Ancient stories for a new age

Page 11

Review

Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America

Edited by Brian Swann

801 pages, $40 (hc)

Random House

Laguna writer Paula Gunn Allen calls traditional Native storytelling a 'literature of vision.' To people of an oral culture, words do not simply represent meaning, they have the power to create, to make things happen. Words can take thoughts and dreams and transform them into reality.

In Coming To Light, scholar Brian Swann has compiled new translations of ancient stories, offering an alternative to previous anthologies full of badly translated and generally misunderstood works.

This volume is a great improvement on the usual 'myths and legends' offered up by over-zealous anthropologists seeking to define Native culture.

The stories in Coming to Light go a long way toward dispelling the idea that Native culture is homogenous, static or dying, and they illustrate the reverence with which Aboriginal cultures approach the word.

Sometimes, though, a story is just a story. The Innu of Labrador and Quebec, for instance, tell uproariously funny tales about kwakwadjec (wolverine), a trickster who created the Innu world to keep himself from drowning.

Wolverine tales from the Innu settlement and communities of Davis Inlet and Sheshatshiu illustrate the sheer entertainment value of a good yarn while still managing to teach lessons about accepting imperfection in the face of good intentions. Whether tangling with skunk or getting stuck in a bear's skull, old wolverine's antics mirror human attempts at interaction and survival.

In the telling of stories there is a communication of history, a passing down of beliefs and social conventions. The classic story of the girl who married the bear is an excellent example of the versatility of such teaching stories. Tagish/Tlingit storyteller Maria Johns invests this tale with many lessons: the power of old women, how the actions of one person affect the community, the importance of unit between siblings and in-laws.

Other nations, such as the Cree of northern Manitoba, tell essentially the same story, but with important cultural distinctions. The storyteller's sex, age and position in the community may alter the telling, while the locations and the season have their own effects upon the tale. Each version is as relevant and as true as it is different.

The stories in Coming To Light are sophisticated examples of the sacred, the profane and everything in between. Readers are treated to teaching stories of the Dunne-Za (Beaver) people of the Peace, the Iroquoian longhouse thanksgiving address, Wind River Shoshone ghost dance songs, Zuni ritual song sequences and a truly disturbing story about grizzly women, courtesy of Thompson Salish Elder Hilda Austin.

Since traditional oral literature is usually dismissed as primitive folklore in the dominant society, it is heartening to see these stories gain wider attention and respect. One wishes the printed word could be as real as the spoken, however the theatre of storytelling is missing here, and it weakens the overall cultural context.

In most Native cultures, the responsibility for telling stories is shared by the people. The ability to use words wisely is as important to the people as a hunter's skill. Yes, we need to eat. But we also need history, or we will suffer the loss of all that makes us unique as First Nations peoples. We must cradle these stories to our hearts and we must never forget them, or we will forget ourselves.