A. Literacy Connections and Applications / C. Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts · Understanding and Responding to Texts

First Nations, Métis and Inuit Texts: Storywork, History and Telling Our Own Stories

C1.7 C3.7 A3.3 A3.2About 50 minutes

Learning goals

I can read, listen to and view many forms of texts by First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators, including music, graphic novels and film.
I can use Indigenous Storywork principles, especially reverence and synergy, to make meaning.
I can assess how historical periods, cultural experiences and socio-political conditions influenced these texts, and how they relate to current lived experiences.
I can analyze themes such as language, identity, self-representation and resilience in First Nations, Métis and Inuit texts.

Words to know

Indigenous Storywork
An approach, described by Stó:lō scholar Jo-ann Archibald (Q'um Q'um Xiiem), for learning from Indigenous stories through seven principles: respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness and synergy.

reverence
Deep respect; treating a story, song or teaching as important and sometimes sacred.

synergy
The power that comes when storyteller and listener, or past and present voices, work together to make meaning.

socio-political conditions
The social situation and the laws, policies and power in a society at a certain time.

self-representation
When people tell their own stories and show themselves in their own way, instead of being described by outsiders.

language revitalization
Work by communities to bring a language back into everyday use after it has been threatened.

archival recording
An old recording kept in a museum or archive.

Remember from Grade 6

In Grade 6 you used the Storywork principles of holism and interrelatedness. You learned from Rita Joe's I Lost My Talk and Rebecca Thomas's I'm Finding My Talk, Inuit oral stories about the Qallupilluit, and Métis beadwork and the Métis Nation flag, and you assessed how residential schools and government policies shaped texts.

In Grade 7 you'll explore three different forms: a music album, a graphic novel and a film. You'll focus on two more Storywork principles, reverence and synergy, and on a big theme: telling our own stories.

About this lesson

The explanations in this lesson were written for this website. They are not by First Nations, Métis or Inuit creators. They describe real texts by Indigenous creators. The best way to learn is from the creators themselves, so listen to, read or view their work with your family when you can (check with a grown-up first; one text is for older audiences).

Storywork: reverence and synergy

Jo-ann Archibald (Q'um Q'um Xiiem), a Stó:lō scholar, described seven principles of Indigenous Storywork: respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness and synergy.

Reverence means treating a story, song or teaching with deep respect, knowing it may be sacred or belong to a particular community. Ask: How should I approach this text? What is not mine to retell?
Synergy is the power that comes from working together: storyteller and listener, elders and youth, or voices from the past and present. Ask: What meaning is created when these voices come together?

The seven principles of Indigenous Storywork described by Jo-ann Archibald (Q'um Q'um Xiiem). This lesson focuses on the two highlighted ones: reverence and synergy.

Text 1: Songs that come back (First Nations, Wolastoqiyik)

Jeremy Dutcher is a Wolastoqiyik (Wolastoqey) musician from Tobique First Nation (Neqotkuk) in New Brunswick, and a classically trained singer. While studying music, he found wax cylinder recordings of Wolastoqey songs, made more than a hundred years ago and kept at the Canadian Museum of History. Very few people today speak the Wolastoqey language fluently.

Dutcher spent years listening to the old recordings and learning the songs. On his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (Our Maliseet Songs), he sings with the archival voices: you can hear his voice and piano woven together with the singers from the old recordings. The album won the Polaris Music Prize in 2018, an award for the best Canadian album of the year.

Worked example

Let's use reverence and synergy to make meaning

Use reverence and synergy to make meaning from Jeremy Dutcher's album.

Reverence: Dutcher treats the old songs as precious: he spends years listening and learning before sharing them. He keeps the songs in the Wolastoqey language rather than translating them all into English.
Synergy: the album brings together ancestors' voices from the old recordings with a young singer today. Neither could make this music alone. Together they create something new: a conversation across more than a hundred years.
Meaning: the album says the songs, and the language, are still alive. They were recorded and stored away, but now they're being sung and heard again.
As a listener (responsibility): we listen carefully, learn the name of the Nation and language, and don't treat the songs as background music.

Through reverence, Dutcher honours the songs by learning them deeply and keeping them in Wolastoqey. Through synergy, past and present voices sing together, showing that the language and culture continue.

Synergy in Jeremy Dutcher's album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa: voices from old recordings and a singer today, working together.

