FABLED NIGHTS IN ELTHAM: 25 August 2016

Stories are the heart of a community, and what better place for a storytelling event than a community library?
The beautiful Eltham Library is hosting a special edition of Fabled Nights by the fire in their beloved reading area.

Fabled Nights is an open hearted space for all storytellers and story lovers to come and share in stories (and perhaps some tea and biscuits).
There will be space for ten people to tell their story of around 7 minutes (give or take) and we enjoy all genres of story.
We ask that kind hearts and common sense prevail - misogynist, racist and homophobic stories hurt people. Please don’t bring them to Fabled Nights.

Fabled Nights 25th August – 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Eltham Library
Panther Place, Eltham
Ph: 9439 9266

For enquiries please contact Roslyn Quin (rquin@yprl.vic.gov.au)

Kim Billington. WORK SHOP Therapeutic Storytelling: 2 September 2016

Stories contain hidden messages about possible ways of overcoming adversity. Stories use metaphors that can change the way we see ourselves and our world. They help to connect us to each other and help in finding meaning and hope.  Storytelling encompasses both external therapeutic input and child-directed healing.

This workshop will be interactive and practical with ample demonstrations and with brief exercises to develop skills. The developmental appropriateness, value and efficacy of storytelling in therapy will be explored. You will have a chance to consider why storytelling works, how to introduce and incorporate storytelling in counselling, gain a resource of sample stories as well as ideas of where to look for suitable stories for therapy.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Understand how stories can facilitate healing
• Understand the theory informing this work
• Experience and discuss the therapeutic uses of story telling
• Practise creating and telling stories
• Develop ways to  incorporate storytelling into practice
• Gain a set of story resources to use for counselling 
• Learn in the safety and support of a small group environment

This workshop is of interest to:
Psychologists, school counsellors, social workers, counsellors, case workers, child and family counsellors, psychotherapists, pastoral workers, other allied health professionals and students of these disciplines. Provisional psychologists can attend at student rates.

Workshop Venue:
WellSpring Centre - 10 Y Street, Ashburton, Melbourne. Residential street parking and walking distance to trains and buses.
 
Facilitor:
Kim Billington - Masters in Counselling, Grad Cert in Narrative Therapy.

For all the details, registration etc visit  HERE

*  Kim is a member of Storytelling Australia Victoria. This workshop is an independent project.

Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky: BILARNI Sunday 14th August

 Hello All,

I hope you're well, and a quick reminder for anyone within reach of Menzies Creek (Dandenong Ranges, Victoria) this coming weekend, I'm doing BILARNI on Sunday afternoon.

All the details are below, it's a beautiful venue, the wine is top class and the hosts, Steve and Anne Holmes, run a very friendly show.

Cheers, Jan.
                                                                
Bilarni
Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky tracks the ‘expert’ on Aborigines, the greatest yarn spinner, WE (Bill) Harney (1895-1962) in a land where everything and nothing is black and white.














WHEN          Sunday 14th August 2.30pm (Doors & wine bar open 2pm)
WHERE        St Cuthbert’s Chapel
                      196 Belgrave – Gembrook Road
                      Menzies Creek. (Corner of Railway Parade) Map 126 G-1

COST            $25/$20 Conc/$15 Kids 12 to 16
BOOK          On-Line: https://www.trybooking.com/MDBL
                      Text SMS: 0431 133 599 with name, quantity and type of tickets required.
                      Confirmation will be sent within 24 hours

Photo: Kim Shanahan/Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts Centre on Sunday afternoon.

Fabled Nights in Newport: August 19

Want to be entranced by stories told in the oral tradition?
Want to fly with the witches, travel with the third daughter or count the gold with third son? Want to hear stories from this earthly plane – personal stories, historical tales and family fables? Want to craft and tell stories from your own urging voice, in the soft, warm and supportive firelight of the Newport Scout Hall?

Fabled Nights is an open hearted space for all storytellers and story lovers. There will be space for ten people to tell their story of around 7 minutes (give or take) and we enjoy all genres of story.
We ask that kind hearts and common sense prevail - misogynist, racist and homophobic stories hurt people. Please don’t bring them to Fabled Nights.

