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Gaian Rants | ||||
From Oral Tradition to the Written Word In my life I’ve felt the power of stories. I remember sitting around a campfire telling stories to the children to awaken their awe of nature and to give them words to express this awe. In recent years I’ve found myself sharing a story to diffuse strong emotions and help us move in a more productive direction. It works. The stories I tell aren’t passed down from generation to generation, although on occasion I’ve recounted stories told to me by my teacher, Grandfather Henry, or traditional stories I’ve learned over the years. In Native cultures stories were not written down. Storytellers had the responsibility to know the stories and not to change them. But over the years stories evolved as people evolved and new stories were added. This was an organic process much like the Earth’s ecosystems shifting over the millennia in response to evolution. It is only in recent years that these traditional stories were written down. It is true that language is imperfect and limiting and over the years I’ve struggled to find words that would bring people to an awareness of Mitakuye oyasin, of all our relations, which is really the whole process of life and interconnection — of spirit with no boundaries. But it seemed that I would write around it, hoping to eventually surround it so it wouldn’t escape. How-ever, the concept is elusive and slippery when trying to capture it with words and just when I thought I had it, it disap-peared. So I found myself going back to the stories I’ve heard and told through-out my life because these seem to communicate it best. Putting my stories into the printed word, however, was difficult because what is communicated in oral tradition with voice and body language had to be translated into words. The feelings and insights an audience would get from listening to and watching the storyteller (in this case, me) needed to be translated well enough to bring about the same feelings and understandings when the story is read. It was a difficult process and involved the help of my family and friends. I paid attention to my dreams for clues about which stories to translate. I asked my children to tell me which stories stood out for them and why. Sometimes I would close my eyes and visualize the place where the story took place. This was easier than I thought it would be. While I was in that place I was able to describe what I saw around me. It all came back just as clearly as if I was there once again. It was an exciting process and an unex-pected consequence is my children and I got closer as I retold the stories of their childhoods, and of my own. We came to understand how important these stories of ours are. They tell the history of our family, not in facts and figures like a genealogy or family tree; rather they recount the emotions we felt over the years and the unique ways we see and live in the world. These times are difficult for us all. Whether recovering from addictions or abuse, or simply trying to walk in two worlds, the world of heart and spirit and the world of work and materialism, we all need healing. We also need to wake up and see what we are doing to the Earth, and to ourselves. We need to touch the place inside ourselves that knows we are one with the Earth, which is a magical place. It is not a place of escape as my parents tried to make me believe, nor is it simply fantasy that implies no truth. It is a place of love and compassion, a place we arrive at with the help of stories. Patty Manning is a Native American beader/storyteller of Wampanoag descent. As a storyteller she speaks to all age groups, schools, and camps both on her own and with her daughter, Alana. Patty uses the drum to blend the rhythm of her words with Alana’s dance, giving life to the heartbeat of the legend. Patty has also taught beading to all age groups through individual apprenticeships and workshops. She weaves the cultural traditions of Native beading techniques and practice with design and color. In this context she and her participants explore the patience and respect needed to work beading in a traditional way, connecting with the old ways of the ancestors. | ||||
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