Autumn is a wonderful time of year in Melbourne. The wind drops out and the heat fades. Festivals spring up in the regional towns and in the city.At this time every year, in Newport, only 12 kilometres from the CBD, the local Fiddle and Folk Club host a classic event - the Aussie Bush Dance. The setting is an old blue stone quarry that has been carefully revegetated with indigenous plants. Now full of wildlife, wild flowers and tall eucalypts, Newport Lakes Park is a small piece of bushland nestled in suburbia.
This year over 300 people turned up for the dancing, singing, storytelling and bush ballads.
Vic Guild Storyteller, Jackie Kerin entertained the crowds with her Kamishibai (paper theatre) , made by folk club friend Ted Smith. Mounted onto the back of her bike, she was able, like the Kamishibai storytellers of old, to ride to the park and work from her portable elevated stage.
Jackie is enjoying planning her festival appearances for 2011 where she will be performing and speaking about the art of traditional oral storytelling and her work as a writer for children.
Learn more about: Jackie