Worked example

Let's assess how history and conditions influenced the text

How did historical periods and socio-political conditions influence Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, and how does it relate to current lived experiences?

Historical period: the recordings were made in the early 1900s. At that time, many outsiders believed Indigenous cultures were disappearing, so recordings were made and stored in museums, often far from the communities themselves.
Socio-political conditions: for generations, government policies such as residential schools pushed children to stop speaking their languages. This is a major reason why few people speak Wolastoqey fluently today.
Influence on the text: the album exists because of this history: the songs survived in an archive, and Dutcher had to learn them from recordings, not just from his community, because of what was lost.
Current lived experience: today, many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities are working on language revitalization. The album is part of that work, and it brought Wolastoqey songs to listeners across Canada.

The early-1900s belief that Indigenous cultures were vanishing and later policies against Indigenous languages shaped this album: the songs survived in a museum, and Dutcher had to bring them home. Today the album is part of a wider movement of language revitalization, showing resilience.

Text 2: A Métis girl meets history (Métis graphic novel)

Katherena Vermette is a Red River Métis writer from Winnipeg. She wrote the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson (with colour by Donovan Yaciuk). The main character, Echo Desjardins, is a 13-year-old Métis girl who is adjusting to a new home and school while separated from her mother. During a Native Studies class at school, she suddenly finds herself transported back in time to moments in Métis history. In the first book, Pemmican Wars, she travels to the 1810s and the conflict over the pemmican trade.

In Grade 7 History, you may learn about the fur trade rivalry and the Pemmican Proclamation. Echo's story shows that history from a Métis perspective, through the eyes of a Métis girl today.

Worked example

Let's analyze how the graphic novel connects past and present

How does A Girl Called Echo connect a historical period to current lived experiences? Why might Vermette have chosen the graphic novel form?

Historical period: the 1810s, when the Métis were a growing Nation in the Red River area, and conflict over pemmican affected their way of life.
Current lived experience: Echo is a Métis teen today who feels disconnected: a new home, a new school, separated from her mother. Travelling through history helps her learn where she comes from.
Theme: identity and belonging: knowing your people's history can help you know who you are.
Self-representation: Métis history is told by a Métis writer through a Métis character, instead of only through outsiders' textbooks.
Why a graphic novel: pictures can show history vividly, switch between past and present in a single page, and reach young readers, including those who might not pick up a history book.

Vermette links the 1810s to a Métis teen today, showing that understanding history helps build identity and belonging. The graphic novel form makes the jump between past and present visual and reaches young readers.

Text 3: Telling Inuit stories in Inuktitut (Inuit film)

For a long time, most films about Inuit were made by outsiders. A famous early example is Nanook of the North (1922) by American filmmaker Robert Flaherty. It was presented as a true documentary, but many scenes were staged: the filmmaker asked people to act out older ways of living for the camera.

In 2001, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was released. It was directed by Zacharias Kunuk, an Inuk filmmaker from Igloolik, Nunavut, and made by Isuma, an Inuit production company based in Igloolik. It was the first feature-length film written, directed and acted in Inuktitut, and it is based on an Inuit legend from the Igloolik area. The filmmakers worked with elders to get details right, from clothing to tools. The film won the Caméra d'Or (an award for a director's first feature film) at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001.

Atanarjuat was made for older audiences, so this lesson studies how and why it was made, not the film itself.

Question	Nanook of the North (1922)	Atanarjuat (2001)
Who made it?	An American filmmaker, an outsider	Inuit filmmakers from Igloolik
Language	A silent film with English title cards	Inuktitut
Whose story and perspective?	An outsider's idea of Inuit life	An Inuit legend, told by Inuit
How were details decided?	The filmmaker staged scenes for the camera	Filmmakers worked with elders

Comparing two films about Inuit, made in different times and conditions

Assessing the influence of history on Atanarjuat

Historical period: the film came after decades of films and books about Inuit made by outsiders.
Socio-political conditions: in 1999, Nunavut became a territory. Today the Inuit language (Inuktut, which includes Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun) is one of its official languages. Inuit were gaining more control over their own governments, education and media. Atanarjuat came out of this time of self-determination.
Cultural experience: the filmmakers drew on oral tradition and the knowledge of elders.
Current lived experience: today, Inuit filmmakers, musicians, writers and artists continue to tell stories in Inuktut and English. The theme of self-representation (we tell our own stories) continues.

