Sacred Story:

Sacred stories are our teachers. Insight gained through life experience is meaningless unless we share it with others. This is the point of sacred story. It is the life-blood of the culture, the transmission of thoughts and ideas, ideology and philosophy, language and the culture itself. Sacred story touches the spiritual essence of our being. Sacred story is the fundamental base of oral tradition - our most sacred tradition. Story is transmitted through the oral tradition to communicate, to relate to one and other and it stands as our main structure of cognitive mapping. Through reflection on or participation in Sacred Story we are taught how to live our lives wholly. Sacred story is a communicative art combining both narrative and performance integrating all other art forms such as song, dance and visual art. Sacred story reflects the worldview of a people.

Stories were told only in the winter time after the first snow fall that marks the seasons change. It is the belief of Cree people that if the stories are told during the summer months that the lizards will come to bother you. Respect for this tradition still remains today.

The Cree have the character Wesakechak, the Dakota - Wankantonka and the Anishnabe-Naynabosho, the Eastern Maritime people have Glooscappi, the Western coast have the Raven. Basically there is a conscious awareness of this concept of intermediary among all First Nations. These characters serve as intermediaries between where the Creator lives and human beings exist. This distance between the Creator and human beings becomes reduced when we know of an in between intercessor. The human concept of these in between characters is that they have all the attributes of the Creator while, at the same time, they harbour all the weaknesses of human beings. The concept then is a paradox. These characters can be very wise in one instance, and be very stupid in another, be very generous, then be most miserly. Everything can be a paradox -life is a paradox. But, human beings are conscious of their need for a higher power. Without a higher intervention, life in the human world could be an unhappy existence. So, these concepts set a world straight and a more harmonious existence can prevail, permitting human beings to forever be grateful as a living attribute. Some say that we don't know what these look like as they have the power to change form at any time. It is this human quality of weaknesses that make them like us. In the stories they are easily convinced to do other than what is a good choice and in doing so inevitably find themselves in predicaments that they need to undo. Their purpose was to set things right in this world.

The stories have been handed down from generation to generation through the oral tradition. They are humorous and in many respects unbelievable. Sacred stories were told to teach a lesson and in every story a moral can be found. Our stories tell us how the birds, plants and animals were formed with their present coloring, shape or form. We see our stories as the collective memory of many people. We view stories as alive when they are passed from life force to life force, varying ever so slightly, changing the animal or set of circumstances surrounding the theme. It is this quality of the life force behind story that makes them sacred.