Everyday Stories in a Forest: Multimodal Meaning-Making With Ojibwe Elders, Young People, Language, and Place

• In Event: Navigating Educational Landscapes for Indigenous Youth and Communities

Abstract

This paper responds to expanding efforts in Indigenous language reclamation that highlight the ecology of relations holding and sustaining language (e.g., Henne-Ochoa et al., 2020). Specifically, we take up these relations at the intersection of language, land, and story in an Ojibwe context. Data for this study come from intergenerational forest walks among small groups of Elders and bilingual youth who were filmed wearing POV cameras as they walked and story-ed land. Following Bang and Marin (2015), recordings were analyzed with a close attention to micro-interaction (Goodwin, 2013). Drawing on Indigenous scholarship around story (e.g., Archibald, 2008; Simpson, 2014) this paper illustrates how storying can serve as a resource for learning and theory-making (Brayboy; 2005; Simpson, 2014).

Authors

• Mel M Engman, Queen's University - Belfast

• Mary Hermes, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Meixi *, University of Minnesota

• James McKenzie, University of Arizona