The Context Oral Tradition and Contemporary Native

1
The Context Oral Tradition and Contemporary
Native

• The Relationship between Oral Traditions, Tribal
  Truths, Universal Relationships, and Contemporary
  Native Literature.
• Shawna Cunningham, B.A. M.A

2
The Aesthetics of Oral Literature

• The purpose of Art and Storytelling (Aristotle)
• To Teach (instructional) - The didactic aspects
  behind the purpose of storytelling - the
  teachings
• To Entertain (emotional/sensory)- The engaging
  aspects behind the art of storytelling
• These aspects are essential and occur at
  varying degrees as the end result of the creative
  process.

3
Tribal Truths and Oral Tradition

• Oral Tradition
• The Oral tradition is that
• process by which the
• myths, legends, tales, and lore
• of a people are formulated,
• communicated, and preserved
• in language by word of mouth
• as opposed to writing. Or it is a
• collection of such things.
• (N. Scott Momaday)
• An oral literature is that that has
• been transmitted by word of
• mouth from generation to
• Generation through storytelling,
• song, and ceremony
• (Penny Petrone)

• World View
• World view is the way in which an individual or
  collective culture views the world around them
  and imagine their place within that world.
• (N. Scott Momaday)
• Establishment of universal relationships
• human being to the creator/s,
• human being to the cosmos
• human being to nature (animal / plants / earth),
• human being to human being (Thomas King)

4
World View

• Vine Deloria Jr.
• In examining the world view of people, look for
  principles of order and the threat of chaos. One
  should consider the complete inter-relationships
  of these principles and categories.
• Petrone Petrone
• The world view produces mythologies as a means
  of understanding the world(s) around (us).
  Essentially, spiritual in nature - the sacred
  mythologies contact spiritual beliefs,
  traditions, laws, morals, and histories of
  cultural groups as transmitted by the orators
  (and storytellers) to explain the instruct the
  mysteries of the universe and the world view of
  the people.

5
Oral Tradition

• (N. Scott Momaday)
• Storytelling is imaginative and creative in
  nature. It is an act by which man strives to
  realize his capacity for wonder, meaning, and
  delight. It is also a process in which man
  invests and preserves himself in the context of
  ideas. Man tells stories in order to understand
  his experience, whatever it may be. The
  possibilities of storytelling are precisely those
  of understanding the human experience.
• Stories are in essence, Man (human beings) as
  he / she thinks of himself / herself within the
  dimension of language
• (Penny Petrone, First People First Voices)
• The word carried power to create.. Through the
  sacred power of the word, aboriginal people
  sought to shape and understand the cosmic forces
  and beings that governed their lives words
  merely represent meaning, they possessed the
  power to change reality itself. There were life
  substance, reality.

6
The Nature of Oral Tradition

• For Aboriginal cultures, the Oral tradition, in
  its original context, contained tribal truths,
  beliefs, histories, and ways of knowing and
  interacting with the universe, encoded in myths
  and legends. The languages were highly symbolic
  and description. Stories were metaphorically
  charged and often connected to ceremony.
  Ceremony was guided by stories, stories connected
  the people to the land and means of survival
  within the context of the regional land base.
• Oral storytelling communication practices were
  highly evolved and ceremonially charged, which
  effected Native / Non-native relations and
  cultural interactions.
• There is no place in the world where Rhetoric
  is more powerful than in Canada. (They) speak
  with the keenness and delicacy of rhetoric that
  might have come out of the schools of Aristotle
  or Cicero.
• (Paul Le Jeune, 17th Century Jesuit Missionary,
  1633.)

7
The Cultural Context of the Spoken Word

• Words are Sacred
• In an Oral Context - Words are Animate
• Language is the vehicle for the imagination
• The Word carries the power to create
• The Word is formulated in the imagination,
  translated to language, expressed through the
  breath of life, and carried on the Wind over
  geographical barriers and from one generation to
  the next. From one mind to another through a
  complex system of transference.

8
Elements of The Storytelling Event

• Ritual / Preparation - The performance of the
  myths can be viewed as a ritualistic
• Purification for the orator to clear the mind and
  call upon the ancestral spirits for assistance
  Ceremonies included Smudges, Sweats, Pipe
  Ceremonies
• Storyteller / Orator - The storyteller transforms
  reality and transports the listener through
  performance into another reality .
• Gifts - interpretive skills, memory, ability to
  engage through visual images, presentation, and
  figurative language, natural charisma
• The Word - the sacredness of the word as an
  animate creation is carried on the wind.
  Language is the vehicle for the imagination. The
  word has the power.
• Audience / Listener - The audience participates
  in a transformation of space and time.
• Communion / Outcome - A Sacred Exchange of the
  Story - The listener returns to a reality with
  enlightenment / knowledge and imagery, and
  thereby undergoes his/her own unique
  transformation or evolution.

