The Origin Story Project is a community‑driven initiative by Natural Born Tellers focused on strengthening Black Canadian communities through the revival of ancestral storytelling traditions as pathways for healing, identity formation, and belonging. Through a series of community engagements, the project explored how oral traditions can address barriers to wellbeing, social connection, and access to culturally relevant supports. Insights from these engagements informed strategic recommendations for a sustainable digital storytelling ecosystem featuring a digital library, a digital curriculum, and live storytelling events. These insights informed strategic recommendations for a sustainable digital storytelling ecosystem featuring a digital library, curriculum, and live storytelling events, laying the groundwork for Phase 2 to build an accessible digital platform that fosters resilience, cultural continuity, and community connection.
As part of this work, we co-led the development of the project plan for the digital strategy and designed the project’s community engagements, including surveys, focus groups, and story‑gathering sessions that shaped the direction of the platform. This included creating event materials and a custom storytelling card deck to support both new and experienced storytellers in sharing personal and community‑rooted stories, helping build confidence, deepen cultural connection, and strengthen the emerging storytelling ecosystem.
