This poster art was created by Lower Elwha S’Klallam artist Roger Fernandes who is also President of the Northwest Indian Storytellers Association.
Wisdom of the Elders and the Northwest Indian Storytellers Association are excited to announce plans for our eleventh annual Northwest Indian Storytelling events. Two special events are being held on Friday afternoon and evening, February 17, 2017 in Portland, OR.
The theme this year is traditional First Foods species that are threatened or endangered. Tickets will be available soon along with more details on these events so please stay tuned to our monthly newsletters.
In addition to the evening of storytelling, we will add a symposium event the afternoon of Friday, February 17. Our tribal storytellers, song carriers have long known the link between their stories and songs to their traditional First Foods. They also acknowledge the critical importance of restoring these species as a vital part of our Pacific Northwest ecosystems. So indigenous science educators and scientists will join with our Native storytellers, song carriers and basket weavers to present at this symposium event.
During the daytime conference, Native elders, cultural leaders and scientists will share traditional stories and songs about salmon, lamprey eel, camas roots, and other threatened and endangered first foods species; and reveal traditional practices that are integral to First Foods restoration. This event which will integrate Native cultural arts with traditional ecological knowledge and other STEAM* elements integral to indigenous science are being funded by National Endowment for the Arts. This is our eleventh year of funding from NEA and we would like to express appreciation to them for this record of support of our activities. (*STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, ARTS, and math).
