To promote mathematics we have created a series of stories with mathematical themes. These stories are inspired by the storytelling tradition of Indigenous peoples. The fact that most of our stories have been translated into several Indigenous languages as well as French and Spanish is probably the biggest recognition that an author could hope for.  Take a moment to scroll down through this page and click on each of the stories….you will see and hear many different translations of each story.

The first story, Small Number Counts to 100 was inspired by narration from Ms. Rina Sinclair of the Siksika Nation. The story can be shown to elementary school students as a counting practice/puzzle or as a pattern recognition problem. For high school students it can be a way to introduce arithmetic progressions, modular addition, or an idea of number systems with a base different than 10.

In Small Number and the Old Canoe, mathematics is present throughout the story with the hope that this experience will make at least some members of our young audience, with the moderator’s help, recognize more mathematics around them in their everyday lives. Using terms like smooth, shape, oval, and surface, and mathematical phraseology like It must be at least a hundred years old, the artist skillfully presents reflection (symmetry) of trees in water, and so on.

The idea behind this approach is to give the moderator a few openings to introduce or emphasize various mathematical objects, concepts and terminology. The short film is a little math suspense story and our question is related only to one part of it. The aim of the question is to lead to an introduction at an intuitive level of the concept of a function and the essence of the principle of inclusion-exclusion as a counting technique. The authors would also like to give their audience an opportunity to appreciate that in order to understand a math question, one often needs to read (or in this case, watch) a problem more than once.

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief. Twice a week, after school, he goes with his friends to the Aboriginal Friendship Centre. There the boys first have a snack and then they do mathematics for half an hour. Sometimes they do algebra in their workbooks, but usually they play mathematical games. They also love playing basketball in the Centre’s gym and wish to enter a tournament. Small Number demonstrates how a basic understanding of combinatorics can help in all aspects of life, even basketball!

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief.  He lives in a big city with his mother and his older sister Perfect Number.  Every Sunday afternoon, Small Number does his math homework.  When he has trouble with math, he usually asks his sister for help.  But this Sunday he has a geometry problem that looks very difficult and he decides to ask his cousin, Full Angle, who studies mathematics at the university.

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief.  He lives in a small village by the water with his mother and father. It is a crisp autumn day and Small Number is helping his father to prepare the nets for tomorrow’s salmon harvest. “There is a school of salmon by Straight Line Beach. We need to set our net in the morning while the tide is still high,” says Small Number’s father...

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief. With his sister Perfect Number he visits their Grandma who lives in a small village on their Nation’s traditional territory.

My name is Small Number. This is a story that I’ve heard from my grandmother and that she heard from her grandmother. It is about an old totem pole built by my ancestors on a beach close to our village.

It is summer time and Small Number and his friend Big Circle spend every day playing and exploring the surroundings of their village. A few days ago, they tripped over an old canoe buried in the sand; yesterday they found the biggest cedar tree that they had ever seen; and today they discovered a beach with an ancient totem pole in the middle of it. “I wonder how many more discoveries we will make this summer!“ said Small Number to Big Circle while the boys rode their bikes towards the village.

My name is Small Number. This is a story that I heard from my grandmother and that she heard from her grandmother. It is about a coyote, a raven, a rabbit, and the four rabbit holes.

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief.  

It is summer time and Small Number visits his Grandpa who lives on their Nation’s traditional territory in a small village near the river.

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief.  He lives with his family in a house near the creek while his grandmother lives in a house on the other side of the creek.

It is a beautiful summer day and Small Number’s mom tells him, “Small Number, get ready! You are going to visit Grandma today. You will help her cut up and stack her firewood. You will also help her with her garden. There is so much work to do at this time of the year.”

• English

For Small Number, his Grandma is the best cook in the world. Grandma knows that bannock is Small Number's favourite treat, so she decides to make bannock for lunch.