COST: $3.00 members $5.00 non members
TIME: 7.30 - 10.00
WHERE: THE NEWPORT SCOUT HALL. Market Street Newport (opp The Substation and squeezed between the Newport RSL and Bowls Club).     
There will be tea/coffee and biccies.
There are food venues in nearby Mason Street. Or feel free to bring some food and wine and make yourselves comfortable.

THIS MONTH ALL MONEY TAKEN AT THE DOOR WILL BE DONATED TO THE INDIGENOUS LITERACY FOUNDATION.

We welcome 'stories in progress'. Fabled Nights in Newport is the ideal place to test out your tale before stepping out onto a larger stage, polish your patter if you are a musician and test the water if you are a beginner.

Ronda Gault and Susan Day: WORDS IN WINTER Maryborough August 20

Words in Winter

Storytelling Workshop for Beginners

Before There Were Books, There Were Storytellers!!

Storytelling is a strong tradition and the interest in it is growing rapidly right now. 

Learn about how Storytelling Australia Victoria  supports, encourages and enthuses all storytellers.

Join us in a free workshop pitched at beginner storytellers...hear stories, learn stories, learn techniques, have a go at telling in a supportive environment. Have fun!

WHEN: Saturday AUGUST 20th. 2016

TIME: 10:30 - 12:00 pm

WHERE: In the wonderful Maryborough Library (91 Nolan Street).

Any queries or for  bookings

Contact: Ronda 0428544874

Ronda is a long-time member of Storytelling Australia Victoria, a member of our committee and one of our regional members.  Here she is pictured in front of her mud brick (or is it gingerbread) house where she is surrounded by trees and a paddock of cheeky goats.

For more information on the Words In Winter Festival check out the website HERE

 

Anne E Stewart: WORDS IN WINTER Daylesford August

STORY SLAM:  Food For Thought

hosted by Anne E Stewart 

In the classic Australian novel, My Brother Jack, by George Johnston, food is used as a device to describe and differentiate various characters in his life, for example Johnston writes that Helen his first wife borrows ideas from Ladies Home Journal, for a dinner party creating ‘Sixteen Savouries with a Difference’.

The result of all her labours was lavish and striking...colour was to be her theme... and it glittered in Gherkin parings and maraschino and pale cheese and purple olives and blushing carrot grating.......and oranges curiously porcupined by coloured pickled onions stuck there on toothpicks...

In comparison he describes visiting friends for ... a very simple and wonderful dinner, a clear soup and then a huge steak and kidney pie that was bought to the table in its blue enamel baking dish, and a chocolate mousse to follow, and dry biscuits with Camembert and Gorgonzola. When Gavin ... cut down into the pie and the steam came and the rich baking smell, and it went inside my head like an ecstatic drug, and for a magical instant I was back in the old kitchen, with Mother and Jean and Marj all baking away on a Sunday morning.

After a fight with his wife food is again used as a way of telling the story,

… it made me think of the steak and kidney pie....and she was out there and there were no smells coming from the kitchen, no food smells, Sunday morning smells and I thought of all the meals we had eaten together that had no smells, all the clever and exotic imaginative tasteless plates of nothing that we had eaten by the refined glow of coloured candles.

With the above as your inspiration we are looking for stories where food is intrinsic to the narrative. It can be a fun story, something serious, a personal story or something that happened to someone else but at itʼs heart is food.

You will have 5 minutes to tell us your story.

When: Saturday 6th August
Time: 2.00 to 2.50 pm
Where: Festival Hub, 81 Vincent Street Daylesford
Cost: $5 online $10 at door
BOOKINGS: Words in Winter website

WORKSHOP: Storytelling for Social Change

Personal and collective stories are important for social change. In this workshop Anne will be teasing out local, personal, traditional and community stories and illustrating how they can be used to effect social change.

Storytelling not only transforms the teller but also creates empathy with the listener. In this interactive workshop Anne will guide you through traditional tales that salute the power of storytelling, help you fashion and present personal tales and develop community stories that share cultural beliefs, history, traditions and our hopes and aspirations for a better planet .

The skills of selecting, learning and telling stories will be demonstrated and opportunities for participants to tell will be included in this workshop.

The objective is to build capacity in participants to tell stories that create empathy and contribute to positive social change.

