The Registration for the Outdoor Mountain and Field Programme is now open; it closes on the 6th of March 2012.
The Mountain Outdoor field programme (in the Singalila range/ Kanchanzonga bio-sphere reserve, Eastern Himalayas) is a unique way to directly engage with the mountain communities through stories and traditions of storytelling. Developed with a view to support the preservation of dying oral literature (especially in the form of storytelling), the programme provides a unique 7-day retreat in two of the most beautiful peaks of the Himalayan range namely (1) Sandakphu or “the Mountain of Poison Plants” which is also the highest peak (3,690 mts) in the Singalila range in Darjeeling and (2) Dzongu (Special Lepcha Reserve) in North Sikkim which is considered to be the aboriginal home of the disappearing Lepcha tribe and often considered a spiritual sanctuary for the people of the mountains.
Updated on 07.01.12 | Abhishek Pradhan | Info
It's an annual ritual where shamans, especially of the Eastern Himalayan region (Nepalese) remember their ancestors, the mountain and forest Spirits, the animals and the Natural world. Acoustic Traditional had a successful round of video documentation of the ritual being conducted by Mr. Dhan Bhadur Limboo (a Fedongba).
Updated on 14.12.11 | Abhishek Pradhan
Acoustic Traditional will soon be embarking on its historic 9 month long National Storytelling and Archival Tour with a session dedicated to Late Mr. Sandup Taso, Bungthing from North Sikkim who died a few months ago leaving a void in the 800 year old practice of worshipping Konchen Chu.Do read the article below.
Updated on 09.12.11 | Staff
The Shaman the World Lost:With the demise of Mr. Sandup Taso, comes an end to a near 800 year long tradition of worshipping one of the most sacred mountains of the Eastern Himalayas, Konchen Dzongu Chu (the origianal name for Mt. Kanchanzonga). It's a great loss to Sikkim and to the world in terms of understanding the world of Bungthings (Shamans in Lepcha) and their ties with the moutains of the region. For centuries, they have held the closest of secrets of the region (its flora and fauna) and used them to protect and heal their communities when in need, to fortell and to lead the newer generations passing on the legacy of their ancestors.
Photograph: Kachyo Lepcha
We are fortunate to have heard him this year on the 14th of June and recorded our only session with him. The entire Acoustic Traditional family prays for his peaceful journey in the afterlife - to use his words 'in Myel Lyang'.
Updated on 09.12.11 | Staff
The second year of the Festival saw an amazing gathering of story enthusiasts, development professionals, storytellers from India and overseas, more tribal communities, healers, well-wishers, friends of Acoustic Traditional, individuals, theatre personalities and many more intersting individuals and groups from across the country.
Photo: Participating during a workshop | Krittika
Organised at the Fire Flies Ashram between the 30th of September and 3rd of October 2011, and supported by the World Storytelling Institute (Chennai), the Confluence this year saw a remarkable mix of persectives and new additions to the storytelling categories and proved one more time how tribal oral storytelling is in dire need of preservation, much before we start about its recognition. Started as a flagship project last year, the Festival of Indigenous Storytellers is already an integral programme of Acoustic Traditional which aims to build a platform for our disappearing folklorists/storytellers across various tribal communities of India to get together and revive the tradition of oral storytelling towards conserving our rich but dying ancestral legacies - from spiritual to cultural to scientific.
From workshops for the storytellers to the festival participants, the Confluence 2011, brought in most of the key elements that looked at empowering the tribal storytellers and building a collective that supports the need for their rich and diverse oral history, myths, legends and folklore above everything else.
Updated on 25.10.11 | Staff | Read More
We are organising it in Bangalore this year at the Fire Flies Ashram between the 30th of September and 3rd of October 2011. For registrations, please download the Confluence schedule and registration guide.
Registration/Schedule here. For the previous year Confluence Report, please get in touch with us for an electronic copy.
Download: Confluence Schedule and Registration | Abhishek KR
The Festival of Indigenous Storytellers is an initiative of Acoustic Traditional to build a platform for our disappearing folklorists/storytellers across various tribal communities of India to get together and revive the tradition of oral storytelling towards conserving our rich but dying ancestral legacies ? from spiritual to cultural to scientific. The event is unique in many ways and will bring in various partnerships to emphasize the need for the preservation of this disappearing tradition.
