Who would have thought there could be so much positive energy in a room on a Saturday morning? Twenty teachers from the Australian Literacy Educators Association were totally up for storytelling skills at breakfast time! There will be coaching and mentoring to follow the momentum of this good beginning.
a welcome for winter
Jeanette Acland is a recoginsed leader in the practice of Godly Play, meditative storytelling based on Montessori’s teaching method. It has a marvellous freedom to wonder without the all too familiar guess-the-right-answer practices religious education can fall into. Jeanette and I are offering a welcome to winter – a gentle day near the Darling Gardens, with stories, poetry and Godly Play to accompany you. If you like the sound of it and can get to Clifton Hill on Saturday June 2, let us know you are coming! Phone bookings Jeanette Acland (03) 93491182 or email jacland@netspace.net.au
To listen to Jeanette talk about Godly Play in an ABC radio podcast go to
a Winter Retreat – would you trust these women?!
“Look Jeanette, here we were a few weeks ago in autumn, but come winter we’ll need some stories.”
“Okay, so what do you suggest?”
“June 2, Athol Gill Centre, Clfiton Hill. You do Godly Play for grown ups, I’ll do stories and poetry.”
If you trust these two, and can keep Saturday June 2, you could join us!
To book/inquire email Jeanette Acland jacland@netspace.net.au
On the north coast of Tasmania last week I happened upon Narawntapu National Park complete with melaleucas and this bird hide. The concept of a bird hide was always curious to me, what’s about hiding? It makes much more sense now that one of my favourite sayings is about the emergence of the shy animal. ” The task of the storyteller, is to make a place, where wisdom, who is like a shy animal, can come out and graze.”
telling in tassie
Tassie last week offered a moment on ABC radio, a workshop with a bunch of young people, and an afternoon concert at Pilgrim Uniting Church – one of the beautiful old churches in Launceston. Later this year I am hoping to return to tell stories in some of the schools.
Northcote Town Hall - Limber up your story memory
It was a pleasure to teach this course last year and it will run again next month at Northcote Town Hall.
It’s a great venue and suits the purpose of the workshops. Here’s the blurb –
Most people don’t’ trust their memories – but there are ways to befriend the skills you have forgotten! We will go through various pathways, gestural, visual, aural to get to know short traditional folktales. Discover storymapping and sound patterns, get some hands on experience of telling short stories in a small group. Great for leaders, teachers, parents, grandparents, anyone who wants to limber up their story memory!
Initial evening Northcote Town Hall, May 10
7 – 9.30 pm follow up coaching by appointment.
Tribute Writing Workshop
I have been thinking about making tributes a lot lately, they are a very particular lens. Whether it’s a speech at a birthday party or a tribute at a funeral, there are ways of stitching words together, working to make them honed and strong. As someone who is a legendary klutz on a sewing machine, I regard this as my handiwork, patching together stories and images and sayings and making something memorable.
Here in Australia we have an ambivalent relationship with public speech – and it trickles down to how we do our private gatherings. We like to keep things casual, not too slick. I think it is possible to be natural as well as intentional in honouring an occasion. This writing workshop is a way of offering some of the practices that can garner memorable words that land with your listeners - whatever the occasion.
PLEASE NOTE ALTERED DATES HERE:
Two Mondays May 7, May 21 @ 7.30– 9.30pm $140, concession $120. Max 6 people. Athol Gill Centre, 100 Hodgkinson St Clifton Hill
email julieperrin@tellingwords.com.au
Ashley Ramsden founder of the International school of storytelling www.ashleyramsden.com and Clare Coburn www.fabled.com.au will teach a 3 week course, The art of storytelling, where the heart comes alive, and a 5 day course, Next steps, beyond the basics – in Melbourne at the Augustine Centre in Hawthorn. I have just completed a five week full-time course with Ashley and it was worth every minute. Clare also brings her own insightful process to the work. Check it out!
June 25 – July 13 The art of storytelling
July 16 – 20 Next steps
For more information Email Clare clare@fabled.com.au
tasmania coming soon
a lovely opportunity for a concert in Launcestson - stories about story! I have discovered a nice little stash of folktales, fables and biographical stories that tell about our relationship with story. Ah! If you know people who live in this beautiful part of the world please let them know the details:
Stories all the way down, concert in Tasmania, April 28 4pm Pilgrim Uniting Church Launceston Bookings: 6331 9784
I’ve just been to see my neighbour the candlemaker again. Natalie has been in my street a while but it wasn’t until I had a candle emergency a couple of years ago that I was told she made candles – not the bleached petroleum kind – beeswax candles. What’s not to love about watching an artisan at work? Someone who knows the properties of things.
My candle emergency was the night before a funeral. Entering the candlemaking room was a gentle moment in a fraught week. I went back there today, seeking more candles, and to be truthful, the possibility of another gentle moment in the presence of this lovely maker.
