The Soul Portraits
Indigenous Narratives

"As a listener, I know that everyone has a story. And the indigenous traditions of our world have a story worth listening to; it is a human story. So human in fact, people will no longer think of traditional people as "primitive" but contemporary with the rest of us."

Elisabeth Sunday
As the last remaining animistic, indigenous elders cycle off the earth, it becomes imperative for historical and archival purposes, to record their personal histories, myths and legends. While much recording may exist in certain areas, it is often from the impersonal perspective of anthropologists. It is my goal to find the stories that reveal the profound and ancient link between the natural world and the human being and retell those stories in the form of children's books for the indigenous population. Because traditional peoples live in tandem with nature, I have observed that through co-existing and co-evolving with the natural world, a language of common understanding emerged between the human being and nature. These lines of wisdom are audible in the elder's stories of nature and spirits. I am in search of the stories that demonstrate how people have understood the natural world and lived with the forces and creatures of nature.

The stories are recorded through video and journal interviews. Once complete, the stories will be transferred to CD and DVD. Copies will then be distributed to the Cultural Preservation Office and Education Departments of Yap Island in Micronesia and for the University of Hawaii.

Selected stories reflecting extraordinary experience of the elders, will be written and illustrated by hand, copied and distributed to the local schools for the children. We will also make "talking storybooks" on CD. As a mother and someone who feels a connection with indigenous people, I feel it is important to keep the link between the natural world and the child alive. Often, the Earth, referred to as "Mother," dies in traditional cultures; displaced by a missionary vision of sorts. Once this link is broken, and the ancient "Mother" no longer exists, a profound despair settles in the hearts of the people and the children are lost. this effort exists to help them remember who they are and where they come from in the face of the growing influence of globalization and Westernization.