Stories are at the heart of any tribal community. With most of our history being passed down by word of mouth in the form of fables, myths, legends, rituals, practices or folktales, it is at the threshold of being lost forever. The Festival provides a great opportunity to revive this important tradition of storytelling through our disappearing storytellers - from shamans to medicine men to the elderly. By bringing them under one roof to share not only their rich folklore but also - and perhaps more importantly - their wealth of community knowledge such as myths, legends, beliefs, practices, medicine, spirituality and so on, all of which are on the verge of near extinction, it can potentially help revive interest in the value of oral storytelling both within and outside the participating communities.
With a growing support of expert agencies and organisations, from environmental to developmental, it provides a great stage to bring out the relevance of these stories in the present modern context, apart from the mere pleasure of listening to them. In many ways, the Festival is about the revival of our tribal cultures and our practices that have had strong links with sustainability and many other critical areas of survival, which are being lost to the modern world. This is the second year of the Festival (the first was organised in Sikkim 2010 with support from the State Culture and Heritage Department, Sikkim Government) and we are glad to open the invitation for storytellers from our tribal communities for their participation in this years? three-day event to be held in Bangalore during the last week of September, 2011. This Festival will be held between30.9.11and 02.10.11 at the Fire Flies Ashram, Bangalore. There will be a series of featured and professional storytellers from across the country who will share their stories at the event.
DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL REGISTRATION AND SCHEDULE
Updated on 30.08.11 | Staff
Acoustic Traditional had a yet another great year of storytelling. The storytelling team took on humourous themes this year and as such had a good number of young children participating.
Photo: Various public sessions | Barkha Henry, Abhishek KR
What we called Spring Sessions last year in our stay in Sikkim, it has been ever since an integral part of our outreach. Also, this aspect of our work helps retain our original 'band-like' flavour and encourages us to perform stories the way we did earlier. Acoustic Traditional started out as a storytelling band that would perform based on its documentation of stories from mountain and forest communities! With a huge focus now on networking with community-based storytellers, the Spring Sessions allows us to not only perform but also explore the area of workshops and help integrate storytelling into everyone's work and life.
With the onset of the "Fall", we are now moving towards the Festival and as such closing our public sessions.We thank all our listeners and associates who helped us organise the sessions across Bangalore (Page Turners and Goobe's Book Store) and Hyderabad (Lamaakan and HSBC).
Updated on 30.08.11 | Staff
The realisation that storytelling, especially when it comes to aspects of oral history, is a means of unlocking and understanding our ancestral legacies which for generations have been passed on to our shamans. However, with the tradition of oral storytelling becoming extinct within our tribal communities, we are losing the fundamental tools that help build our identities.
Photo: Recording Session, Hyderabad | Abhishek KR
The launch of an in-house studio is a step forward in this direction, enabling storytellers and communities to participate in the process of recording and conserving their oral histories. Also the studio is expected to support the ongoing outreach activites in terms of creating audio/visual resources and help support community-based audio/visual initiatives.
Updated on 12.06.11 | Staff
Acoustic Traditional is an independent non-profit organisation, led by young tribal people, working towards the promotion of oral storytelling and tribal folklore, especially of mountain and forest-based communities.
It aims to encourage the preservation of
the various myths, legends and stories that have been an integral part of
a tribal group, vis-a-vis their cultural, environmental, spiritual and
scientific heritage and also to creatively engage mainstream communities,
through storytelling, in view of building a collective that supports the
need for such preservation.
Started as a class
room project as early as 1999 in Nepal, Acoustic Traditional has grown
over the years to include a vibrant base of supporters, from musicians to
activists to development professionals from across India. While
functioning as an independent network of storytellers, researchers and
campaigners, it produced various shows and engagement activities from time
to time, bringing in the support of various local and international
institutions. Now based in Bangalore as a registered organisation, it
continues to engage people and various mountain communities towards
conserving a rich, but dying tradition - oral storytelling.
Over the years, Acoustic Traditional has been proactively engaging various communities - both tribal and non-tribal, using creative tools, concerts, art and the internet.
