This article integrates Venuti's approach to the status of the translator with Derrida's (post-)structural histology of the letter to address the paradox inherent in the mythic (re)production of Indigenous oral texts and the risk of cultural appropriation. The case study is of contentious translations of Haida narratives from the orators Ghandl and Skaay, both from Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the Canadian north-west coast, south of Alaska. These narratives were recorded, translated and published at the start of the last century and retranslated in 1995 and in 2000–01. The article examines the conditions under which retranslation can serve “narrative revitalization”: the rebirth of meaning through intersemiotic communities of interest. Texts (re)produce readers, and their languages reproduce speakers. The conclusion is that the translator's position on orality determines the conditions under which their work has been embraced or excoriated, suggesting that only dual-language text(ure)s permit adequate “contact” with the stories.