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DEH CHO - From adventures on motorcycles to adventures on dog sleds a storytelling evening led to cultural sharing in Fort Simpson.

On June 10 the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre's Storytelling Road Festival made its first stop in the village. Held at the arbour, the event drew a crowd of approximately 20 people, mostly elders.

Mary Jane Cazon, right, translates Charly Chiarelli's story from English to Slavey during the Storytelling Road Festival's stop in Fort Simpson. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

The audience was entertained by the tales of three of the festival's performers. Whitehorse storyteller Ivan Coyote's tale of lodging a small pebble in her nose as a young child and her father's inventive attempts to remove it drew laughter from the crowd.

Laughter also peppered a story about motorcycles, girlfriends and a mother's insight as told by Charly Chiarelli, a performer from Kingston, Ont.

Yellowknifer Pat Braden's story about his family's cabin also touched a chord.

Storytelling is about going back to the basics, said Ozgur Oner, the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre's office manager.

"Storytelling is the base of all performing arts. It starts as stories," Oner said.

In Fort Simpson the festival met its goal of having people share stories together when a handful of audience members also volunteered their stories.

Kakisa Elder Sarah Chicot spoke of her youth when dog teams were used for everything from getting water to hauling wood.

The dogs could also cause a lot of trouble. One day Chicot went out on a sled with a five-dog team. The dogs were strong and were pulling too fast.

"I was trying to stop the dog team and I couldn't," she said.

As the team headed for a tree Chicot fell off. Luckily her father was nearby and stopped the dogs.

For her own safety Chicot's dad made her walk back to their camp while he took the sled. Although it was supposed to be safer Chicot fell and hit her head hard enough to cause a lasting headache.

The adventures with dog teams weren't over, however.

Despite her headache the next day Chicot went out with her family to pull in fish nets from the lake. There were so many fish that when a man from another village came by they shared some with him.

He left but later his dog team got away from him and pulled the sled full of fish all the way back to her family's camp, said Chicot, finishing with a grin.

Fort Simpson wasn't the only community to be entertained by stories. This year the festival visited eight communities including the village, Kakisa and Fort Liard for the first time.

The experience in each of the Deh Cho communities was unique, Oner said. In the village Mary Jane Cazon volunteered to translate the stories from English to Slavey, a first for the festival, Oner said.

In Fort Liard the event on June 11 lasted for more than two hours and attracted approximately 30 people. Two days earlier in Kakisa 25 people, mostly youth, listened to the stories.

The festival's stop in Kakisa was a hit, said Sheila Hilliard, the teacher at Kakisa Lake School.

"It was entertaining," Hilliard said.

All of the storytellers had slightly different styles but the youth who gathered for the event particularly liked Charly Chiarelli's harmonica playing, she said.

"The kids, their ears just perked up right there," said Hilliard.