Background on our work
"Once I met
an old Lepcha Bungthing (shaman in Lepcha) while traveling to Magan, North
Sikkim. He told me something which changed my life, and continues to
revive in me the interest that once took me there... He said, in response
to my question if he knew of some old Lepcha legends, 'Nani (Son or kid),
look around you, the Teesta (an important river in the region) is
diseased, people are digging into the gold which feeds the soil, everyone
is tyring to be someone or the other I cannot imagine who....if I told
about our legends, you would probably laugh at me! I wouldn't blame you.
What is the use of telling you things which you cannot relate to at all?
No body wants to talk.... I do not know which community
you beling to, probably Newari...but remember, you will need your past one
day to put together who you are...' S.M Koica Lo
That in many way speaks about our work and why we work. Apart from exploring the pleasures of listening to our folklore, which is an important aspect of reviving our tradition of storytelling, Acoustic Traditional is also - and quite significantly - about re-establishing the links between our stories and our amazingly diverse rich traditional knowledge and our cultural identities which we are losing as we move ahead in time. With a wide range of influencers - from acculturation to displacement to generational differences to ...... affecting the course of tribal inheritance, we are losing our ancestral legacy, our legends, myths, beliefs and practices as our own tradition-keepers such as our storytellers and shamans, disappear. Along with them, we are losing something that has so long survived the times - our collective experiences and learning and their relevance in our present times.
What are we trying to do?
To listen to storytellers, bring them together, give them audience, document myths, legends and stories and build an archive where various stakeholders, enthusiasts, cultural historians and more importantly, the participating communities themselves, can find means to look back into their past in future. More importantly, we work to revive the tradition of storytelling in communities where it is sometimes the only means to understanding and knowing their cultural, spiritual and scientific history.
Our
primary aim is to bring together tribal storytellers, stakeholders,
organisations, communities through various engagement means (such as the Annual Festival of Indigenous Storytellers, Storytelling Sessions, Workshops, etc.)towards the conservation of tribal oral history
While there is an increasing
interest from both the scientific and non-scientific communities in tribal
cultures, there is yet a general perception that tribal worlds are worlds
of superstitions, myths and backwardness that they are in urgent need of
mainstreaming and development. This is sometimes the attitude of the
younger tribal generation as well, which makes the pursuit of a meaningful
revival even more challenging. There is little understanding of the fact
that these communities are knowledgeable communities with a tradition of
sustainable living. But in the lack of efficient communication tools and
platforms in the mainstream arena, the gap between the tribal and
non-tribal worlds tends to increase.
In more ways than one, Acoustic Traditional is about bringing the essence of tribal cultures before a wider audience and building crossovers wherever possible and meaningful, especially through storytelling!
Who are the founders?
Salil Mukhia: Bringing in over 14 years of experience in research, communication and creative campaigning tools, especially in environment and youth mobilisation, Salil has been an active advocate of tribal stories. He has worked on various issues (toxics, climate and energy, GMO's, etc.) and with various organizations - both international and national and now leads the organisation. An initiate into shamansim (jhankri), at the moment, he is doing an independent research on the music of the Himalayan shamans, while heading Acoustic Traditional.
Barkha Henry: Working for the development sector for over 7 years, Barkha is one of the main forces behind the sustainability of the project. A sharp videographer and a documentalist, she has been at the heart of the A. T archives unit. She has also been filming for various NGO's and projects in the last few years. Now working on the rights of the people with disabilities, she is also based in Bangalore and heads the organisation as the Managing Trustee.
This section contains all the media update and includes our latest highlights, field photographs, videos, press releases and our online "merchanidse" store. The idea behind this section is to provide a visual feel of what adventures in storytelling is possibly like, both on and off the field.
Photos: Barkha Henry, Acoustic Traditional, Kodia Women, Orissa | Update: 10.12.11
Film Description: The footage, filmed by Paras Limboo, AT student associate, is a part of our ongoing documentation of the "Limboo" oral myths and legends. It is one of our first collaborative initiatives to work directly with a medicineman in helping document the process and forms of oral storytelling in Limboo shamanism.
| National Storytelling and Archival Tour ▊ Read
| Festival of Indigenous Storytellers, Bangalore, 2011 ▊ Read
If you are either from print or the television media, please directly contact us at 080 6597 1082 for any further communication material or document.
This Section includes all links to our previous association with print and the television media. Do note that some links may not be in use any longer as the publisher may no longer be keeping it in its archive. For such instances, we have a pdf version available for download.
