Story Telling and Native Spiritualities

Today we will watch a DVD on Raven Tales. Please read Fisher, pages 49-51 to explore the importance of “Story Telling” among the Aboriginal Communities.

Here is an introductory note for the Raven Tales that I have copied from the following website: http://www.raventales.ca/?p=46

Raven Tales is the multiple (20 and counting) award-winning series of 13, half-hour, CGI (Computer-Generated Imaging) animated television/film programs, targeted at school-age children and their families. Starring Dr. Evan Adams of Smoke Signals fame, winner of the AIFF Best Actor Award, Raven Tales features Native American folklore developed to appeal to a broad international audience in a contemporary, humorous and entertaining way.

Raven Tales concentrates on the wild and funny adventures of Raven, the most powerful, and one might add, trickiest troublemaker of Native American folklore.

The Raven Tales, like the Simpsons, centers its humor on the interactions of its re-occurring ensemble cast. The three principal characters, Raven, Eagle and Frog, anchor the show and provide familiar faces and humorous antics that feature widely in each episode. Along with the principle characters are a cast of humans, their children and a group of mythological creatures whose foibles and flaws give our heroes plenty to worry about. And with 10,000 years of market research to support them, these stories are surefire hits with any audience!

The pilot episode, How Raven Stole the Sun, has been adapted from a popular Haida myth, but has elements of Salish and Kwakiutl, while others episodes have been adapted from Cree, Cherokee, Lakota, Navajo, Nisgaa and other Native American stories from all across North America.
Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun is proud to be the first computer animated film production directed, designed and co-produced by an Aboriginally-owned and operated production company. In addition, the cast, music and sound design are all by Aboriginal talent.

Raven Tales Production Corp. was founded in 2001 in Vancouver, British Columbia for the expressed purpose of creating high quality computer animated productions featuring Native American stories and talent.

Welcome to the world of Raven Tales!

APPROPRIATENESS TO EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION

With its wide entertainment and educational appeal, the co-development of books and reader guides as well as interactive educational games, Raven Tales meets all the general requirements for educational television.

In addition the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, Harcourt books, the Joseph Campbell Foundation and The National Film Board of Canada have all served as consultants for both story and design to make sure Raven Tales remains appealing to children and contain relevant lessons for both children and families.

And finally, Raven Tales is the only series of its kind, a series based on Aborignal Folklore featuring an all-aboriginal cast and produced by a majority Aboriginally-owned Production Company. The Raven Tales stories are told by a team that has been vetted by tribal consuls and heredity chiefs. Raven Tales has already demonstrated its wide appeal and quality as educational entertainment in a number of markets.

EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT

To fulfill its mission to educate as well as entertain, Raven Tales is designed for integration into an existing Literacy and History Program. Raven Tales will ultimately feature an interactive and textbook reading program to compliment and enhance the existing media program experience. Currently schools Canada wide are already using the Raven Tales pilot program as a key component of both their Native Studies and Literacy program at elementary levels. A study sponsored by the University of British Columbia First Nations Education program is currently researching the impact of a Raven Tales centered curriculum on both First Nations students as well as general students. So far the results are very promising.

Multicultural media and literature like Raven Tales, has been shown to help children to understand their world and consequently, to better know themselves. Research projects, as the one outlined below, have shown how important it is for children to see themselves in books and other media that represent their cultural experience, including use of folklore and characters unique to their cultural heritage. In turn, it has also been demonstrated that children who are exposed to materials from cultures other than their own have show a higher comprehension and retention rate. In addition, multicultural literature and media provides kids with a window on the world and helps them understand their place in it.

Currently the National Endowment for the Humanities recognizes the advantages of Multicultural Literacy programs and has a recommended reading list that includes texts written by key Raven Tales personnel.

The overall design of Raven Tales Literacy program follows the fundamentals established by the Multicultural Literacy Program (MLP), a three year project funded by FIRST (Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teachers) of the U. S. Department of Education, which was designed to address the needs of the changing racial and cultural demographics of school districts. The program used a inclusive approach to reading/writing instruction, integrating multicultural literature and media into the existing reading program to increase reading achievement and engagement.

