Mi'kmaq storyteller helps bind generations

Storyteller Jean Knockwood captured listeners' imaginations recently during a public reading with the tale of Jumping Mouse, a mouse who learns to share. But for Mi'kmaq university student Stephanie Francis, storytelling a part of her everyday life.

 

By Trina Roache

Stories ease tensions, teach life's lessons.

A diverse circle of men and women listen intently as Jean Knockwood tells the story of Jumping Mouse. As she moves around the circle bringing little Jumping Mouse to life, the tassels of her long, black shawl decorated with brightly coloured Mi'kmaq designs, sweep along the floor. She takes the issues facing First Nations' communities and creates her own stories.

Knockwood explains that traditional storytelling was a way for people dependent on others to vent their frustrations. If people expressed their anger aggressively, it would jeopardize the stability of their community. Stories allowed people to share their concerns without insulting anyone. The characters in Mi'kmaq stories are often animals given human attributes to further distance the story from people in the community.

Stephanie Francis is a Mi'kmaq student at Dalhousie University who works with Mi'kmaq Family and Children Services. She says storytelling is an integral part of her life. She grew up hearing her mother's stories, and says she now finds herself using stories to counsel friends and help the women and children she counsel. The stories provide a way for people to deal with crises.

She says the other Mi'kmaq counsellors she works with often look at stories from every angle as a subtle way to help troubled women understand the consequences of their actions. The stories might be from traditional Mi'kmaq culture, something that happened to a friend or a story they saw on the news. Talking about someone else's problems can help women deal with their own.

Stories pass on morals

 

Storyteller Knockwood says Mi'kmaq stories are a like a "time capsule." A traditional story reveals a community's beliefs, practices and "ancient wisdom," and is an important tool for teaching people about their culture. "Storytelling is a crucial way for generations to connect."

s Noisemaker


Beating time on a noisemaker, a drum, or even a hollowed-out log, would signal to the community that storytelling was about to begin.
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Stephanie Francis explains. "When I meet an older person, they always ask my mother's and father's names and who my grandparents are. They try to connect me to someone they know and they say, "Oh, I know you," even if they've never met me," she says. "And when they tell me a story about the person we both know, it makes me feel a part of things. I feel welcome."

 

s Petroglyph

This petroglyph illustrates the story of two Mi'kmaq women who married stars. The figure of the Star Husband was carved into the smooth Cambrian rock of Kejim-kujik National Park. A sharp-tipped stone arrowhead, a piece of quartz, bone, or antler was used to cut into the rocks.

Stories might mean one thing when a person is younger, but can take on a different meaning later in life, says Knockwood. "It can take time for the meaning of a story to make sense to a person, to fit into their life experience."

Francis says the stories taught her about the "old ways" of Mi'kmaq culture and were also an indirect form of discipline. Her mother never lectured her as a child, but used storytelling to teach life's lessons without laying blame or pointing fingers. "The stories would be about different people, maybe from a different time, but the moral was always clear."

"Sometimes we would shake our heads because we didn't appreciate it at the time," says Francis. "But, the stories stick with you and you never forget the point."

Knockwood says her position as school manager of Indian Brook First Nations School in Indian Brook, and her masters work in education and administration keep her busy, so busy that she can hardly find the time to tell her stories. But stories aren't just told in formal gatherings; everyone is a storyteller, though they might not know it, says Knockwood.

Francis agrees. Many of the stories she's heard come up in everyday conversation. "People may be trying to teach you something, just sharing their ideas, working out the moral of a tale or simply telling a story as a way of welcoming."

The story of Jumping Mouse

 

Jean Knockwood says stories can do many different things and can be entertaining as well as educational.

In the story of Jumping Mouse, a young mouse hears a roar in the distance and leaves home to follow the sound. Along the mouse's journey, she meets a dying Buffalo. The Buffalo says the only thing that can save his life is the eye of a mouse. So Jumping Mouse gives the buffalo one of her eyes. Jumping Mouse hears the roar again and follows the sound up a mountain. She meets a timber wolf who is also sick and needs the eye of a mouse to live. Jumping Mouse gives the timber wolf her eye. Now blind, she has to trust the timber wolf who tells her to run to the top of the mountain and jump. When the young mouse blindly leaps off the top of the mountain, her arms widespread, she becomes an eagle.

Knockwood says Mi'kmaq people consider the eagle to be sacred because when it flies so high, it caresses the face of the Creator. Jumping Mouse learns to fly like an eagle when she is taught the value of sharing. Stories are one way Mi'kmaq people can feel like Jumping Mouse, says Knockwood, "Because stories are a gift from the Creator."

Trina Roache is with CBC Radio, Charlottetown