Authors
Marianne Ignace, Lawrence Bell, Kelli Finney
Publication date
2017/3/2
Description
In this paper we explore how we can work with legacy recordings of Haida gyáahlang. ee (clan stories) to create positive attitudes towards Xaad kil, and a sense of respect and awe for the deeds of ancestors by re-telling these stories on Haida ancestral lands to participating children, youth and elders. During the 1980s, two of the presenters recorded Haida clan stories of ancestors’ adventures on the land and sea surrounding Haida Gwaii with elders who spoke elaborate Haida, often integrating song into storytelling. As we found out, while on the one hand these are stories pertaining to particular matri-clans, the transmission of these stories was by no means confined to members of the protagonists’ or storytellers’ clans, but involved much more intricate patterns of young children and adults, at an impressionable age hearing these stories and then doing the story-work of remembering, occasionally retelling, and eventually recording them with the authors. Since then, as a team we have transcribed, glossed and translated these gyáahlang. ee, training Haida learners and graduate students in the process. In doing this work, we have discovered interesting and intriguing story plots, and through additional work that uncovered some 650 northern Haida toponyms, we have connected stories in minute detail to specific locations, thus retracing the steps of ancestors. In addition, we have uncovered previously undescribed or poorly understood features of Haida discourse, in particular aspects of verb morphology and features like topic tracking morphology, of which we will show examples. Having finished the anthropological and linguistic work on these …