Third Perspective

“I feel your story” (Edmee)

“that question of what you struggled with, is how we would evaluate, as you move along, because the struggles come from here (points to chest) if we just gave you a test on a piece of paper about the photo, then it will all come from here (points to head) which that happens in school all the time, comes from here, but when we do the smudge and the question, then you’re testing from how you connect from the head and heart, then the evaluation is really evaluating from an oral context” (Reg)

One can listen to stories just to hear and other times one can listen what is being spoke to engage with the words to seek meaning for a question or challenge. The method of storytelling includes listener and the teller, each integral to generating significance from the story. The storyteller commits to the details and shares the important nuances of the story. The listener also has commitments to endure; “Listening is an emotional, spiritual, and physical act. It takes a huge emotional commitment to listen, to sort, to imagine the intent, to evaluate, to process and to seek the connection to the words offered so that remembering can be fair and just” (Maracle, 2015, p. 21). Both entities in the storytelling process have ethical obligations. The teller shares the story as it is known ensuring nothing has been altered or deleted. Moreover, the teller is responsible for stating personal lineage and their connection to the story. Obliged is the listener to listen intentionally, to care for the stories that are offered and to ascertain information that will respect the essence of the story.

I have been influenced by the stories, experiences, and energies of those around me since the beginning of the research. Assessing stories began as soon as I recruited individuals. Assessing narratives was not limited to the time when my data collection was completed but occurred simultaneously throughout. Questions that guide an oral knowledge system were in play the entire duration. In teaching with Reg, certain questions are exercised to assess the stories of student assignments, they include: how am I/they relating to the story? how is this informing who I/they are becoming and what I/they know? What are the struggles of both the listener and teller and in the story? How will I/they be a good relative and responsible to the story and the source of the story? In another way, we can relate these questions to the Creation story Reg shared with the research circle. Original emotion, thought, creation, and sound envelop these concepts. The struggle Creator was having with his emotion of lonesomeness, encouraged him to think about how to relate to his feelings thus deciding to act and create the Earth. How the students relay their story is their sound. Whether we use storying up or third perspective, both concepts induce a process that is derived from an oral systematic approach to knowledge acquisition. I was fortunate to previously practice applying assessment processes in my pedagogy however, the layers of this doctoral analysis were more robust and multidimensional as I had multiple perspectives to relate to and consider. Regardless, third perspective and storying-up have informed how I assess the narratives to derive meaning related to my research question.

The third perspective (Figure 1.) is a relationship and a knowledge spirit as articulated by Reg Crowshoe with smudge. The third perspective as a concept asserts that the listener and teller are engaging with other beings — the language and story. Moreover, the perspective as a being has its own agency and autonomy within the context of the interaction with the listener and the teller. The three do not collapse into one another yet inform each other and create knowledge that is then used for life purposes. As I engaged with the stories of the Métis kin, I engaged with the teller while ‘seeing’ their story as its own entity that held knowledge. This third perspective as story or language will house the emotion, thought, creation, and sound that will guide me in what to listen for; what are the Métis relatives feeling, thinking, acting, and saying within the story. As these four concepts interact in the story, I learning about the research question; what their experiences are telling me is my role, as the listener, too discern. Having a relationship with the third perspective, with the knowledge spirit, the listener has the opportunity to peel back the layers of the stories to see what is beneath and how they are mirrored (Maracle, 2015). Moreover, the third perspective is generative in that the story that the teller and listener create together become a separate third perspective; the third perspective is always being created. For example, referring back to aachimooshtowihk and storying up the third perspective is included in the storying up process and through aachimooshtowihk, truth sharing, and circumambulating the stories through language, we are also creating a different third perspective. The process of the third perspective is generative as each time we enter into the triadic relationship, more stories will be created. Collective truthing occurs when I engage with each kin’s story individually while also hearing the engagement of the kin together — I am looking at what third perspective we are creating together and then what that collective third perspective is teaching me. Through this, narratives culminate and form patterns thus becoming central in meaning making.

With patterns revealed, representing and documenting the inquiry had to be decided. Relying on the third perspective to provide a lens for me to ‘see’ the stories as their own beings with knowledge, I then had to discern the stories and “observe looking for relationships between various things in it. That is to say, everything in the natural world has relationships with every other thing and the total set of relationships makes up the natural world as we experience it” (Deloria, 1999, p.34). The common adage associated with Indigenous worldviews is, “all my relations”, or “we are all related”. A Michif phrase, wahkohtowin, reflects “all my relations in creation”. Looking to this for assistance, I saw that the patterns revealed could be situated within this philosophy thus this was chosen to represent our collective story that you will read/see in the Wisdom sections. I wanted to ensure that I assembled the stories in relational ways and to assert that they are not segregated from each other but are dependent on each other to understand the fuller story of our inquiry.