conversation we need to have with each other I'll just say that but it's a very good question it makes me think four days yeah I think that question maybe we can hear them but not apply what they are teaching because sometimes people speak from, they speak hate because they're speaking from pain so you gotta sometimes it's good to understand and know they're hurt because there are good things to learn from it but we don't always have to apply the teachings again, yeah it's a complex topic maybe we need to hear voices so we understand the scales like what's happening right now in my opinion is that because we elected a certain president that people feel free now to address their hate, their anger if we imagine that they were not there if we imagine the problem was solved if we imagine that we moved on but we really never did so maybe again, that voice needs to be heard to remind us we still have a lot of work to do but what does that work? is it to punish them? is it to educate them? is it to reach out to them? again, we as a group because again, it was interesting there's a powerful book called The Culture Make Belief by Derek Jensen and he positions that the core value in America is hate and average American believes it's justice and fairness and equality opportunity but look at all the things America has done and recognize that if you use the word hate everything makes sense so again if you try to seal that voice that doesn't mean it goes away it means that it is buried that we need to confront it in my opinion, we need to confront it and so again a complex question but again, we can talk about those things come up with some possible answers but I appreciate the question very much my teacher said all the problems we're facing today humans have faced before and so it's not like we have the brand new problem though it ever seemed before I told you the story of how people were fighting arguing all the time our ancestors saw that time we forget the work it takes to maintain balance in the world with each other with the world itself maintaining balance is a lot of work and if you forget that, things fall apart so I think we just have to accept that it will always be work for us to maintain balance but we have to be aware that to do that work we have to get out of our comfort zone sometimes so these stories challenge me to think in different ways and I am always in awe of the wisdom you can find within the stories that our ancestors told us a long time ago so as I said before everyone in here, your ancestors told the exact same kind of stories I'm going to share today can you find those stories? I encourage you because I'm not a high tech Kyra will tell you that but you can type in you know Turkish Bokal to whatever it is and they'll show up and I tell people to go back and find the oldest stories you can so if you go back and find a story from your culture that had kings and queens in it you haven't gone back far enough go back before the kings and queens and they lived with the earth and animals and other people in a certain way I'm not going to say more natural but it was built out of the idea of nature itself so I really encourage you to do that if I can help you do that, let me know but then you learn that story and you tell it you have to tell the story for it really to be activated and to be able to start to do its work so learn the story, memorize it and tell it that's all I can tell you now that you said to go back way back and I'm assuming that we all originated either very close or you know whatever theories we all believe but since you're a storyteller and you've done this for a really long time I'm pretty sure when I hear that you've listened and heard to very different cultures and walks of life do you find that stories are very similar even across cultures that's my favorite if they're a common ground even way back I'm pretty sure you do people that live with nature find some very basic understandings of the earth and how you live in the earth and they're going to share the exact same stories that we share here I shared a story with my class one about how dog and wolf separated dog went to live with people stayed out in the woods then I have another story from Africa how dog went to live with people and jack will stay out in the brush it's the same story so what does that mean when you find there's a story all around the world told the same way all around North America there is a story of women who go up in the sky world marry a star have a baby bring a star baby back to earth and that baby changed the world for human beings and then you find it around the world as well that's called a mythic story where it's so powerful and big that not just one culture tells or many cultures tell there's two ideas of how that happens one is called diffusion that human beings travel wherever they go they take their stories with them therefore you go across the mountains other people now know your story and then they travel across the desert they carry with them the stories you travel with people reason why we all tell the same stories the other one is more metaphysical and it is based on Carl Jung's explanation that we share with this thing called the universal subconscious I think it's called the idea that one very powerful deep spiritual level we are all connected to each other as humans and because we have the same human connection in our spirit we have the same human questions and dream the same human dreams and because of that we get the same stories and I'll leave you to figure out which one I prefer I prefer the second one where we are all connected and therefore when we find the stories that connect us we go oh my gosh the same story I love that I don't try to explain the story I just accept that the people in Africa tell a story about a dog and a jackal and the people here at Puget Sound tell a story about a wolf and a dog it's the same story a miracle and Albert Einstein said there are two ways to look at the world either nothing is a miracle or everything is a miracle and he said he prefers a lack and everything is a miracle so for me then the stories are a miracle and that the more I can connect them the better I feel the better I learn from other people and other cultures so that wisdom I'm still looking for I don't think I'll get a PhD in wisdom because they're good enough that's a page we have time for one more question if someone has another question do you have any question on the story for children that should be educated children should be educated in the society or in the country for children the story sorry I don't even know really really the 70% people are not educated like because for the system over there as well as the school so on my perspective I think what the government is trying to do our world on the Mexico border would that money take an opening school over there so do you have like quite similar any story for the children should be educated in the society like any the the idea that well there's several stories that have to do their children's story that have to do with child's transformation of life from a little one a young one to an adult that you will transform in your life little one, young one, adult you will transform and that story we have a story about animals diving under the flood waters different animals diving into the water they must create a new world they must dive into the flood waters to get earth bringing back up creating a new world and so first goes one animal that plays all the time, otters doesn't do it then the next one is Muscrap who is busy flirting with fish thinking about himself he almost doesn't really can do it finally little beaver you can't do it you dive four days four days under the water little one plays, young one who thinks of themselves adult who changes the world little one, young one, adult and then I tell people well that follows pretty much another story that pretty much everybody knows it's a European folk tale it says when you're a little pig and you don't know very much you make your house out of straw and grass is that the best house to make you can't reference the problem little older you make your house out of sticks better than grass is it still the best house to make because a wolf the problem is still territory you get to be an old pig you make a house out of bricks in the European culture that's the strongest house to make no wolf, no problem can tear it apart so there it is again little one, young one, adult they must know in here that I will transform when I get to different transformations I might need to go to school I might need to get a job doing this or whatever it is they realize that transformation will happen and I will be a part of that transformation and then you look at the three little pig story in the dream language a house represents your life so how to make my life so strong but no problem can tear it apart and again this is the depth of the story the old people would tell from Europe, from Africa, from everywhere in the world the story, little one, young one, adult that's how to start with children little one, young one, adult you can transform in your life, once they were sure of that now we fill it in with some of the details so thank you for asking that question as I said before among our people here we do this all the time we don't applaud, we go like this and this is what I'm so used to I even do it instead of applauding at a concert I go like this, it means you lift me up this gesture means you lift me up you lift up my heart I'm happy, symbolic of that feeling but it's also if you look outside see all the cedar trees around cedar tree is a great gift to native people everything you need the cedar tree will give to you and ask for nothing in return so when you look at the cedar tree look at the top branches, the top branches are like this our people say look at the cedar tree giving thanks every day, we must give thanks every day like the cedar tree so again I want to say thank you again for inviting me to special event thank you event for letting me share these stories with you and thank you for your insights because those always help me because I don't know everything and you're sharing with me helps to add more to the depth of the story so I appreciate that very much and I hope to see you again I think it's a nice drive to you thank you very much