Kate Lawrence is many things …
At the heart of Kate’s work and life is
community: a community lawyer for almost 20 years, development officer with
local government and a community disaster preparedness worker and community
recovery worker. Knowing this is central to understanding Kate’s focus as a
storyteller.
‘In
law I discovered a world of stories and it became my great honour to interview
people to understand their story and then fit it into a legal solution.
My favourite law from an early stage was criminal law, no prizes for guessing
how that connected to my love of story! I spent a while teaching criminal
law to prisoners but really I would just become enthralled in their
stories…”And what happened then…?”’
Spending time with children has a way of
reigniting a love of storytelling.
‘When
I had children, I was reawakened to aspects of my own childhood that I
remembered fondly. And so in 1998 I began to explore the art of oral
storytelling. But I was still terrified to leave the printed page …’
Kate set out to learn the art.
‘I
knew there was a Storytellers
Guild* in Australia but
there seemed no clear way to learn how to become a ‘storyteller’– there were no
courses I could find and the choice of books was overwhelming. Then I
discovered a podcast called The Art of Storytelling Show. This had an amazing effect on
me. Each program, and there are over 100, is an interview with a
storyteller, mostly from North America. The interviewee tells a story and then
there is a wide ranging conversation about their storytelling practice, what
they do, how they got into etc.’
*now Storytelling Australia (Victoria)
And Kate was hooked!
Kate will be leading the STORYTELLING
AUSTRALIA (VICTORIA) DREAMING AND PLANNING DAY: to explore the why, what, how
and who of advancing storytelling in Victoria (and Australia).
WHERE: *Boyd 207 City Road, Southbank
ROOM: The Assembly Hall
DATE: Sunday 2 March
TIME: 10.30am – 4.30pm
Kate has been teaching storytelling to
children throughout 2013 and has much to share about this experience. We look
forward to interviewing Kate about this work in the future but in the meantime,
visit Kate’s
BLOG.
Kate has a terrific website where you can browse her current projects which include:
