The Role of Animals In The Tale of the Nativity: A Textual and Visual Analysis

Abstract

This article applies textual and visual analysis to a play about the birth of Christ, called The Tale of the Nativity. It was written in the 1930s by a group of Okanagan children at a day school on a reserve in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. I specifically look at how the children incorporated cultural elements associated with animals into their version of the birth of Christ.