Indigenous storyteller looks to spread knowledge and life lessons across Southern Sask.

Celebrated Sask. storyteller Calvin Racette shared Métis heritage tales at the University of Regina for Aboriginal Storytelling Month. Damian Smith has more.

For Indigenous Storytelling Month in February, Elders have been invited to schools in Regina, from elementary, to high school, to post secondary institutions.

Indigenous storyteller Calvin Racette held pieces of paper at the University of Regina on Thursday, ready to share his stories.

In fact, he’s got 30 stories tucked away, ready to be told to places he visits.

He said most of them are fiction, but fact based.

“Some of them are things that I grew up believing in, but I know simply can’t be true,” he said.

As a former teacher, Racette has always had a passion for education and life lessons.

He picked up storytelling around five years ago, speaking to mostly elementary and high schools in southern Saskatchewan. Thursday was a bit of an outlier age-wise at the University of Regina.

When Racette brainstormed his first story, he said his older sister, who also happens to be an elementary teacher, gave him some great advice.

“She gave me lots of tips on how to entertain those little guys, you got to change stories every 10 minutes, and you got to do different stuff. That’s what I would incorporate, with a little dancing or little actions into it and tease them a little bit and get them involved,” he said.

Lori Campbell, the U of R’s Indigenous engagement associate vice president, has known Racette for about 30 years.

“As a Cree-Métis person, he’s somebody that I’ve met and known in the community as a leader, as a storyteller, and as somebody who’s inspirational, who’s somebody that I learned about who I am,” she said.

These stories are life lessons especially for children, such as being home before dark. A big one is the tale of the Rougarou, which is a wolf-like creature that takes children who don’t return home before dark.

“I think stories for children have a lot of different intentions, but a lot of them are to teach lessons,” Campbell said. “He [Racette] spoke about the Rougarou and the stories of the Rougarou and how to keep children well behaved and to make sure that they’re home before dark because they don’t want the Rougarou to get them.”

Racette retired nine years ago and has travelled to about 30 schools across the province in the past two years. He said the young ones keep him going.

“The kids are honest,” he said. “If you treat them good then they’ll treat you good. I really just enjoy it, they keep me young. I have grandkids too, and it’s just part of who I am.”

The storytelling event was a part of the Wascana Winter Festival in Regina, which runs until Feb. 22.