Owl and Raven: A Folktale of Beauty and Reciprocity

There is an ancient Inuit folktale featuring two friends: a snowy owl and a raven and how they came to have two strikingly different colors and decorative patterns. The story reveals how beauty is not attributable to an individual, but arises as a result of reciprocity, and mutual respect. In contrast to the ways we understand beauty in the dominant culture of today, this folktale offers us deep wisdom about how how beauty ought to be a celebration of those who create the objects of adornment, as well as the one adorned. . .and how beauty arises as a result of their collaborative effort.

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