The Power of Stories

Storytelling as a teaching tool is something that many cultures use. In my own childhood, I read the stories of the Brothers Grimm and saw the hidden lessons of not to look where I was told not to and to listen to my parents. The truth is I didn’t learn those lessons from the stories, but rather from my parent’s direct teachings. This is why it’s so interesting to me to think about the idea of an oral culture. It stands in juxtaposition to my own experiences as someone who was raised in a written, literate culture.

I’ve been reading a book called Shuswap Journey. It’s a book of cultural stories but it’s obvious when reading them that the stories are filled with teachings. One story gave instructions on building a pit house through detailed descriptions of the building built into the story. Another talked about the process of getting married and what the ceremony was like. In reading this book, I find myself feeling like this is a written version of oral stories that stretch back into the past to record history and dictated practice and tradition. 

The value of oral stories can be discounted by written cultures because they don’t have the same physical staying power as a story that has been written down. This has resulted in a continuation of power imbalances. First Nations people have fought and are fighting for the right to have their oral stories considered as evidence of land ownership. During the process of colonization, oral stories have been discounted as just stories and not seen as a record of history, but this is changing. 

The importance of stories was shown in the case of Delgamuukw v. British Columbia. According to the Gitxsan website, this case was about the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en peoples trying to get “recognition of ownership, jurisdiction and self-government of their traditional territories from the governments of Canada and B.C.” The case was dismissed by a trail judge in 1991, but appealed and ultimately taken to the Supreme Court of Canada. At the Supreme Court of Canada, the judges accepted many of the arguments presented by the bands and in 1997, it ruled that the province of B.C. could not wipe out aboriginal rights to land. This case is a landmark in terms of acknowledgement of the value of oral culture by a written culture. 

In reading the Secwepemc stories, I can see the value that these stories bring to the people who read them. They are filled with cultural practices and give snapshot into what the past was like in some places. It’s sad to me that stories have been discounted in the past but I’m pleased to see cases like Delgamuukw recognizing the value of traditional stories on western terms. There is still a long way to go in terms of acknowledging the value that First Nations culture brings to Canada, but I do believe that on some level people are becoming more open to other viewpoints and that makes me believe that we may someday bridge the gap between First Nations and non-First Nations cultures.