Indigenous
Power and importance of “story” and of “storytelling”- ‘me’y’mi’y’m. Stories with steadfast “bones” - stable miyp teachings, and with their supple “flesh” (the dynamic storytelling techniques, nature of orality and power of words), all of which seek to bring story alive, and have their listeners become "participants" within it.
Key: power of words -
dasshússua “breaking with the mouth” – when words/symbols aligned with
perennial stable bones, the result is “swirling with Coyote” (Cliff SiJohn) -
“hierophany” (Eliade), and possibility of discovery/revealing the miyp
teachings buried deep within the steadfast bones, those miyp that are
relevant to you.
Importance of listening – stmi’sm - with empathy –
snukwnkhwtskhwts’mi’ls - to the stories of others, and to re-tell them –
baaéechichiwaau – “if all these great stories were re-told, great stories
will come” (Tom Yellowtail),
as well as the importance of re-telling your own stories –
basbaaaliíchiwé – reflecting and reaffirming who you are, where you’ve been,
and what you seek to become – of becoming an authentic human being.
Indigenous stories start with:
Snqhepiwes
- “where the spirit lives, from horizon to horizon” - baaxpée - spiritual
power – life - starts with the Creator -
Akbaatatdía
“Maker of All Things First” – Titwatityáaya -
Animal First Peoples such as Salmon, Coyote, Rabbit and Jack Rabbit
no Aristotelian material reductionism
ashammalíaxxiia
- “as driftwood lodges” - uchnek’we
– “we are all relatives, we are all one” -
kinship relationships - unshat’qn “all equal height at the head”-
governed by snukwnkhwtskhwts’mi’ls
- “empathy” and téek’e “ethic of sharing” with those in need
no Cartesian dualism separation,
and no ego enhancement, the self-serving, “in it for himself”
- Coyote is the antithesis
results in hnkhwelkhwlnet - “our ways of life in the world” – a
participatory engagement - reality is the transitory intersection of those
participating – human, animal, plant, spirit – anchored to place-based oral
traditions - the miyp “teachings from all things”
Rock Medicine Wheel - accommodate diversity of spokes, while anchored to
ubiquitous hub - e.g., Head and Heart ways of knowing and doing –
no exclusivity, no “my way or the highway”