Mailing Address:
75/2, Ramachandrappa Road, Kamanahalli Main Road, Bangalore - 84
Tel.:080 6597 1082
Email: acoustic.traditional@gmail.com
People to Contact
Barkha Henry
Co-Founder, Managing Trustee
Email:barkhablr@gmail.com
Salil Mukhia Kwoica
Founder, Director (Trustee)
Email:salilmukhia@gmail.com
Abhishek Pradhan
Media & Programmes Manager
Email:abhishek.pradhanap@gmail.com
Krittika
Communication Associate
Email:
Abhishek K. R
Documentation and Archives
Email:
Kachyo Lepcha
Regional Coordinator for Eastern Himalayan Region
Email:
Raji Nair
Acoustic Traditional Hyderabad, Hyderbad
Email:
Festival 2011, Bangalore | Festival 2010, Gangtok
The first festival was held in 2010 (July 23rd and 24th) at the Forest and Wildlife Auditorium, Deorali, Gangtok, Sikkim, North-East India with support from the State Culture and Heritage Department, Sikkim Express, Sikkim Now, Rachna Books and Publications, WWF Sikkim, Endeavours Kabi and various individuals and private donors. The festival was being organised after nearly two years of intensive background work, community networking, fundraising and hard work.
The primary aim of the Festival - The Festival of Indigenous Storytellers - is to bring together tribal storytellers, stakeholders, organisations, communities - both tribal and non-tribal - in a way that is not only interesting but also meaningful... something that builds crossovers and adds perspectives that can positively influence the stake of tribal knowledge (vis`-a`-vis` folklore) in the context of various and present critical issues, from environmental to developmental. One great way to do so is through a festival. We call this 'Confluence'.
The Confluence provides a great platform to promote traditional oral storytelling of our tribal communities. It brings together our dissappearing oral storytellers - from shamans to medicinemen to scholars to folklorists - under one roof to share not only their folklore but also - and perhaps more importantly - their wealth of commuity knowledge, myths, legends, beliefs, practices, medicine, spirituality and so on. All this can potentially help revive interest in the value of storytelling both within and outside the participating communities.With a growing support of expert agencies and organisations, from environmental to developmental, it provides a great stage to bring out the relevance of these stories in the present context.
In many ways, Confluence is about revival of our tribal cultures, and our practices that have had strong links with sustainability, that are being lost to the modern world. 2011 will be the second year of the Confluence and will bring storytellers from various indigenous communities, from various regions of the country.
Festival 2011, Bangalore | Festival 2010, Gangtok
Join Us
As a storyteller or a shaman or a community-based organisation, you can be a part of the yearly festival held across different venues in India. For the festival, Acoustic Traditional sponsors the participation of around 10 to 15 storytellers each year which include travel, food/accomodation and participation costs (workshops, sessions, etc.). At the moment we are supporting storytellers who have a tribal backround and are community based. However, please feel free to get in touch with us (visit the contact section)by submitting a small cover letter which includes:
a. Storyteller details b. Community/Region c. Nature of stories (myths, legends or folktales) d. style of presentation (oral narrative, singing, dancing, etc.) and e. how it would be of help to you in terms of your participation.
Please also
note that we support storytellers whose style is more or less oral in form and
presentation.
Documentation is one emerging area in our work. Over the last few years, especially after its convergence into an organisation, Acoustic Traditional is now looking at ways of documenting, especially the 'oral myths' and the various traditions of narrating them (orally) in various tribal communities of India.
As storytellers disappear, these oral histories (myths and legends) also disappear. It's but sadly a race against time. And given the fact that most myths (especially origins of tribes) are shared only by shamans or medicinemen/women of a community (in the oral form), the work becomes even more challenging as the numbers of these keepers of cultural legacies are becoming more and more less. The demise of Samdup Taso (shaman from North Sikkim) in October 2011 is proof of this: he was the last surviving shaman who knew of the rituals and the wisdom associated with the worship of Konchen Chu (Mt. Kanchanzonga), a tradition that was over eight centuries old which linked the royalty of Sikkim (Bhutias) with the Lepcha tribal people.
Oral History: At The Heart of a Tribe
As the name suggests, it is history which is passed on orally. All cutlures throughout the world have it, though in varying degrees in terms of detail.While most of it have been documented and written down, there exists a vast area of content which is yet to be documented - either textually or electronically (audio/video). This area is something which relates to a vast majority of tribal (espeically primitive) communities in India and around the world.
