At a recent online event at the Burke Museum, I attended a wonderful talk, The Lifeways and Stories reflected in Guests from the Great River, by the Native American artist Tony A. (naschio) Johnson (Chinook).
Apart from describing his work, prominently installed at the entrance of the Burke, he also discussed the importance of “story” to his tribe, the Chinook.
He mentioned that the Chinook’s stories are a significant part of their wealth—and since that time I have started to think more deeply as a writer about what a story is, and, perhaps more importantly, what it does.
Here’s a reasonable working definition of “story.”
A story or narrative is a connected series of events told through words (written or spoken), imagery (still and moving), body language, performance, music, or any other form of communication. You can tell a story about anything, and the events described can be real or imaginary; covering both fiction and nonfiction; and leaving no topic, genre, or style untouched.
LiteraryTerms.net
The strength of this definition is that a story can be contained in a wide variety of mediums, something to which I think most people would agree.
However, it doesn’t make any reference to the purpose of a story, which, as I listened to one story mention by Mr. Johnson, made me reflect on something I had read about the Iliad years ago: that two and a half thousand years ago, in the area surrounding the Greek Peninsula, it was one’s familiarity with the Iliad which made one Greek. (I sorry to say I have forgotten the specific reference, it this idea has stuck with me).
And that’s where we get back to the concept of stories being wealth. A society, a civilization, or a culture’s stories may help define who you are—perhaps even morally. What is the value of that ability?
Anyway, I believe thinking about stories as a form of wealth is a potentially rich field to plow (even in healthcare, wherein the AI-enabled EHR a patient’s story or narrative, has clear value to the data-mining corporations), and I also believe it’s important for people to acknowledge the value of their own stories because if they don’t, corporations and institutions will.