Northwest Indian Storytelling Festival 2010Northwest Indian Storytelling Festival hours:

Thursday, Oct 13 – evening festival event at  7:00 – 9:00 PM
Friday, Oct 14 – evening festival event at  7:00 – 10:00 PM
Saturday, Oct 15 – evening festival event at 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Sunday, Oct 16 – Emerging Storytellers Matinee – 1:00 – 3:00 PM

Emerging Tribal Storytellers Workshop hours:
Saturday, Oct 15:  8:00 AM with breakfast followed by the workshop from 9:00 to 5:00 with dinner Sunday, Oct 16:  9:00 AM with breakfast followed by the workshop at 10:00 – 12:00 and lunch, followed by the Emerging Storytellers Workshop at 1:00 PM

Northwest Indian Storytellers Association (NISA) Advisory Council invites NISA members and potential new members to this year’s Storytelling Festival and Emerging Tribal Storytellers Workshop. This series of events are  being held October 13-16 at Portland State University, Portland, OR. 

Tribal members from any community in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, plus surrounding regions are encouraged to join NISA and attend the festival and workshop on Sunday afternoon, October 16. If you are enrolled with a Native American or Alaskan Native tribal, or self-identified as Native American, you are welcome to join NISA. Membership in NISA is free and forms are below. At the same time, you can also register for this festival weekend, especially including the two-day Emerging Tribal Storytellers Workshop which culminates in the Emerging Storytellers Matinee.

Registration for the workshop is $30 plus an auction item for our silent auction. This registration fee provides you with a free pass to two nights of the festival, Friday and Saturday, 14-15 October; the Emerging Storytellers Workshop and Matinee on Saturday and Sunday, 15-16 October; and 5 meals (3 meals on Saturday and 2 meals on Sunday). Sponsors include the Northwest Indian Storytellers Association, Portland State University Native American Student and Community Center, National Endowment for the Arts, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.

NISA was formed in October 2005 to encourage, preserve and strengthen traditional storytelling among tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho and to share tribal oral cultural arts with the entire regional community. Among American Indian tribes throughout America, winter is storytelling time. Knowledge and wisdom, traditional cultural values and spiritual qualities, as well as tribal oral history and prophesy, are all imparted to younger generations through storytelling from generation to generation during the winter months.

The workshop and storytelling festival will be held at the Native American Student and Community Center located on the South side of the Portland State University campus at 710 SW Jackson St., Portland, OR, 97201 (corner of SW Jackson and Broadway). A map of the PSU campus can be found at http://www.pdx.edu/campus-map.

You can fill out the application or print it, fill it out and amil it to WISDOM (the address can be found on the form). More information on the weekend of festivities will be sent to you the weeks prior to the festival and workshop.

For more information on the festival and emerging storytellers workshop for tribal community members, you can visit our website at www.wisdomoftheelders.org or contact Fox Blackhorn-Delph by calling (503) 775-4014 or by e-mail at fox@wisdomoftheelders.org.