By Naomi Gish
Native storyteller and artist Roger Fernandes of the Lower Elwha S’Klallam people shared with Peninsula College students at Studium Generale and at the Longhouse on Oct. 1 and 8.
He would ask the audience questions to participate in his stories: “We need each other, it’s one of those things you share. We’re afraid of giving the wrong answers and assume there is a right one. We do have things to be afraid of but as a community we face fear together.”
Fernandes reaches back to his heritage as a Native American to rebuild storytelling into society. Also restoring personal connections to family and a respect for the natural world. His native name is Kawasa , which means “big tree standing among the people.” “Why overcome nature rather than live with nature?” he says, not seeing us as separate from na- ture, but living in symbiosis with it.
The community mindset is a key topic of his. Now people are all about themselves and selling things for a profit rather than helping each other and living and working together.
He shares storytelling to help people to help themselves; it’s not about right and wrong but what people feel. He says you forget the power of storytelling till you start doing it.
Fernandes grew up in Seattle and studied art and screenwriting. He realized that what he had been taught when he was younger had prominent elements in his studies. He realized that the mind resists learning without an emotional connection, one that is more heartfelt. He says that there is an individuality in interpret- ing stories because each per- son finds something different for themselves in the story. He hopes his art collection will restore a knowledge of what is truly native to this area. Where people are thinking that Alaskan totem pole art is native to the peninsula, Fernandes’ art pieces are in a style unique to this part of the country.