a matter of writing down what is said. There is a real skill to replicating the pacing and atmosphere of a fireside telling, a feat that Velma Wallis executes marvellously in this book. In this slim volume - the whole book can be read in a couple of hours - she captures an evening of legend telling perfectly. Like many legends, on the surface it is a deceptively simple story, but there is Two Old Women: An a depth of lessons Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, to be learnt if you Courage and Survival look more deeply. An unusually harsh The Warmland Book & Film winter has pushed a nomadic Collective – a response to group into a desperate the Calls to Action of the situation and the chief decides Truth and Reconciliation to leave behind two elderly Commission of Canada – women who are not seen as next meets online June 9th to contributing. What happens discuss Speaking My Truth: next surprises both the Reflections on Reconciliation women themselves and the & Residential School, rest of the band. selected by Shelagh Rogers, et al. Email WarmlandBFC@ Wallis explains that this gmail.com for zoom link. story was told to her by her mother, who heard it hen was the last time from her mother before her. you heard a good In this way, legends are story, from the mouth of a teachers, reminding us of real storyteller? Even though what is important in life. In we have access to immense Two Old Women, Wallis amounts of information, that reminds us of the importance experience has become rare of elders and the strength for most of us. As the subtitle and resourcefulness of indicates, Two Old Women women. The legend asks us is a legend, a story handed to broaden our definition of down through the generations, what contribution is, drawing forming a part of the oral attention to the power of the tradition of the Gwich’in knowledge keepers. Today people of Alaska. when elders are routinely relegated to the fringes of our There is a great difference society, we would do well to between oral and written pay attention. storytelling; it is not simply Submitted by David & Ranji
Why We Should Read
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