Yukon International Storytelling Festival

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The Yukon International Storytelling Festival , an international gathering of storytellers in the Canadian Yukon , takes place every summer in the capital Whitehorse . His emphasis is on the stories of the peoples who live around the North Pole , especially the First Nations , the Alaska Natives and the Eskimos , but also from the northern Siberian peoples.

It was initiated by Angela Sidney (1902-1991), who was one of the Tagish and who had attended the Toronto Festival of Storytelling founded in 1979 in the mid-1980s . As one of the last Tagish speakers , she wanted to tell the stories of her people. The planning for the festival began in 1987, the following year it took place for the first time. Storytellers from around the world visit Whitehorse.

Angela Sidney was given three names shortly after she was born in 1902, one in Tagish, Ch'óonehte 'Ma , one in Tlingit , Stóow, and one in English , Angela . In accordance with her cultural environment, she grew up trilingual in Carcross . Her mother was Tlingit and her father was Tagish, a common Tagish association. Her father was related to Skookum Jim , Kate Karmack and Dawson Charlie , who started the Klondike Gold Rush with their findings . She attended the mission school in Carcross between the ages of 7 and 10 . At 14, she married George Sidney, who later became chief, and gave birth to seven children, four of whom died. After the death of her husband in 1971, she went to live with her relatives in Alaska . She learned the Tagish stories of her mother and the Tlingit stories of her paternal relatives. Soon she was telling her stories in schools and attended the 1984 Toronto Storytelling Festival. In 1986 she was the first indigenous woman of the Yukon to receive the Order of Canada . She worked with linguists, especially Julie Cruiksbank , who published her collections.

In 1988, 16 of the 23 languages ​​represented were native languages . In 1991 the festival got its current name. In 1992 there were diplomatic entanglements in connection with the invited Russian guests, in the following year a devastating storm destroyed the tents, and in 1994 the festival almost came to an end.

It was continued on a smaller scale in 1995 and even made a profit for the first time. It has been supported by the Canada Council since 1998 . In 2005 the activities were already spread over twelve tents, among them a Japanese drum ensemble and a capoeira group , in 2006 a Mongolian narrative group performed.

In 2008 the festival took place for the first time outside, but in the Yukon Arts Center , with Eskimo throat singing , an Acadian storyteller and the founder of the festival in Toronto, Dan Yashinsky , as well as Ida Calmagane, the daughter of the festival founder, who died in 1991.

See also

literature

  • Julie Cruikshank: Negotiating with Narrative: Establishing Cultural Identity at the Yukon International Storytelling Festival , in: American Anthropologist 99.1 (1997) 56-69.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Dan Yashinsky
  2. ↑ For her efforts, she received the Order of Canada in 1984 ( Angela Sidney, 1902-1991 ( Memento of August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )).
  3. ↑ Short biography ( memento of April 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ This and the following from: James Ruppert, John W. Bernet: Our voices: Native stories of Alaska and the Yukon , University of Nebraska Press 2001, pp. 170–172.
  5. ^ Order of Canada, website of the Governor General of Canada
  6. ↑ Above all, My Stories are my Wealth , Athapascan Women , The Stolen Women and Life lived like a Story contain many of the stories of Sidney and other narrators of the Yukon. The associated sound recordings are located in the Yukon Native Language Center and the Yukon Archives .