Storytellers’ started after the first set of Treaty talks with the Gitxsan, British Columbia, and Canada ended in 1993. All of our original staff had been involved in public education about the treaty. During that time we were told over and over again that people, locally, find it hard to work together. However, what we were witnessing in our work was different. We saw people willing to try and talk with each other and overcome differences of opinion so they could live together as neighbours. We also saw people take on courage so they could learn about, and talk about, sensitive issues. This inspired us. We left that work feeling energized and excited to belong to our community. We were inspired how learning together was leading to action together. The Chiefs that had worked on this treaty process also told us they wanted our work of engaging people (especially young people) to continue. They liked how Storytellers’ brought Gitxsan and non-Gitxsan people together to dream about a culturally diverse community that could work together to increase both social and economic assets while sustaining healthy ecosystems. And so we rented a building in Hazelton and evolved into our present organization, which is a non-profit with a board that directs and supports us, and a staff to carry out project activities.

Storytellers’ is a Community-based Economic Development (CED) research and development organization. Part of our research and development led to the creation of The Learning Shop as a community learning storefront – a place for the busy work of programming and activities to take place. For many years Storytellers’ has been running programs with local people out of the Learning Shop while also doing CED research, development, and advocacy work. We found that the programming and activity in the Learning Shop was taking up more staff time, and the research, development, and advocacy was being dropped.

We wanted Storytellers’ to return to the more political work of changing existing power structures and systems to better reflect the sustenance economy of the Upper Skeena, but did not want to lose the critical programming taking place in the Learning Shop. In 2019 we decided to mature the Learning Shop into its own non-profit entity. Programming and activity with local people at the Learning Shop will continue to inform Storytellers’ research and development, and Learning Shop programming will continue to be informed by Storytellers’ conceptual frames.