Meanings
- uncountableA traditional Yup'ik play activity of young girls in which they tell stories accompanying them with illustrations scratched in the mud, sand, or snow using a storyknife or stick.
Once oral stories are learned, they can be retold through storyknifing, song, and dance.
1997, Nancy H. Hornberger, Indigenous Literacies in the Americas, →ISBN3 more examples
Symbols for monkey bars, swings, slides, and seesaws, which are common in the storyknifing we observed, of course, were not drawn before such articles were introduced into the culture with the building of schools and playgrounds in the villages. The use of the symbol or the word "yes" to signify the end of a storyknifing session was not used by the women in Margaret and Leota's generation.
1994, Jaipaul L. Roopnarine, James Ewald Johnson, Frank H. Hooper, Children's Play in Diverse Cultures, →ISBN, page 194One of their favorite storyknifing places was under an old, abandoned, Bureau of Indian Affairs school.
2012, Kathleen B. deMarrais, Inside Stories: Qualitative Research Reflections, →ISBN, page 94The children of Bethel, then, come from diverse communities, brining their own storyknifing styles with them.
2013, Carolyn Kremers, Upriver, →ISBN, page 81
Origin
From story + knifing or storyknife + -ing.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
storyknifing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/storyknifing
“storyknifing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/storyknifing. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “storyknifing,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/storyknifing.
Source: storyknifing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.