Thebacha/Fort Smith - Two storytellers took Northern tales to an unusual setting late last year.

Fort Smith's Jim Green and Yellowknife's Pat Braden were part of an annual storytelling tour of the Hawaiian Islands.

Jim Green of Fort Smith and Pat Braden of Yellowknife joined a group of American storytellers for the Hawaiian Talk Story Festival Tour in October. The tour included, left to right, Roxann Lawson, Braden, Dr. Margie Brown, Jeff Gere, Pamela Perkins and Green. - photo courtesy of Pat Braden

"They billed Pat and I as 'Ice and Snow'," Green said. "It turned out one of the posters they made for me had me as Snow, so Pat was Ice. We used that. We threw it back and forth."

Green and Braden were both telling their Northern stories in Hawaii for the first time, and they found receptive audiences among adults and children.

"For adults, in a way it was kind of easy because they're thirsty to know cultures from other parts of the world," Green said.

As for children, they were mostly interested in hearing about snow, except in Hilo where it occasionally snows on a mountain near the city.

"Of course, they had other questions," Green said. "Does anybody still live in iglus? I just turned that around and asked, 'How many people here still live in grass houses?'"

Green also found Hawaiians interested in what Northerners eat, both in the old days and today.

"And of course, my major story for kids was a bear story," he said. "I ended up talking quite a lot about bears. They certainly wanted to hear about that because Hawaii doesn't have anything like that."

Green also brought some moccasins and moose hide, and let people smell them.

Braden also found the Hawaiians were intrigued by the Northern stories.

"It was giving them a bit of a vision into how we live up here, compared to how they live down there," he said.

That included having to describe some things most Hawaiians are not familiar with, like snow and what it is like at -40 C.

"Some of the climatic themes that I brought in were just totally lost," Braden said. "I mean I played a very early morning show for a group of Grade 4 students and it was like, 'What is a parka?'"

Braden also met a lot of local people and learned more about Hawaiian culture, traditional life and history, including the state's struggle to maintain its culture as the United States gained control of the islands.

"If there's anything that I got from that trip, it would have been just that real hit of independence, of cultural autonomy, sovereignty and all the rest of that stuff," he said. "That was very enlightening to me."

Green and Braden were part of the Hawaiian Talk Story Festival Tour in October.

They were invited on the tour by its main organizer, Jeff Gere, who participated in the Yellowknife Storytelling Festival in June.

"It was just great. It was just wonderful," said Green, adding he had 17 engagements in 14 days.

After a major storytelling festival in Honolulu, the storytellers dispersed throughout the Hawaiian Islands and performed at cultural centres, libraries and schools.

"I've never had that opportunity before to work two weeks straight," Green said. "You just hone your skills, your timing gets right on and you're just sort of on all the time. It's not like you have to bring out the storyteller guy. The storyteller guy is there all the time. It was a wonderful experience that way."

His Northern stories included tales about caribou hunting, canoeing, and much more.

"I told lots and lots of Northern stories," Green said. "I write stories that have been part of my life and, having been here for 40 years,

I've got lots of stories."

Green had to be conscious of the words he used, saying a kicker in Hawaii is a soccer player, not an outboard motor.

Braden participated in 10 days of the tour and performed about a dozen times.

His stories include tales about Yellowknife and the cosmopolitan flavour of the city created by people attracted from all over the world by the mining industry.

"I kind of try to celebrate the historical part of Yellowknife and where it's come from that way," he said. "That's what I try to bring into my stories."

Both Green and Braden said the Hawaiian tour was a good experience and they would be interested in returning if invited.

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