When: Saturday 13th August
Where: Storyhouse. 52 Millar St, Daylesford
Time:  1- 4pm
Bookings Essential: anne@anneestewart.com.au
or phone 0408 550 945
Cost: $40
Concession/ Storytelling Australia Victoria members $25

(After the workshop, stay for afternoon tea and support a letter writing campaign. Re: Youth Detention)

Anne E Stewart's website HERE

Thank you Anne E for sharing your events at Words in Winter with us. (blog ed)

Wishing Nell Bell a joyful 90th birthday for 29th July 2016

We wish Nell Bell, our oldest surviving Life Member, a joyful 90th birthday on 29th July 2016. Nell is a founding member and former president of our association under its original name, The Storytelling Guild of Victoria, formed 1978. 

Nell Bell began her contribution to children’s literature and storytelling in 1942 when, as Assistant Matron of Ashfield Foundlings Home in Sydney, she introduced story time. Raising her own children, she became a kindergarten teacher in Eltham. Nell's interest in stories led her to further training: in 1975, as a librarian at Preston East Technical School, she taught Introduction to History of Literature and Books. In the same year she toured schools and libraries in China as part of an education program. Later she visited New Zealand and America. Attaining her Secondary Teachers Certificate, Nell started a Children's Book Club and published an article entitled The Importance of Oral Literature in the Education Department magazine.

In the 1980s, Nell obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Children's Literature at the University of Melbourne, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Children's Literature at Toorak Teachers' College / Victoria College - Toorak campus. As Librarian in Charge at Templestowe Technical School, Nell was part of a program that taught Understanding Literature to senior students. Nell remembers that oral storytelling was in Year 12 exams “for a few glorious years”.

As part of the 1988 Bicentenary, Nell joined a delegation of Artists in Education sponsored by the Australian Federal Government and JF Kennedy Cultural Centre in Washington sent to America as representatives of Australia.

Back in Australia, Nell conducted seminars in regional universities for mothers of new-born babies on the importance of literature and stories. Nell was the first storyteller to perform at Dromkeen and was Artist in Residence at several colleges. She has been a member of the Victorian Branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia and the Victorian Committee for UNICEF.

Nell was the first storyteller employed at the first fairy shop in the world, Wonderwings in Richmond, where she mentored storytellers from the late 1980’s into the 90’s.

In parallel during the 90’s, regular evenings were held entitled The Storytelling Cafe. There were many workshops, which included visits from overseas storytellers.

In 1995 Nell took a major role in developing students' skills for performances at St Martins, South Melbourne as part of Artists and Environment Designers in Schools (AEDIS). Nell's storytelling skills won her an invitation to participate in the launch of Children's Week at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Nell has always been quick to volunteer her services as a storyteller for the free children's concerts at national Australian storytelling conferences and has also volunteered as a storyteller at Camp Quality and Children's Hospital in Melbourne and Radio of the Air School in the Northern Territory.   To quote The Harper (Autumn 1997), the Guild’s first newsletter that started in 1979: “Nell has a great love of people and a strong belief that story can show that all aspects of life are a continuing cycle to be celebrated and shared”.

Articles by Nell in JB Rowley’s journal Swag of Yarns include “Here Be Dragons” (1998), “Crooked Mick” (2000), “Bilby Saves Easter” (2001) and “Thanks for the Memories” (2005).

In 2005, Nell Bell was awarded the  Leila St John by the Children's Book Council of Australia, administered through the Children’s Book Council of Australia for services to children's literature, acknowledging Nell’s generosity of spirit and love for children. In 2011, Nell’s daughters Susan and Bronwyn and members of the Storytelling Guild of Victoria accompanied Nell to be presented with this medal.

Recently, Nell participated in Bridging The Gap Through Art. A news report caption read: “Generation gaps don’t come much bigger than the gulf between elderly citizens in primary care and primary school students”.

Nell now resides at Westgarth Aged Care Facility, Melbourne.

As Nell’s storytelling family, we give our heartfelt gratitude for all the great years of mentorship, dedication and inspiration. Thank you, dear Nell.

History of our harp/lyre logo, banner and  badge: HERE

Report of our visit by Louisa John-Krol in Victorian Fairy Tale Ring blog: HERE

 “Seanachie, keeper of the old lore”, is how Anne E. Stewart calls Nell: HERE

 Nell is also mentioned here: Wikipedia

Thank you Louisa John-Krol for this article and all the work you are doing, researching and collating the history of Storytelling Australia Victoria (formerly The Storytelling Guild of Victoria).