In the recent past, there has been a surge of interst in our cultures, traditions, folklore, etc., and as auch, much much has come into light. Numerous books on tribal folktales are being published, providing fresh insights into our myths (pantheons, origin, etc.,), beliefs and practices. However, the area of interest remains fairly built around folktales, conservation tools, rituals, medicines, handicrafts, music and other artifacts.
"Our oral history is our guide. It is the source of our legends, stories, music, beliefs and practices and every tradition associated with our communities. It is the source upon which we have perfected our medicines, healing sytems, knowledge of the natural world, rituals, prayers and various other practices. It is Sacred to us and hence remians protected in the hands of our shamans and medicine people. It is passed on from them to the communities during ceremonies and certain rituals, after they undergo a rigorious initiation process (in their childhood usually) and years of training under the tutelage of their Guide. This has been the tradition, despite the fact that most of our cultures have an evolved script which continue to remain in use until today." Mr. Amalee, Paniyar Shaman.
Oral history, by far an invaluable resource to the community, needs to be preserved, given the fact that they are disappearing along with its keepers. It is the fundamental basis of understanding our identities. While folktales, music and crafts have a better chance of survival in the larger community (also because they have economic value), it is our oral history that has far less scope of surviving the times.
In most communities, the threat of loss in this regard is two-fold: a. loss of the tradition of narrating tribal origins as the number of people who are trained to do it are lessening and b. the loss of orally recorded history itself. As an example, in the Paniyar tribal community of Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu, India), there remains only one shaman who conducts rituals and performs the narrative associated with oral history. He is 75 years old and without a successor. Among the Kowica tribal people of the Eastern Himalayas (less than 70,000 in number), there exists about 3 "Poiba(s)" to conduct similar activities. Instances such as these are many and across India and around the world.
Our Objectives in Documentation
Collaboratively work with shamans and medicine people to document electronically the narrative sessions and rituals associated with them and enage with them even in the long run
Build an offline archive accessible to communities and stakeholders
Create opportunities for such storytellers, post documentation process, to interact with a larger audience (sessions, workshops, seminars, etc.)
Eventually enable the storytellers and community members to document such processess on their own in the long run where we are seen more as facilitaors
Documentation in Progress
Acoustic Traditional has recently started to work, collaboratively, with Mr. Dhan Bhadur Limboo ("Bijuwa" or a Limboo medicineman)of the Limboo tribe in Darjeeling. It'll be a long association as the documentation involves primarily around his ceremonies held at different times of the year and on various occassions. The nature of this documentation is fairly intensive as is the nature of our "sessions" with him, which entails his process of possession by Guardian Deities before any narrative begins.
The documentation would result in an electronic form of publication of the sessions (audio).
As a part of our outreach, we are constantly in the process of developing experiential tools of enagement with individuals, organisations and youth. From workshops, which include the process of storytelling to using it as a means of self healing, to games to field tours to night-out sessions to treasure hunts to short learning modules, our idea is to reach as much wide audience as possible towards building a community which sees the need for what we are doing.
These programmes not only help us disseminate our work in a creative way but also supports us financially. In fact, this is one key area of our fundraising which otherwise is based on individual donors, sponsorships and sale of merchandise and artwork. Do support us by way of joining one of our programmes.
Corporate workshops and sessions have been newly included in our outreach acitivites and so far it has had great success. We conduct specialised sessions, ofen using rituals and mountain music, which help create a relaxed feeling and evoke a deep sense of affinity with the inner-self. Various shamanic beats and exercises are used depending on the need of the workshop. Storytelling, as an ancient practice, deals not only with "art" but also with the "therapeutic" effects of sounds.
Workshops and Sessions available for corporate and organisations
Healing through Storytelling | 2 to 3 hrs to entire day
Storytelling Sessions | 2 hrs
Quest | 2.5 to 4 hrs to entire day
Please do visit the contact section to write to or call us. Do note that we will need at least 15 days time before the scheduled date for workshops in Bangalore and for cities outside Bangalore, we will need at least 20 days.
