Johnson-Harder connects memories and art in Indigenous Storytelling Month presentation

Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald Harmony Johnson-Harder shares a story with students from Ecole Valois at the Prince Albert Public Library as part of Indigenous Storytelling Month on Tuesday.

Despite a cold day and an aborted morning session Harmony Johnson-Harder was able to make her presentation to students from Ecole Valois at the Prince Albert Public Library on Tuesday for Indigenous Storytelling Month.

Johnson-Harder, who is Cree and Metis, and part of the Montreal Lake Band, was invited by the Library to speak for Indigenous Storytelling Month.

Johnson-Harder shared samples of her one-page stories that she wrote for Vacationland News

“It’s about my experience growing up as a kid living on the land, being Indigenous and just a lot of the northern ways of being with land—Cree and Metis ways of being,” Johnson-Harder explained.

She also had samples of watercolour paintings that went along with the memories in the stories. She also brought personal items, including a shawl, a container that once contained Vogue tobacco, and her ‘Love Story Stick.’

Johnson Harder is taking part in a Canadian Artists Representation le Front Des Artistes Canadian mentorship where she’s working to develop these stories. Those efforst were on display on Tuesday.

“Storytelling’s so important,” Johnson-Harder said. “I grew up with stories and storytelling, but I can’t remember everything exactly right. A lot of things are foggy for me, so with the watercolours and my little vignettes, it’s just kind of like those foggy memories coming and going right, like remembering.”

The goal on Tuesday was to inspire students to remember items and be able to tell stories.

“I have that Vogue can there and there’s a mosquito coil in one of the paintings. Those items really stand out for me, and I remember the stories around those items,” she said.

“I’m going to invite the kids to paint an item, or maybe one of their first memories. One of the first things that they remember seeing and they can attach that story to it.”

Something like Indigenous Storytelling Month is a different concept for Johnson-Harder.

“Like I’ve always had them in my life so having a designated month is a little foreign to me because it’s just a way of life,” she said. “I would like to see it be integrated more as a way of life as opposed to this mandated set way of being and doing.”

She explained that her father, the late Harold Johnson, was a storyteller and her aunt and other family members were storytellers too.

“My grandmother was the most powerful storyteller and we would always be visiting. Visiting is key to storytelling,” she explained.

She added that her format for the presentation was based around that concept.

“Visiting is the heart of it,” she said.

In the fall, she was part of an Indigenous presenters gathering in Kingston, Ont.

“I was just there and did a storytelling workshop and we had named that gathering The Art of Visiting because storytelling is more than just like telling our creation stories,” Johnson-Harder said.

She added that the Creation Stories are also important.

“We need those creation stories to ground us and who we are, but we also need to start understanding our own stories and that ability to think of our own stories and where we come from and where we’re going. What those traditional stories were about was teaching us lessons. So, what are the lessons we’re learning from our own stories?”

Johnson-Harder said that each community, band, and people have their own ways of doing storytelling. She said she teaches people emphasizing her own understanding but other people have their own ways and knowledge to share.

“Different teachings, different knowledge. That’s okay. Mine’s not to hang your hat on and be the final and end all. It’s about finding what’s right for you and really respecting and valuing what people are sharing with you. My dad has always said ‘take what you need and leave what’s not going to serve you,’” she explained.

Johnson-Harder will be doing her presentation on her father’s book Kokum Magic and the painting she created to tell that story later this week.

On Thursday, she will be at the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Prince Albert Campus doing a presentation which toured Northern Libraries.

The project Johnson-Harder and her father created was a “Respect and Resilience” an Indigenous project for SaskCulture’s response to Canada’s 150 Anniversary, unveiled in February 2018.

“My dad wrote the story about my grandmother as a little girl and I painted my interpretation of that. My painting is symbolic of Indigenous resiliency and the narrative and the symbolic narratives of his story, so I’ll be presenting my dad’s story and my painting and having a dialogue,” Johnson-Harder said.

The day was originally split up between Grade 6,7 and 8 students at Ecole Valois but because of the cold students from all three grades came for the session in the afternoon.

Indigenous Storytelling Month is from Feb. 1 to Feb. 28 with various events around the province.

michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca

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