First Nations, Métis and Inuit Texts: Storywork, History and Today

Remember from Grade 5

In Grade 5 you used Indigenous Storywork principles such as respect, responsibility and reciprocity. You read about Josephine Mandamin's Water Walks, the creation of Nunavut, and the revitalization of Michif, and you explained how history shaped texts.

In Grade 6 you'll assess how historical periods, cultural experiences and social and political conditions shaped texts in many forms: poems, oral stories, picture books, novels and visual art.

Indigenous Storywork: seven principles

Jo-ann Archibald (Q'um Q'um Xiiem), a Stó:lō scholar, described seven principles of Indigenous Storywork:

1. Respect for the story, the storyteller and the people it belongs to.
2. Responsibility to listen carefully and use the story well.
3. Reciprocity: giving back.
4. Reverence: treating stories as important, sometimes sacred.
5. Holism: a story touches the mind, body, feelings and spirit.
6. Interrelatedness: the connections between the story, the listener, the community and the land.
7. Synergy: the power that comes when storyteller and listener work together to make meaning.

In Grade 6, try holism and interrelatedness: ask How does this story make me think, feel and act? How does it connect to people, land and history?

Read 1: Losing and finding talk (First Nations, Mi'kmaw)

Rita Joe (1932–2007) was a Mi'kmaw poet from Nova Scotia. As a girl, she attended the Shubenacadie residential school. Like many children at residential schools, she was not allowed to speak her language. Years later, she wrote a short poem called I Lost My Talk, about losing her language at school and her hope of finding her way back to it. Rita Joe became a well-known poet and received the Order of Canada.

The poem has been published as a picture book, I Lost My Talk, illustrated by Pauline Young. Later, Rebecca Thomas, a Mi'kmaw poet and spoken word artist who served as Halifax's Poet Laureate, published a companion book in response: I'm Finding My Talk, also illustrated by Pauline Young. It speaks for people today who are learning the language that was taken from their parents and grandparents.

Read 2: Stories that keep children safe (Inuit oral tradition)

In Inuit communities, knowledge has been passed down through oral tradition for thousands of years. Some stories teach children how to stay safe in the Arctic. For example, many Inuit families tell stories about the Qallupilluit, beings said to live under the sea ice and grab children who go too close to the edge of the ice or to cracks in it. The stories help keep children away from dangerous places on the ice.

Michael Kusugak, an Inuk storyteller who grew up in what is now Nunavut, heard stories like this as a child. He and Robert Munsch wrote the picture book A Promise Is a Promise, illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka, in which a girl named Allashua goes fishing on the sea ice even though she has promised not to.

Today, Inuit storytellers, writers, filmmakers and musicians continue to share stories in Inuktut and English, in books, films and recordings.

Read 3: Reading Métis visual texts

Texts aren't only words. Art and symbols are texts too.

• Métis floral beadwork: Métis artists are known for beautiful beadwork with flowers, leaves and vines, sewn onto clothing, bags and moccasins. The beadwork can show connections to the land and to family, since skills are passed from generation to generation.
• The Métis Nation flag: a white infinity symbol on a blue background. Many Métis people explain the infinity symbol as two cultures joined together and a people that will exist forever.

History and socio-political conditions: For a long time, Métis people's rights were not recognized by governments. In 1982, Canada's Constitution recognized the Métis, along with First Nations and Inuit, as Aboriginal peoples of Canada. In 2003, in a case that began near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (R. v. Powley), the Supreme Court of Canada recognized Métis harvesting rights (such as hunting for food).

Today: each year on November 16, Métis communities, including in Ontario, hold flag raisings for Louis Riel Day, remembering the Métis leader Louis Riel. The flag flying is a text that says We are here, and we are proud.

Read 4: A fantasy novel and real life today (First Nations, Cree)

David A. Robertson is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. His novel The Barren Grounds is the first book in the Misewa Saga. Two Indigenous children, Morgan and Eli, live with a foster family in Winnipeg. They find a portal in an attic to a frozen land called Misewa, where they meet a fisher named Ochek.

It's a fantasy adventure, but it is also connected to real life: today, First Nations, Métis and Inuit children are in foster care far more often than other children in Canada. Many people connect this to history, including residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, when many Indigenous children were taken from their families and adopted out. In the novel, Morgan is searching for who she is, and learning about her culture helps her find her way.