Today I had the privilege to hear Peter D. Clark, a New Brunswick storyteller share with school students a few stories excerpted from his 8 books collection of tales, stories and legends from New Brunswick. Kids and adults alike really enjoyed his stories.  Some of them were true stories as attested by adults in the audience that said they knew the people who were in the story.  Interesting.

Culture is really a reflection of life and Peter has done a tremendous job to document all those stories. His work reflects his passion to share what is and has been part of a province’s collective memory.  With our fast modern way of life we are not exposed as much as some other generations to the stories of our parents, grand parents and ancestors, which is part of the reason we feel so disconnected.  I believe that when we take time to reconnect with our roots we get a broader picture of who we are and where we came from in this intergeneration line and we get a feeling of being grounded, connected to this bigger web of life.

I really appreciated that he referred to the person who had shared the story with him and enjoyed his delivery style.  Among his true life stories he had some that where really recent like the one featuring Matt Stairs a baseball player originally from New Brunswick where I learned about this generous man’s actions here in his province.  He also scared, or might I say surprised, kids and adults alike when he told us the Dungarvon Whooper folktale.

At the end he was selling his books and I purchased “A Treasury of New Brunswick Art and Stories“ where I will read a story about Willie O’Ree, the first black hockey player in the NHL.  We have a arena named after this man in Fredericton NB. And of course some folklore tales.

Thank you Peter!