Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Over the weekend I explored Jericho beach and came across a family of bunnies roaming freely on the land. Many gathered round to alert their friends and family, or document their experience with videos or photos. I began to ponder the ways in which stories are a vehicle for interconnectedness that unite all living and non living things. The land, the animals, and people can share a unifying experience that is relived every time a story is told. With this in mind, I began to ponder the ways in which stories will outlive us as they continue to circulate from one generation to the next. During my walk, a couple passed me by, and I overheard a person say “witnessing an injured bunny here when I was a child largely influenced my decision to become a veterinarian”, and in return, their partner smiled. In this moment, I became cognizant of how the act of storytelling is a shared experience that fosters connection. More than often, the experiences we have in a place become integral to our sense of identity, offering us a sense of purpose and intentionality as we navigate through the world. This comment allowed me to better understand the unifying link between story, identity, and place. On my walk, I began to think of how as humans, we have a tendency to transform the spaces we encounter- but what we often forget is that places have an equally powerful role in transforming us. A single experience in a place can have long lasting implications on our lives, by helping us to discover who we are, and inspiring us to take on meaningful opportunities.
This experience brought back memories of an Indigenous scholar whose literary work we had explored last semester. Susan Dion speaks to the power of storytelling by referring to the relationship of “personal and public memory” that allows us not to “live in the past, but in relation with the past” by “acknowledging the claim that the past has on the present” (Dion, 2007, p. 333). I connected this quote to my experience at Jericho as I found that the act of storytelling shapes who we are, even if memories much like the memory of the woman I had overheard are distant memories from childhood. This experience has taught me that storytelling can help us to honour our past as well as better understand the experiences that have shaped us.
Meagan Labee
