Updates
During our Zoom Gathering for the AGM on Saturday, July 29th we started the day with some creative storytelling from participants. It is interesting what can be revealed about people when we shared 'Two truths and a lie' and creative explanations of various object gifts. Good fun and networking was further developed when everyone shared a storytelling tip that has improved their skills as oral storytelling performers. There were some little gems of wisdom.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2023 - Christine Carlton
The past 12 months seen many activities organised and hosted by the Australian Storytelling Guild NSW. Members, their friends and guests as well as interstate and international visitors have enjoyed the hospitality and hard work of committee members who have organised quality opportunities for skills development, networking and storytelling performance.
The major event that took a lot of time and energy in preparation was:-
Weaving Stories Together- Sydney International Storytelling Conference – GIVING VOICE TO OUR STORIES JUNE 2- 4 WITH 2 Pre-conference Masterclasses— Convenors - Christine Carlton, Kiran Shah
Attendees came from throughout Australia including
Imagine a settlement of storytellers. A world of tales gathered in one place, sharing stories from their homes, their nations, and their hearts. Changing the world story by story. Some bring perspectives on peace, some bring lessons from history, journeys and transitions, personal anecdotes, culture, faerie folk. Hearts lift, smiles radiate, skills build in every workshop. This incredible conference was so welcomed back to a heart of Sydney by the Australian Storytelling Guild, New South Wales.
Once again, the story quilt was hung, the weaving began, and moments were woven into one amazing event
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…
