Waytelem

The Na’vi use mne­mo­nic sto­rytel­ling aids cal­led way­te­lem, ‘song cord’, strings of colo­red beads which, when hand­led during sin­ging, crea­te a cor­re­la­ti­on of tac­ti­le and visu­al cues with ver­bal sequen­ces. Each indi­vi­du­al crea­tes a way­te­lem that is their per­so­nal histo­ry, and com­mu­ni­ty way­te­lem are crea­ted for various social pur­po­ses, inclu­ding fami­ly and clan histo­ry, genea­lo­gy, and even the recor­ding of astro­no­mic­al and accoun­ting information.

When an indi­vi­du­al has a mile­stone expe­ri­ence, such as a betro­thal, wed­ding, batt­le, hunt, or loss of a loved one, they find a new bead for their way­te­lem to repre­sent that moment in their life’s song. The bead will be made of a natu­ral item, such as a polished or water-smoot­hed stone, shell, crys­tal, or pie­ce of bone or plant.

The person’s way, ‘song’, fol­lows anci­ent forms, inclu­ding tra­di­tio­nal rules for word sel­ec­tion, melo­dy, and rhythm. Only the indi­vi­du­al and tho­se clo­sest to them know the signi­fi­can­ce of each bead.

A way chan­ges throug­hout life as the per­son matures. A child’s way­te­lem is short in length given their young age, but should an indi­vi­du­al ask to hear it sung aloud, the song is sur­pri­sin­gly long. Often, the songs are packed with thril­ling sto­ries and grand adven­tures. Howe­ver, the child’s par­ents may sing a dif­fe­rent ver­si­on, per­haps clo­ser to the truth. The older a Na’vi gets, the lon­ger their way­te­lem beco­mes, as they accu­mu­la­te important events and moments in their lives. When they die, their way­te­lem is used by their loved ones to sing their life’s way as a form of mour­ning and remem­brance, befo­re being buried with the indi­vi­du­al. The way­te­lem is the cen­ter of iden­ti­ty and sto­rytel­ling in Na’vi culture.

Here is an excerpt from a mother’s way. It is a lul­la­by that wel­co­mes her child­ren into the world: