KIOWA AUTHOR AND ORATOR N. SCOTT MOMADAY TOLD US,

“IN THE ORAL TRADITION, THERE ARE THREE THINGS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL: EVERY STORY IS TRUE, SO THE STORYTELLER MUST SPEAK RESPONSIBLY, THE STORYTELLER MUST BE TRUTHFUL — SHE MUST BE AWARE OF BEING TRUTHFUL — AND THE LISTENER MUST LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY, SO HE REMEMBERS WHAT HE HEARS…

SPEAK RESPONSIBLY.

LISTEN CAREFULLY.

REMEMBER WHAT YOU HEAR.”

 
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The First Literature Project aids Native Nations in their efforts to maintain and further their cultural oral narratives, languages and traditions. By utilizing a new cutting-edge immersive storytelling platform, the most advanced 3D, VR and holographic technology are repurposed to recreate the most ancient form of communion: sitting face-to-face with a storyteller. Our archive enables tribal members and lay-viewers alike to experience native Orations as if in person from across space and time, employing modern marvels to further ancient traditions.

The First Literature Project is working with the Library of Congress to create a unified collection of Orations by engaging as many First American communities as possible in their existing storytelling and language preservation efforts. First, the archive makes Orations accessible in VR and over the cloud. Second, our proposed network of real-world First Literature Rooms on or near ancestral lands will make Orations accessible in-person. Third, our education and documentary initiatives will broaden the national narrative in the United States and across the world as we come to terms with our history.

In 2022, the First Literature Project, along with its partners Guild Hall and the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge, was awarded the Creatives Rebuild New York grant, a project of the Tides Center supported by the Melon and Ford foundations — comprising one part of a three-year, $125 million investment. In 2023, FLP received additional funding from Guild Hall, the Library of Congress, Long Island Community Foundation, The Gardner Foundation, Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg.

Orations Underway

  • Sound of the Rattle

    This oration focuses on the cosmic origins of Turtle Island — the land which is as old as the sound of the rattle, the first sound in the universe. Sugar Loaf Hill, it is said, is as old as that sound — as old as time itself.

  • How the Clam Came

    This oration focuses on the story of how the Clam came to the Shinnecock people.

  • Circassian Shipwreck

    Incorporating the voices of elders who remember hearing about the 1876 shipwreck near Mecox bay, this Orator aims to finally provide the Indigenous perspective to a well-documented event in Eastern Long Island’s Colonial History. The Oration will also speak to the sometimes tumultuous relationship between Indigenous people and the growing population of non-native settlers, whalers, and merchants who had come to take already-occupied land as their own.

  • Padawe

    This piece of historical fiction was written by Elizabeth “Chee Chee” ThunderBird Haile about a group of young boys participating in a whale hunt off the coast of Eastern Long Island. The boys climb Sugar Loaf Hill (an area reserved for burying Shinnecock ancestors) to play/practice hunting and hiding from prey as they watch for the whales. A boy named Paummeau spots the whales and rushes tell villagers to get ready. The women prepare the oars, and everyone goes out to sing the whales in. ‘Singing the whales in’ is a tradition among the Shinnecock, as it was the safest and most spiritually appropriate way of acknowledging the life which is about to be taken.

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