The philosophy of the program is based on research findings that indicate incorporating the students’ culture into the school program constitutes a significant predictor of academic success (Cummins, 1986; Campos and Keatinge, 1984) and can positively influence reading comprehension (Lipson, 1983: Mason & Au, 1990; Steffenson, Joag-Dev, & Anderson, 1979). The study also relied on studies that showed that predominantly Anglo children also showed increased reading skills when multicultural literature and media was integrated into a comprehensive program.

Note: It is believed that the introduction of novel and culturally distinctive materials produce a renewed interest in reading for students who are otherwise jaded by the familiar.

The Multicultural Literacy Program uses multicultural literature and media to implement process-oriented reading and writing instruction designed to increase academic achievement for students of color as well as both heighten cultural awareness of all students and help reignite an interest in reading. (Diamond & Moore, 1992).

Additional educational consultants include Dr. Linc Kesler and Dr. Marie Batistte.

Question to Explore:

Discuss a Native American Tale that you have explored and comment on the importance of story telling among the aboriginal people to promote spirituality.

Exploring Native American Religious Themes

You may read Fisher pages 32-71. These pages do not provide information specifically on the Native American Religions alone. They discuss a much wider variety of “indigenous sacred ways”. Some scholars use the phrase “primitive religions” to describe these religions, while others consider them as “minor”, or “small god worship” as different from the “major world religions”!

Fisher’s breadth of exploration is indicated in the map that you will see in page 33 that also provides a list of “aboriginal spiritualities”.

As for the Native Americans they prefer to use the term “Spiritualities” as opposed to “Religions”. The word religion might remind them of the “Christian religion(s)” that deprived them of their language and culture that included a perspective on the “Sacred”. This does not mean that all aboriginal people have a negative view of Christian religion(s) and all Christians are keen to eliminate aboriginal spiritualities.

Among the aboriginal people there is wide variety of ways to express beliefs. These vary from tribe to tribe and place to place. But it is possible to identify some common themes.

A. Themes (Basic Concepts)

1. Great Power: Aboriginal people generally believe there is a “Great Power” or a “Great Spirit”. They do not usually consider this “Great Power” as a “personal God”. This is more of a “power” and a great “mystery”. Names with which this “Great Power” is known include, among others, are Wakan Tanka, Manitou, and Orenda. Though all things come from the Great Power, this Great Spirit is not the creator. Creation is performed by other “Beings” (Supernatural) with creative powers. And that “Being” differs from group to group. Hence we have a variety of creation myths. This “Being” may have a human form as in the First Man and the First Woman of the Navajo people. Sometimes this “Being” may have a dual form – human/animal – as Raved of the Northwest people.

2. Spirit: Aboriginal Spiritualities, like the Shinto belief, suggest that all things in the universe are alive and contain spirit within them. These “spirits” impact on “human lives” either benevolently or malevolently. Earth also is endowed with a “spirit” and humans, therefore, are expected to respect the earth. So the earth is revered as mother or grandmother. Spirits of the dead people may live as ghosts on earth or may be reborn as animals. There are certain people in every tribe who have special connections with the “spirit world”. These people are often called Shamans. Details follow later under section C.

3. Walking the Sacred: Individuals are expected to live in harmony with all that is in the universe. Maintaining the “balance and harmony” amounts to walking the sacred. People seek and the sacred also through dreams and visions, which in turn will enhance the “walking the sacred”.

4. Oral Tradition: Aboriginal beliefs, values and traditions are not written down. But they are passed on orally. They are also communicated through rituals along with stories and myths. Dancing is an important ritual among the aboriginal people. Details to follow later. The aboriginal people gathered around the fire and told stories about how the world was made, how people came to be and how certain traditions came to be part of the aboriginal culture. These stories eventually became the “sacred tradition” of the tribe. [If time permits we will watch two short “Raven Tales” next Monday.]

