Gael Cresp: Stories for Grownups: Wonthaggi June, July August 2014

Gael Cresp loves to tell stories to adults. You are invited to come and listen to a selection of modern, ancient, tragic, funny, strange, historically accurate stories, that existed in spoken word long before they were written down. This special series of oral storytelling will be held at lunchtimes once a month during the winter months.

Where: Wonthaggi Library 

When: Fridays 13 June, 11 July, 8 August

Time: 1:00 PM to 1:45 PM

FREE

Location and bookings (essential): HERE

or call 5622 2849

Gael lives in the beautiful coastal town of Kilcunda in the traditional country of the Bunurong. She is one of the early members of Storytelling Australia (Vic) and over the years has been tireless in her support of the group taking on the roles of president, treasurer and secretary. She has guided us through the muddy waters of a name change and incorporation - those things that befuddle most storytelling mortals! Gael's knowledge of traditional storytelling runs deep; her curiosity and thirst for her subject has taken her to conferences around Australia, strengthening relationships. She is a Victorian treasure!

Gael’s website: HERE

CONFERENCE: THE ISLAND WAY: STORYTELLERS OF CANADA July 2 - 6 2014

Every time Storytelling Vic tellers open their mouths, they seem to make new friends. In the process of celebrating World Storytelling Day we strengthened our relationship with the storytellers in the Netherlands. The Dutch are great friends of the Canadians and that's how come we are enjoying collaborating with Karen Gummo!

Karen has recently made us aware of a storytelling conference on Prince Edward Island. Yes its a long way! I would love to work on a plan to subsidise Vic Tellers to represent us at some of these international gatherings. Thinking caps on please!

And thank you Karen for letting us know.

Details for THE ISLAND WAY: HERE

Jackie Kerin

Drawn from the Ground. Sand Stories from Central Australia 2014

Drawn from the Ground

Sound, Sign and Inscription in Central Australian Sand Stories

By Jennifer Green

This book is hot off the press; a unique and impressive contribution to the literature about Australian Aboriginal storytelling.

Sand stories from Central Australia are a traditional form of Aboriginal women's verbal art that incorporates speech, song, sign, gesture and drawing. Small leaves and other objects may be used to represent story characters.

Although this is an academic work, it is accessible and will be of great interest to many of you who are curious to learn more about Aboriginal storytelling. But more than that, this study of Arandic sand stories takes a multimodal approach to the analysis of the stories and shows how the expressive elements used in the stories are orchestrated together.

The author, Jennifer Green is a Research Fellow in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. She has over 30 years' experience working on projects documenting indigenous languages, history and visual arts.

Drawn from the Ground is published by Cambridge University Press

The Laborastory: Stories of Science 2014

Teena Hartnett’s eye was caught by an event in Melbourne called ‘The Laborastory’. Passionate and intrepid story lovers that we are, we ventured forth on a cold, wet Melbourne evening to the Cider Bar in Brunswick Street to investigate.

The night we attended was particularly exciting as The Laborastory was celebrating its first year of success. The brainchild of Dr Andrea Bedini and Natalie Collard, the concept sits at the point ‘…where science meets storytelling’. The stories may be serious or funny; they are brief, and interesting (with a capital ‘I’).

Five storytellers (and if they are not scientists, they are deeply connected to the discipline) step up to the mic and let rip on their subject. The night we went, the theme was ‘Heroes’. We learned about the surgeon in the 1750’s who discovered that what we eat ends up in our bones; Thomas Midgley the inventor of leaded petrol and CFCs (thanks Tom); Gertrude Elion (Nobel Prize winner), the chemist whose work transformed the way Leukemia is treated and whose lab developed AZT; there was a musing on the difference between managers and leaders, and finally Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler or Hedy Lamarr, film siren and co inventor of a technique to spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping which paved the way for today’s Wi-Fi.

The storytellers read, rather than said their stories and in that way, they differ from the telling as practiced by Storytelling Vic tellers.  With that caveat, The Laborastory was a very enjoyable evening and one, the two of us can recommend.

They are keen to hear from people who have a scientific tale to tell.

Jackie K and on behalf of Teen Hartnett

Learn more about The Laborastory HERE

History Tales: celebrating the past with story and song. May 2014

The Old Laverton School in Altona Meadows is one of the last remaining single-room schools in Victoria. Built in 1888 its now embedded in Melbourne’s suburban west. Beautifully restored and now used by community groups for yoga, theatre rehearsals, and all sorts of wonderful things … The old school celebrated 125 years with scones, silent films, sack races and of course storytelling. I was was there with colleague Alan Davies to share stories from the past and encourage the exchange of memories. Using the idea of an ‘Assembly’ to frame our program, Alan led the singing while I focused on the stories.

As my Queensland storytelling friend, Bettina Nissan says, ‘Stories beget stories’. And so it was. No sooner had the Assembly finished; the stories flowed.

Alan and I both live in the west and met through the local Newport Folk Club. From my experience, connecting and working with my community and council has proved rewarding in so many ways. I feel part of something very special and humbled by the support Hobsons Bay Council and the Club has given me to develop my practice as a professional story teller working in the oral tradition.

Alan Davies is a Marriage Celebrant and director of the Newport Community Choir

Jackie Kerin Storytelling Vic teller and author.