Stories from the Land, By Those Who Care for It
Guardians participate in an exchange for the Storytellers project. Credit: Klara Brandl-Mouton
Indigenous Guardians across Canada are stepping forward, not just with all-terrain boots and weather-beaten field notebooks, but with their stories and creativity. Storytelling has been a central part of Indigenous culture, economies, and knowledge systems since time immemorial.
Our ancestors might be astonished to know that today, some of us can build entire careers and even campaigns around Indigenous Storytelling. Over the past three years as the Storytellers Project Lead, I have been grateful to form lifelong, meaningful relationships with Guardians and to reconnect with the Land, my culture, and ceremony in much deeper ways through Storytelling. I feel fortunate that this work is my profession, though it rarely feels like work when you love what you do and are carrying forward a tradition that stretches back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Land Needs Guardians’ Community Storytellers Project is a program that supports Guardians in becoming digital Storytellers. The Project provides Storytellers with the relevant training, mentorship, and equipment to help them create short videos that document their work protecting lands and waters. These videos offer an intimate, first-hand look into the day-to-day efforts of Guardians across Turtle Island. They’re shared widely across the Guardians channels and beyond, not only to foster public understanding and support for long-term federal investment in Guardians Programs, but also to empower Guardians to tell their stories far and wide.
Tradition in the Digital Age
Guardians view footage from a Storyteller shoot on their iPhone. Credit: Jennifer Brunet-Rentechem
Stories are at the heart of Indigenous knowledge systems. Storytelling has long been used to pass lessons, values, languages, and culture from one generation to the next. Storytelling traditions live on in the digital age and now, because of social media, those stories are able to reach millions of people. Videos from Storytellers have garnered over 2 million views, proving these stories resonate deeply.
Whether it’s the gentle lapping of a river, the crackle of a controlled burn, or a shared joke in a patrol truck, each video clip filmed at the hands of Storytellers reveals:
Culture in motion: Guardians reviving teachings, from making snowshoes, to learning Indigenous terms for local plants and animals, to seasonal monitoring, and passing this knowledge forward.
Two‑Eyed Seeing: Bridging Western science and Indigenous knowledge for deeper and more accurate environmental stewardship.
Community impact: Creating jobs, strengthening cultural identity, and embedding traditional knowledge in modern land management.
From Smartphones to Cameras: Training and Skill-building
Credit: Jennifer Brunet-Rentechem
The Storytellers Project offers a two-pronged approach to training and equipment: phone-based vlog-style videos and traditional camera filming. We meet Guardians where they are, which is often in the middle of the bush or riding duct-tape-patched ATVs, so phone vlog-style videos are typically the most accessible and user-friendly option. Filming on their phones means Storytellers don’t have to carry extra equipment, and it’s ideal for capturing spontaneous moments in the field. Traditional cameras and full set-ups, on the other hand, allow for more professional, higher-quality production.
Storytellers usually reserve these for formal interviews or wildlife photography and videography. Those who demonstrate a strong interest and dedication to advancing their skills may also be upgraded to full camera kits. For those who prefer using their phones and creating vlog-style videos, we outfit them with high-quality microphones, ring light frames, and provide phone-based filming and editing training. Meanwhile, Guardians who prefer, or have advanced to, using cameras are equipped with a full camera kit along with more traditional filming and editing training.
For me, one of the most meaningful parts of this program has been witnessing the way Storytellers take these tools and make them their own. As an Indigenous woman, I feel immense pride in seeing fellow Indigenous peoples thrive in spaces where our voices haven’t always been heard, whether that’s experimenting with filmmaking technology for the first time, preserving and celebrating our cultural knowledge, or capturing the beauty of our lands and waters.
What moves me most is not just the technical growth, but the collective strength that comes through in the process: a reminder that we are capable of telling our own stories, on our own terms. Every time I see a Storyteller step into that role with confidence, it feels like part of a larger resurgence, our communities reclaiming the narrative and sharing our truths with the world.
Storytellers and Guardians’ Exchange: Kitigan Zibi X Deshkan Zibiing
Staff & Storytellers came together for a knowledge exchange in September. Credit: Jennifer Brunet-Rentechem
“The connection was instant, we felt like family… like I was spending time on the Land with my cousins,” said Storyteller Taylor DeLeary, reflecting on a week of laughter, storytelling, and shared meals in Kitigan Zibi.
In late August, Taylor and fellow Storyteller Diamond McGahey from Deshkan Ziibing traveled to the Algonquin territory to visit Storyteller Dolcy Meness from Kitigan Zibi’s Nagadjitòdjig Akì Guardians for a week-long Storytellers and Guardians exchange. I was lucky enough to join, along with a few other members of the Land Needs Guardians team, to support the group around story ideas, interviewing, and video techniques.
Credit: Jennifer Brunet-Rentechem
The exchange brought Guardian teachings to life, learning about traditional medicines, water sampling, inventory work, and freshwater mussels, while also exploring how these experiences could be shared through storytelling. Each outing became a mini film set, with cameras and microphones in hand. Taylor, Diamond, and Dolcy practiced conducting interviews in the field, tried out vlog-style introductions and transitions, and worked on composition and framing, seeing how each angle could shift the feeling of a scene. They also captured b-roll of medicines, mussel shells, and the surrounding landscapes. These hands-on moments turned Guardian work into both subject matter and training ground, showing how deeply stewardship and storytelling are connected.
For Taylor and Diamond, the experience was as much about inspiration as it was about training. They carried home not just ecological knowledge from Kitigan Zibi’s Guardians, but also new creative approaches for their own projects. Both are excited to share these skills with the junior Guardians in their communities and to bring storytelling deeper into the work of land stewardship. In return, Dolcy will be welcomed to Deshkan Ziibing next summer, where she’ll see firsthand how they’ve been experimenting with video to highlight their Guardian program.
Storytellers pause for a selfie after a day out monitoring and filming. Credit: Jennifer Brunet-Rentechem
By the end of the week, it was clear the exchange was about more than building technical skills. It was about kinship, joy, and carrying forward the tradition of gathering and sharing knowledge, this time with cameras and microphones to honour and document it all. Storytelling on the Land isn’t just about making a film; it’s about strengthening relationships, documenting teachings in respectful ways, and ensuring that Guardian voices and experiences can travel far beyond the moment, reaching future generations.
Join the Circle
Credit: Klara Brandl-Mouton
These reels aren’t passive viewing, they’re invitations! You can get involved by learning more about Guardian work, sharing these stories with your networks, or supporting initiatives that protect the land and culture. Every action helps amplify Indigenous voices and preserve traditional knowledge for future generations.
Watch and share Guardian stories.
Sign the statement calling for sustained federal investment.
And if you’re a Guardian, Contact Land Needs Guardians to learn more about what it means to become a Storyteller!