B. Dance

1. You may want to look at Fisher’s account on “The Sun Dance” in pages 58f. Fisher calls this “Way of Self-Sacrifice”.

2. Dancing is “praying” for the Aboriginal people. Jordan Paper says, “Native people do not just pray with their voices, but with their bodies as well”. Here is a poetic quote that suggests the importance of “dance” for the aboriginal people:

3. “Why we dance:
To dance is to pray
To pray is to heal,
To heal is to give,
To give is to live,
To live is to dance”

4. Sun Dance is not the only dance that the Native Americans perform. Other dances include the following: Spirit Dance, Feather Dance, Thanksgiving Dance, Thirst Dance, Drum Dance, Ribbon Dance, Grass Dance, etc. Powwow is another very popular dance. Pauau means, “gathering of persons with spiritual power for a healing.

5. Here is a title you may want to explore after your Religion 101 is done: Jordan Paper, Native North American Religious Traditions: Dancing for Life, Westport, Connecticut: Prager Publishers, 2007.

6. Native American religions “are not ones of passivity, of sitting quietly singing pre-arranged hymns or listening to a religious professional sermonize or pray for one. Rather these are traditions of dynamic religious lives, where one actively involves all of oneself, including the body …” (Paper, page 4.)

7. With dancing, drumming and singing goes together. For the aboriginal people the drum represents the earth. Humans are created, they believe, to remain connected to the earth and all that is there earth! If there is a “moksha” (heaven) in aboriginal spirituality, then, it is a reference to that “connection”, which is considering life, earth, and all the animate and inanimate things on earth as “sacred”.

8. Here is quote that emphasizes the “connection”: “American Indian dance is not a form of mindless amusement. It is a form of praise, worship, and a way to experience interconnectedness through motion … Serious dance is prayer that can open a doorway to connection with the total universe”. (Paper, p. 151f.)

9. Aboriginal spiritualities, like Shintoism and Zoroastrianism, is an “ecological religion”. The word “ahimsa” may not be used among the “aboriginal people” but it is implied and that should be extended to both animate and inanimate things. So “Dancing” essentially cultivates this sense of “sacredness”!

C. Shamans

1. Shamans, in Native American communities, are religious leaders. The Shaman can be either a man or a woman. These Shamans are believed to have extraordinary powers. Their primary function in the community is healing. Hence the European settlers called them “medicine man” or “medicine woman”. But the Shaman consider themselves as “dream doctor”, or simply a “dreamer”, or a “shadow man/woman”, or a “singer”.

2. Shaman may be approached for various reasons. Some of them include the following: to cure illness, to find a lost object, to influence the weather, or to predict an outcome of a course of action. Hence Shaman will cultivate many skills, such as predicting the future, interpreting dreams, story telling, acting as a tribal historian, finding lost objects, knowing the uses of herbs and plants, and diagnosing ailments.

3. First Nation people believed that one’s physical condition was linked to his or her spiritual condition. Hence the Shamans specialises in different aspect of spiritual life ending sometimes as prophets, seers, visionaries who will foresee the future.

4. There are also Shamans who merely perform public ceremonies and rituals.

5. Among the different communities the process of becoming a Shaman is different from one another.

6. In some communities, Shamans would sometimes go into trance to visit the “Spirit World”.

7. To explore further on Shamanism you may click on: http://www.holisticshop.co.uk/library/b_sham.html or follow these texts:
Knudtson, Peter, and Suzuki, David, Wisdom of the Elders, Vancouver: Greystone Books, 1992. Pp. 258.
Lake-Thom, Bobby, Call of the Great Spirit: The Shamanic Life and Teachings of Medicine Grizzly Bear, Rochester, Vermont: Bear & Company, 2001. Pp. 244.

Questions to Explore:

1. What is “Sun Dance”? Explain its importance to the “First Nation People”.

2. Explain the following: a. Shaman; b. Vision; c. Story Telling; d. Creator; and e. Totem.

3. Discuss some of the major themes of the aboriginal spiritualities.