Tour Workshops Started | Read More
An integral part of the Confluence is to engage with schools and young students. Over the years, Acoustic Traditional has tried to creatively engage with students in ways that can potentially impart an experiential engagement and help enrich their understanding of and appreciation for oral storytelling. It has proved to be, time and again, a meaningful association and an almost collaborative adventure. The Tour provides an ideal opportunity to do this again. It’s in fact a rare chance where people from elusive communities come together, share stories, their beliefs and practices with people and communities outside their own and provide a fertile ground of enriching experiences from where countless crossovers could be made.
For schools, there are various engagement activities developed. However, the workshops have been developed specifically for teachers. For the students, we would be able to organise fun and enriching storytelling sessions with ample in-between traditional games and activities.
Workshops and Sessions available for Schools
Speaking Classrooms for teachers | 3 to 4 hrs
Telling a story for teachers | 3 hrs
Sessions with activities for students | 2.5 hrs
Ancient Treasures | Treasure hunt for the entire school, 5hrs
Please do visit the contact section to write to or call us. Do note that we will need at least 15 days time before the scheduled date for workshops in Bangalore and for cities outside Bangalore, we will need at least 20 days.
Tour Workshops Started | Read More
Go to Projects Update Page
Since 2006, we have taken up a number of Projects that aimed at a more creative and public forms of engagement. We undertake Projects every year in view of helping us expand our network of storytellers and communities and our outreach initiatives. From unique record-breaking activities to intensive tours, we are exploring our ideas and ways of promoting the disappearing stories and their cultures.
With the success of our first public Project in 2010 - The Great Story Wall - it has opened doors for us to look into various contemporary tools to reach out to people and communities with the message of storytelling. The Project which resulted in a record-breaking 100 meter long digital artwork on Sikkemese mythology helped us tie with stakeholders, storytellers, youth and media in a very effective way. Through the Project we could reach story enthusiasts across the globe and help revive this dying tradition in the State at the same time.
With creative engagement at the heart of our planning, we are now looking ahead with much stronger beliefs that storytelling can, indeed, touch everyone in the world.
Updated Projects 2011-2012 | View Previous Projects
Shamanic Acoustics brings various shamanic storytelling traditions together. Initiated on 14/10/11, the Project will look at compiling around 12 sessions recorded earlier (and ongoing) by Acoustic Traditional and includes some sessions conducted by Acoustic Traditional itself involing ritual-based hums and music. The project would also work closely with the National Storytelling Tour which will help link with us with other shamans, especially from South India.
The due date for the completion is April 2012 and will be released as an audio DVD. It would be an invaluable addition to the archive that we have taken up in the meantime.
The National Storytelling and Archival Tour is an initiative of Acoustic Traditional to promote and document the rich but disappearing oral history (which includes myths, legends and folktales) of mountain and forest tribal peoples/communities (to include primitive communities) of India. The first attempt of its kind to document myths, legends and stories through audio/visual means, and with a key focus on lesser known communities, the storytelling/archival tour is of critical importance in terms of (1) documenting, through audio/visual recording, the oral traditions of storytelling that are now either near extinct or being forgotten and (2) reviving interest (within the communities and outside of them) in their traditions of oral storytelling through interactions, creative engagement and active involvement of the storytellers. The tour will include recordings of shamanic storytelling as one key component in the archival process.
Read More
Go to Projects Update Page
on lesser known communities, the storytelling/archival tour is of critical importance in terms of (1) documenting, through audio/visual recording, the oral traditions of storytelling that are now either near extinct or being forgotten and (2) reviving interest (within the communities and outside of them) in their traditions of oral storytelling through interactions, creative engagement and active involvement of the storytellers. The tour will include recordings of shamanic storytelling as one key component in the archival process.on lesser known communities, the storytelling/archival tour is of critical importance in terms of (1) documenting, through audio/visual recording, the oral traditions of storytelling that are now either near extinct or being forgotten and (2) reviving interest (within the communities and outside of them) in their traditions of oral storytelling through interactions, creative engagement and active involvement of the storytellers. The tour will include recordings of shamanic storytelling as one key component in the archival process.on lesser known communities, the storytelling/archival tour is of critical importance in terms of (1) documenting, through audio/visual recording, the oral traditions of storytelling that are now either near extinct or being forgotten and (2) reviving interest (within the communities and outside of them) in their traditions of oral storytelling through interactions, creative engagement and active involvement of the storytellers. The tour will include recordings of shamanic storytelling as one key component in the archival process.