9
Types of Oral Literature

• Myths - Sacred Stories having to do with elements
  of creation and the universe
• Types of Myths
• 1. Creation myths
• Earth Diver
• Emergence
• Cosmos
• Within creation myths, the complex metaphorical
  content outlines the order of the universe, the
  belief systems, and the primary universal
  relationships.
• 2. Trickster Cycles
• 3. Migration Myths

• Legends Stories with elements of humans /
  super-humans.
• Orations - recorded speeches of Aboriginal
  leaders. Part of historical ethnographic record.
  Issues translation, transcription.
• Secular Stories the day to day stories, family
  histories, kinship,
• Narrative Voices
• The Secular / Present and Immediate
• The Historical / Past and Human-based
• The Mythical Spiritual /Sacred
• N. Scott Momaday

10
Traditional Trickster Mythology and the Trickster
Motif

• General Function of trickster myths 1) to
  instruct, 2) to entertain ( in that order)
• Archetype figure or Cultural Motif present in
  most tribal literatures across North America
• Trickster Mythology - Part of the sacred as the
  trickster lies in the fact that the trickster
  character often participates in creation-type
  myths, where by the world or aspects of nature
  are altered.
• Trickster mythology deals with principle cycles
  of order and chaos
• Trickster myths can be viewed as Cyclic, and the
  regional tribal Tricksters are recognizable to
  the people, such as Napi, Weesackgeechuk,
  Coyote, Nanabush, Raven, and etc.
• Some Shared / Fixed Traits
• Duality / Paradoxical elements of good / evil,
  creator / destroyer, human / spirit, order /
  chaos
• Marginality / Interloper
• Visceral Humor,
• Some Fluid, Regional Traits
• Appearance, Transformation Abilities, Gender,
  Name

11
Aboriginal Scholars Philosophical Aspects of
existence and universal relationships

• N. Scott Momaday, Man Made of Words, Sam Gill
  in Native American Traditions.
• Explores the context of place, identity,
  inter-generational memory and ancestral ties to
  land through stories and language.
• Vine Deloria Jr. God is Red
• Explores the concept of spatial versus temporal
  accounts of history and existence.
• Thomas King, The Truth About Stories
• Explores the philosophical concepts of universal
  and tribal truths in relation to myths and
  storytelling.

12
Contemporary Native Literature

• Inter-fusional Literature Contemporary Native
  literature that incorporates cultural motifs and
  aspects of the mythical derived from tribal Oral
  literatures.
• Issues in Literary Criticism
• Artistic Responsibility versus Artisitic Freedom
• Experimentation with combining Western Structure
  and Aboriginal concepts of storytelling in
  narrative voice and language the oral dialogue,
  collective narration, and active participation
  from the audience in plot development and
  narrative voice.

13
Recommended Brief Readings

• Bruchac, Joseph. "Introduction" in Keepers of the
  Earth, eds. Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac.
  Saskatoon Fifth House Publishers, 1991. (ix-xi)
• King, Thomas. ''Introduction", All My Relations,
  ed.Thomas King. Toronto McClelland and Stewart.
  Inc. ,1990. (ix-xvi).
• Momaday, N. Scott. ''Forward" in, eds. Michael
  gtCaduto and Joseph Bruchac. Keepers of the Earth
  Saskatoon Fifth House Publishers, 1991. (ix-xi)
  
• Panegoosho, Mary. "Where are the Stories of My
  People" in _Paper Stays Put, ed. Robin Gedalof.
  Winnipeg Hurtig Publishers, 1990. (13).
• "Why the Moose's Skin is Loose" in Our Bit of
  Truth, ed. by Agnes Grant. Pemmican Publishers
  Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1990. (12-13).

14
Recommended Literature

• Short Stories
• All My Relations, Thomas King (collection of
  short stories)
• This is a Story Jeanette Armstrong
• The Last Raven Richard Green
• The One About Coyote Going West Thomas King
• Novels
• Green Grass, Running Water - Thomas King
• Medicine River Thomas King
• Honour the Sun, Ruby Slipperjack
• Fools Crow, James Welch
• The Way to Rainy Mountain, N. Scott Momaday
• Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson
• Plays
• The Rez Sisters, Tomson Highway
• Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, Tomson
  Highway
• Toronto at Dreamers Rock, Drew Hayden Taylor.