Updates
On the third Wednesday of the month, our home routine stops.
We do not dine together. Each of the two men with whom I live (husband and son) know that to interrupt me between around 7.15pm and 9.00pm is temping fate! Microphone tested, headphone checked! I am ready to zoom. I love it!
The Storytelling Zoom! I become engrossed in the tales told. Each theme elicits ….
A storytelling gathering like nothing I’ve ever experienced – that was the Koori Curriculum’s recent Book Summit. 8th-9th July. It was a place of plenty, where culture and knowledge were generously shared, and where indigenous and non-indigenous were made so welcome. It was a place to start conversations, some of which hurt, deeply. It was an invitation to know more about the people who have lived here since, as author Greg Dreise, explained, “the beginning of time”. To my knowledge, it was the first time a virtual conference like this had been held, and it was extraordinary. ..
On the way to Port Fairy Folk Festival in March I caught up with fellow storyteller Anne E Steward at her home in Daylesford. During that dinner conversation, Anne E asked if I would be going to the Pat Glover Memorial Storytelling Award, traditionally held during the Port Fairy Folk Festival. I have to confess, I hadn't given it any thought but she planted the seed. I scanned the program and at the earliest opportunity registered as a teller.
It was 2020, and a homeless man and I were all alone. He looked at me with suspicion. Then he slowly moved into the belly of the subway car. I took out my portal tape recorder from my purse and spoke into its mic. To this day, I can still feel the relief flooding into my body as I told my story into it. I experienced relief from what my eyes were seeing. Relief from my body’s heightened sensory overload of danger. A healing relief obtained from entering into a story of my choosing.
In another time, in another world….
Reflection on Community Storytelling by Leanne Logan
Why do I go to the Wednesday monthly story swaps? .. because I want to learn to tell stories well, and I want to listen to the tales of others. Having spent a third of my life travelling the world – and now being unable to leave our own backyard due to Covid – listening to a story from far away can feel almost as good as being there. Almost. In other ways it is just as good, if not better, as stories take us to places we would never be able to visit anyway – back in history, into the future, to countries with iron walls and into the locked hearts of people who long threw away the key…
On Sunday 31 October, six Australian Storytellers were honored to represent our land in a Spooktacular Story event as part of the Federation of Asian Storytellers 2021 Festival - FEAST FEST. Four stories were new creations for the event, and Jill Webster brought our unofficial national anthem to life with a fabulous shadow puppet show and good old sing song….
Vale Pat Dargin
It was with great sadness that we received the news of our member Pat Dargin’s death. Pat died on 14th May 2021 after fighting dementia for a number of years.
Pat and her husband Peter were devoted members of our Guild. Peter was President and Pat was Treasurer during the early 2000’s. (2001-3) They also edited and published the national storytelling magazine Swag of Yarns……
The Storyteller’s Kit Box – how to create and tell spellbinding oral stories to children - is a practical how-to guide for parents, grandparents, teachers and carers.
It details the educational benefits of storytelling – from encouraging sleep, fostering curiosity, growing imaginations, developing language and concentration, strengthening relationships … to managing behaviour, relaxation and pure fun!
One of the bright spots at the end of 2020 was my attendance at Christine Carlton’s online workshop ‘Hidden stories – Do you see what I see’.
The workshop I went to was attended by people from all over Australia and two people from Indonesia and Norway. In a year where storytelling was adversely affected due to Covid, this workshop reminded me of the joys of storytelling.
The workshop was…
