Story Shifters is a co-creation between Storytellers’ Foundation, Diana Cullen, and Anne Donaldson
Story Shifters’ goal is to create space and tools for non-Indigenous people to begin the work of decolonization by interrupting their narratives.
Our work is based on the belief that we are the stories we keep – the stories we inherited, those we hold right now, those we are passing on.
“The truth about stories is that that’s all we are.” — Thomas King
STORY SHIFTERS is a practice lab for non-Indigenous settlers who want to further explore and think critically about how our personal stories (and the public narratives we hear) work to recreate colonial attitudes, laws and policy in Canada.
It is a space for non-Indigenous people to analyze and question difficult, emotionally-charged, real-life issues in front of others and unpack their role in current colonial practices such as land exploitation and social and economic injustice. This creates vulnerability. It also creates trust and relationship. When people choose to maintain a stance of inquiry rather than settling on an answer - what we know, or think we know, is disrupted. This inner work of testing colonial beliefs and bias in front of others enables people to be more respectfully unapologetic when they challenge colonial stories, attitudes and policy out in the world.
“For me, personally I am unsettled. My self-awareness has increased along with my knowledge of Canadian history. I have unpacked with my group what “truth and reconciliation” means beyond the public apologies, and land acknowledgements. I can see my privileges, of which there are many. There is a perpetuating system of oppression all around me, I have experienced it in the company I work for. From participating in Story Shifters, I can now ask myself “how do I contribute to this system”? This question is a gift!”
- Story Shifters participant
Our Offerings
“Story Shifters was incredibly helpful in enriching our team towards a better and deeper understanding of what it means to be a settler and how we are implicated in maintaining systems of oppression, where we may not have been aware of before. The Story Shifters experience provides a gentle yet blunt approach to naming colonization, racism towards, and oppression of Indigenous people and communities. It also allows teams, like ours, to work at a speed that we need to, to increase our understanding, as non-Indigenous people, of historical and current colonization, while we continuously build a “safe environment” to talk about really hard stuff”.
- Story Shifters participant
Contact Story Shifters: cynthia@upperskeena.ca
Angelique, Anne, Cynthia and Diana bring diverse skillsets and on the ground experience to the collaboration of Story Shifters. Rooted in the values and approaches that have guided Storytellers’ Foundation for the past 20 years, the Story Shifters team continues to engage people to agitate social and structural inequities. Story Shifters work is influenced and supported by our team’s knowledge and practical experiences, which include: grassroots community organizing; academic research; formal, experiential and popular education; community collaboration; project management; self-reflexive disruption of colonial narratives; personal stories; facilitation and coaching.
Diana and Anne are our Story Shifters Facilitator/Coaches. Cynthia and Angelique support the partnership through Storytellers’ with research, administration, community partnerships, creative input, and project management.