1. Oral Tradition

2. A work is usually defined as literature when it is a written.
That assumption usually connects literature to books.
Every culture has its own unique literary expression. Literature can be defined more broadly to include songs, speeches, stories and invocations.
Literary Expression

3. History for Canadian Indigenous were recorded orally
History for Canadian Indigenous were recorded orally. This oral tradition included legends, stories, knowledge and accounts handed down from one generation to the next.
Canada’s Indigenous population value a legacy of oral tradition that provides an account of each group’s origins, history, spirituality, lessons or morality and life skills.
The Recording History

4. The Purpose of Oral Tradition
Children hear ancient legends and tales and learn the history of their communities by talking with their elders.
These teaching may include but are not excluded to:
The creation of the earth
The creation of man
How animal, plants, trees and inanimate objects are interpreted in human terms and their relation to the earth, sky and water.
Balance, harmony and order
The Purpose of Oral Tradition

5. A good storyteller could transport listeners to a particular piece of hunting territory – the lapping of the water on the lakeshore and the smell of tress.
A storyteller could evoke the lessons of ancestors long passed away.
A storyteller could shape the opinions of people reminding them of past actions and historical events. In any oral tradition, spoken words had the power to capture the imagination and transform reality.
A Story Teller

6. What you bring to the story
Those who hear the oral accounts draw their own conclusions. This all depends on what, where and when they heard the story.
Thus, the meaning to be drawn from an oral account depends on who is telling it, the circumstances in which the account is told, and the interpretation the listener gives to what has been heard.
What you bring to the story

7. Contribution to Identity
While all Indigenous groups in Canada share the common thread of oral traditions; each group contributes its own unique perspective.
This contributes to a sense that there are many histories, each characterized in part by how a people see themselves, how they define their identity in relation to their environment, and how they express their uniqueness as a people.
Contribution to Identity

8. Unlike western tradition, which creates a sense of distance in time between the listener or reader and the events being described, the tendency of First Nations, Metis and Inuit perspectives is to create a sense of immediacy.
This is done by encouraging listeners to imagine that they are participating in the past event being recounted.
Immediacy

9. The oral traditions were intricate and full of meaning
The oral traditions were intricate and full of meaning. Orators were highly respected, and words had a great deal of power. Orators used wit, metaphor, irony, emotion, imagery and eloquence to enrich their orator.
Many of the old stories have slipped away with the passing of elders and through the loss of culture because of assimilation tactics in the Indian Act that was created by the Canadian government.. The precarious (uncertain) state of many Indigenous languages also presents a challenge to storytelling traditions.
Current Danger