Week 9 Storytelling: Ikuloo, the Maker of Light

A preschool class from the Inuit Eskimo tribe of Alaska took a field trip to help them learn about the creation of the earth. Where did they go to learn this crucial information? To none other than a cemetery.

They got off the school bus and made their way to the center of the cemetery when a gigantic grave stone stood hovering far higher than all the others. Around this stone monument were park benches; seems weird to have benches around a grave right? 

Well the kiddos took their seats and the teacher went up to the grave stone to read the plaque that covered the entire front of it. She read it out loud and it went a little something like this....

        "Here lies the first man to ever die on earth.... Ikuloo Naqauoni. Ikuloo was a great man and the reason that there is light on earth. Mankind owes much to Ikuloo for his great sacrifice that he made for all of us.
         When earth was created we lacked light, there was only night and darkness and not even a moon in the sky. Also when earth was created we lived to be so old that our bodies had no use anymore, but still we would not die. Because we lived for forever, the Earth became overpopulated. This darkness and overpopulation made conditions grow terrible for life on earth, and so there was a great flood. The flood knocked down numbers quite a bit but still there were too many of us.
          We all knew that to get light there must be death... but none of us wanted to admit it, that is everyone except for Ikuloo. Ikuloo was the first man to die, he was only 212 years old. (Those were infantile years compared to how long most lived during this time period.) When Ikuloo had taken his last breath, daylight washed over the Earth for the first time.
          That is when the elders of the village called a meeting to contemplate life or light, and they agreed that we must continue to have death to have light. And so it became.
          To Ikuloo may you rest in peace and continue to light our days and nights with the many other who have since followed your lead," read the teacher.



The large grave stone/monument for Ikuloo Naguani  

           
When the teacher finished reading the plaque she turned to the kids to explain it just a little bit more.

"Ikuloo was the first man to die and so his death brought about light for the first time. Now all men and women on earth will eventually die in their old age, unlike how we used to live for forever. The coolest part is that now when we die, our souls float up to the sky to become a part of the moon, the sun, and all the stars," said the teacher

"And thanks to this day light and light during the night, we are able to hunt, and fish, and travel, and we aren't limited to eating on the earth like our ancestors were. We have a lot to thank Ikuloo for, for if he hadn't been the first brave enough to die then who knows if the earth would have ever recovered from overpopulation or gained daylight, moonlight and starlight," said the teacher.

"Okay now everybody grab your partner and back on the bus we go" said the teacher.
 
Author's Note: The original story was an interesting version of the creation story of the world and of mankind. In this tale there was no God... rather the earth and all of its contents and inhibitants rather fell into place. In the beginning people only had nighttime, and the earth was over populated with people because they lived to extremely old ages. Two elderly women agreed that they would trade the death of man in order to have daylight... and this became life. The first man died and there was light; then it said when all men die they become bright things in the sky like the stars, moon, and sun. I was lost in the beginning with choosing a storytelling style and then the randomizer showed me one called "Historical Marker Storytelling." I used this style by making the first guys death a historical marker in time and a physical marker on earth. Then I thought it would be cool to have people visiting it to read it and young kids seemed like the perfect audience for this partial creation story. I'm happy with how it turned out and with the little changes I made to the plot.

Bibliography: "The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago" found in Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).