Themes across the three texts

Language and identity: Wolastoqey songs, Inuktitut film, Métis history told by a Métis writer.
Self-representation: each text is created by people from the community, telling stories their way.
Past and present together: archival voices and a living singer; a teen and her ancestors; an old legend and modern filmmaking.
Resilience: in each case, something that was threatened (a language, a history, the right to tell one's own story) is carried forward.

Hands-on activity

Listening, reading and viewing with Storywork

You need: a grown-up; access to a library or music service (with permission); paper and pencil.

With a grown-up, listen to one song from Jeremy Dutcher's Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (many music services and his official channels share them). Listen once without doing anything else. Then write: What did I notice? How did the old and new voices work together (synergy)?
Look for A Girl Called Echo at your library. If you read it, make a two-column chart: past events and present-day events, and how they connect.
Find out whose traditional territory you live on (your school, town or a First Nation's website may say). Write two sentences about what you learned.
Choose one Storywork principle and write how you will practise it the next time you read a text by a First Nations, Métis or Inuit creator.

Your turn

What did Jeremy Dutcher find while studying music, and what did he do with it?

Explain how Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa shows synergy.

Name one socio-political condition that helps explain why few people speak Wolastoqey fluently today.

Who is Echo Desjardins, and what happens to her?

How was Nanook of the North different from Atanarjuat in who made it?

What is self-representation, and how do all three texts show it?

Name one theme shared by the three texts.

More practice: warm-up

What is Jeremy Dutcher's Nation?

What form of text is A Girl Called Echo?

In what language is Atanarjuat made?

Who described the seven principles of Indigenous Storywork?

What does reverence mean?

More practice: on your own

Why is it significant that Dutcher sings mostly in Wolastoqey instead of translating the songs into English?

Why might Katherena Vermette have made Echo a teen today instead of a character from the 1810s?

What does it mean that Nanook of the North had staged scenes? Why does that matter?

How did the creation of Nunavut in 1999 connect to the making of Atanarjuat?

Why is it important to say each creator's specific Nation or people?

Challenge

Compare how a historical period influenced two of the three texts. How are the influences alike and different?

Explain how reverence could guide what you do (and don't do) after learning about these texts.

Write an interpretation (3 or 4 sentences) of the theme resilience across the three texts.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which Storywork principle describes the power that comes when voices work together?

On Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, Jeremy Dutcher...

A Girl Called Echo is...

Why is Atanarjuat an important example of self-representation?

Which socio-political condition helps explain why many Indigenous languages became threatened?

What is the most respectful way to describe a creator?

How does Nanook of the North differ from Atanarjuat?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: Grade 7 students read, listen to and view a wide variety of text forms by diverse First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators to make meaning through Indigenous Storywork (C1.7). They assess the influence of historical periods, cultural experiences and socio-political conditions on these texts and how they relate to current lived experiences (C3.7), analyze themes in First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures (A3.3), and explore identity and belonging (A3.2).

Please note: The explanations were written for this site and are not by Indigenous creators. Please experience the real texts together when you can.

Viewing advice: Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner is made for older audiences (it includes mature content); please preview it before deciding whether it is right for your child. The lesson does not require watching it. A Girl Called Echo is written for middle-grade and teen readers; Jeremy Dutcher's album is suitable for all ages.

Sensitive topics: Residential schools and language loss are painful histories. Keep explanations honest and simple, let your child ask questions, and check in about feelings. If your family has a personal connection, you know best how to share.

Facts used: Jo-ann Archibald (Q'um Q'um Xiiem), a Stó:lō scholar, described seven principles of Indigenous Storywork. Jeremy Dutcher is a Wolastoqiyik musician from Tobique First Nation (Neqotkuk) in New Brunswick; his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (2018) uses archival wax cylinder recordings held at the Canadian Museum of History and won the 2018 Polaris Music Prize. Katherena Vermette is a Red River Métis writer; A Girl Called Echo is illustrated by Scott B. Henderson with colour by Donovan Yaciuk, and its first volume is Pemmican Wars. Nanook of the North (1922) was made by Robert Flaherty and included staged scenes. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), directed by Zacharias Kunuk of Igloolik and produced by Isuma, was the first feature film written, directed and acted in Inuktitut, and won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 2001. Nunavut became a territory in 1999.

Avoid stereotypes: treating all Nations as the same, speaking only in the past tense, and using sacred songs or designs as decoration.