Life Lessons through Storytelling: Children's Exploration of Ethics

3. Drawing on Oral Traditions for a Contemporary Storytelling Event

24 • Life Lessons through Storytelling 3. Drawing on Oral Traditions for a Contemporary Storytelling Event Here it is laid out for you that everything has a purpose— all things have a purpose. Even the little bitty things have a purpose on this earth. —David Martinez, Navajo educator All our stories involve everyone. —Zipporah Nyakeo, Kenyan educator In the previous chapter we saw how knowledge and community are intertwined in many cultures. As Navajos pass down stories from their childhood, they are strengthening a sense of community by promoting continuity with past generations. Likewise, many Kenyans view storytelling as a dynamic, communal event that strengthens community bonds through shared participation as well as through passing down the stories from their childhood. To better understand how storytelling could build a sense of community among people in our society, I decided to interview Navajos and Kenyans familiar with the storytelling traditions of their respective cultures. I was invited by Regina Holyan, a Navajo scholar and colleague at my university, to go to the Navajo Nation to interview Navajo story­ tellers. (See chapter 9 for a more extensive discussion of how our collaboration began.) Over a three-year period, I conducted multiple interviews with two Navajo storytellers and single interviews with six other storytellers and educators. Regina made the initial contact with two of these storytellers and the rest I contacted by talking with people in Navajo Nation educational programs and through word of mouth. The invitation by Regina to the Navajo Nation facilitated these new contacts. All the Navajos were familiar with traditional Navajo culture (stories, language, ceremonies, etc.) and resided on the Navajo Nation. They reflected a range of occupations including college professor, high school curriculum developer, middle school teacher, and seamstress. 24 Drawing on Oral Traditions • 25 In order to contrast the Navajo oral tradition with another oral culture, I decided to interview Kenyans who were familiar with their storytelling tradition. This allowed me to explore an African tradition as well as make contacts through the extensive Kenyan population studying at Indiana University. I interviewed three Kenyan educators who had had considerable experience with storytelling while growing up in Kenya.1 All three spent their childhood and young adulthood in Kenya before enrolling in graduate school in the United States. One of the respondents spoke of his extensive experience as a storyteller in Kenya, while the other two had more limited experience as storytell­ ers and spoke mainly of the storytellers they had heard as children growing up in Kenya. These respondents were solicited through email listings and reflected a range of academic study including social science, humanities, and education. (See appendix A for more infor­ mation about all the respondents and the interview process.) The Navajos and Kenyans interviewed for this study reflect a range of perspectives regarding social beliefs and storytelling practices. For example, some of the Navajos believed it is appropriate to tell stories year round, while others felt strongly that this is not appropriate. While the following sections provide a sense of some of the themes reflected in these interviews, they are not intended to convey the impression that there is a single Navajo or a single Kenyan perspec­ tive on this topic. Navajo Storytelling: The Importance of the Storytelling Context As they related childhood memories, the Navajos I spoke with told me about the importance of the storytelling environment. This envi­ ronment includes many aspects such as the setting of the story, who is telling the story, and who is listening to the story. Many of the Navajos spoke about small groups of children gathering at the homes of elders, especially grandparents and medicine people, to hear sto­ ries. They explained that elders are believed to have life wisdom and are thus often better able to communicate the many levels of meaning within each story. Lorraine Thomas2 explained how other children from the surrounding area would gather at their house to hear winter stories: In my past we had—even down there, there was like three to four homes and my generation—most of them are gone of course—but my generation, my grandfather always set a day, you know, like he calls two days—all the community kids right there in our little—there were 26 • Life Lessons through Storytelling about four places that lived close—these kids would just walk right over and we used to just have...