Winter is the time
for stories

Winter is the Time for Stories

Our upcoming documentary feature film explores the significance of storytelling in Indigenous cultures and the struggles to keep the traditions alive.

Winter is the time for stories will focus on 4 Native American storytellers from the northeastern US. Each chapter will let us get to know each person and also hear them perform their stories.

Four Storytellers

Join Us on Our Journey to Preserve and Share the Stories of Native American Culture.

Performers

Michele-Elise Burnett (Naawii Cappo)
Narrator

Métis of Ontario citizen with Algonquin roots, Bear Clan, is President of Kakekalanicks, an Indigenous arts and consultancy company that helps promote and educate Indigenous art and artists to a broad audience. Ms. Burnett is the president of Landscape of Nations 360°, a unique national Indigenous education and tourism initiative; Artpark’s Indigenous Producer of Arts; the creator and Artistic Director of the Celebration of Nations, and the Artistic Producer of Artpark’s Annual Strawberry Moon Festival, all providing a far-reaching platform for the community to embrace and honor the unique heritage, diverse cultures, and outstanding achievements of Indigenous peoples.

Perry Ground
Storyteller

Perry Ground is a Turtle Clan member of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. He has been telling stories for over 30 years as a means of educating people about the culture, beliefs and history of the Haudenosaunee. Perry learned many of the stories he shares from elders of Native American communities and feels that practicing and perpetuating the oral traditions of Native people is an important responsibility. Professionally, Perry has worked in several museums including The Children’s Museum of Houston, Sainte Marie among the Iroquois, and Ganondagan State Historic Site. He has shared stories at countless museums, libraries, classrooms, and festivals throughout the northeast and has guest lectured at numerous colleges. Perry is the former Project Director of the Native American Resource Center within the Rochester (NY) City School District and will serve as the Frederick H. Minett Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for the 2021-22 academic year.

Joseph Bruchac
Storyteller

Born and raised in the Adirondack foothills where he still makes his home in the house where his grandparents raised him, Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning author, storyteller, and traditional musician. An enrolled citizen of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation and a member of its Elders Council, his storytelling performances draw on the rich traditions of the Wabanaki and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nations, whose elders have been his teachers for more than half a century. He also plays Native flute and, with his two sons James and Jesse, sings traditional songs accompanied by hand drum and rattle.

He’s performed abroad and in every state—including Alaska and Hawaii--been featured at such major venues as the National Storytelling Festival, the Sierra Storytelling Festival, the British Storytelling Festival, Old Songs Festival, and the Clearwater Festival. He’s done storytelling workshops and presentations at hundreds of educational institutions, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and many Native American schools. His many books for young readers may be found in nearly every school library in the United States.

Jesse Bowman Bruchac
Storyteller, Language Keeper, Musician

Jesse is a citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. Inspired by his family’s northeastern Native ancestry, Jesse became fluent in the Abenaki language – learning it directly from the last generation of first language speakers in the 1990s. He currently facilitates remote and in person classes through the Ndakinna Education Center, and the University of Southern Maine, and is the director of the School of Abenaki at Middlebury College.

In ongoing reclamation efforts, Jesse has worked with the language community to create an Abenaki dictionary, a website, an app, a Facebook Group, and a YouTube Channel. He has also lectured at Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) Algonquian Conference, SAIL (Symposium for American Indian Languages), CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium), and written several bilingual books and screenplays.

Jesse has worked with the AMC show Turn, three seasons of the PBS miniseries Jamestown, National Geographic’s Saints and Strangers, The Science Channel’s show America’s Lost Vikings, and many other projects as an Algonquian language coach, consultant, screenwriter, and composer.

About us

Petroglyph is a feature film, web, and television production company dedicated to recording and sharing the stories of Native American culture through film and video. Our upcoming documentary feature, "Winter is the Time for Stories," explores the significance of storytelling in Indigenous culture and the power of film to preserve and share these stories with the world.

The film’s theme is about the struggle between keeping our ancestors alive within ourselves and keeping them connected to our everyday lives, while also allowing ourselves to be alive in the present. We shouldn't lose the old ways that link us to our loved ones as it's important to allow ourselves to continue to grow from where they left off and not from where they started. This human story will continue on for generations and our duty in this documentary is to create awareness so we can continue to capture the stories before they are lost, and also to connect with the audience in a way that lets them know many people experience these feelings at some level and it's ok for each individual to have their own version of honoring the past and also being present in the now.

THEME