tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110966812024-02-08T03:35:05.669+10:00austoriestrials, tribulations and triumphs of an Australian storyteller<p><i>'I acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and traditional owners of the lands on which I live and work, especially the Yugara and Turrbal people. I am inspired by the way in which storytelling is bound in country, culture and language.'</i></p><p><i>'I commit to work together in the current Climate Crisis to maintain the Australian environment on which we are all dependent.'</i></p>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-90149749710603103222022-12-04T16:50:00.002+10:002022-12-04T17:46:35.112+10:00Stories of a Boring Looking Accounts Book<p>There it sits, spine out, on one of my book shelves. The spine is so worn that, if it ever had a title, it has now disappeared amongst the munchings of insects and the thumpings of writers.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMvkpSEHkRrsgB-81TbnV2utLGQMOojMThhmGkrCU_iRNP1VB9GZe0zG7ZyMSkQalBqMQOGYUpVwGRZWToUEz6ShpicN8AQPwlvYf0VwvNFgzxoiH6oBIGcV7G_qyKQ6CgSO_UsX6CCamJ1W71WVX1Zn2S_j5A2_NdRDYKrYbCWBObuAKgA/s3214/RHB_AcntBook_cover_IMG_4895.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3214" data-original-width="2883" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMvkpSEHkRrsgB-81TbnV2utLGQMOojMThhmGkrCU_iRNP1VB9GZe0zG7ZyMSkQalBqMQOGYUpVwGRZWToUEz6ShpicN8AQPwlvYf0VwvNFgzxoiH6oBIGcV7G_qyKQ6CgSO_UsX6CCamJ1W71WVX1Zn2S_j5A2_NdRDYKrYbCWBObuAKgA/w407-h454/RHB_AcntBook_cover_IMG_4895.HEIC" width="407" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Ever Ready Complete Account Book c.a. 1930<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p><p>
Where has it sat over the years? On whose shelves? Was it ever in an old tin trunk?<br />It has a similar colour to the red one my grandfather used in his first adventures from his home to a work camp on a railway line 'up on the Downs'. </p><p>Don't you love 'up on the Downs'. It was such a Brisbane thing to say. </p><p>The spine is one and three quarters inches wide and ten inches high (46 mm x 256mm). It is cardboard covered in material and has some other outer coating that the insects have explored fairly regularly but not completely ingested. </p><p>Well the spine hasn't got me very far, so, on to the front cover where I can see right in the centre - </p><p style="text-align: center;">'THE <br />EVER READY <br />COMPLETE <br />ACCOUNT BOOK' </p><p>in gold coloured, embossed lettering. </p><p>The obvious question is - whose Every Ready Complete Account Book? </p><p>I open the book. </p><p>At the first opening is an advert for, you guessed it, </p><p style="text-align: center;">The Ever Ready <br />BUSINESS MAN'S <i><br />Complete</i> <br />ACCOUNT BOOK <br /><br />(For 3 years)</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioR8cR8gaVCqNwt2wZafzKUhWD9p_tu0_OyCGYlfCHH_pXisPQPZXfjJ77yydp30uOBGf6Mq7mjHthub4F3ePKag2-oQRAK9OI6M0nf_-_WXJLEri2Qe4WWNgkt606hx9L4Bnd-4ez4OV8yQVexcC4BOYudjkrUcDvB0kH0QJ7LX1P53q0Tg/s3506/RHB_AccntBk_frontispiece_IMG_4892.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3506" data-original-width="3010" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioR8cR8gaVCqNwt2wZafzKUhWD9p_tu0_OyCGYlfCHH_pXisPQPZXfjJ77yydp30uOBGf6Mq7mjHthub4F3ePKag2-oQRAK9OI6M0nf_-_WXJLEri2Qe4WWNgkt606hx9L4Bnd-4ez4OV8yQVexcC4BOYudjkrUcDvB0kH0QJ7LX1P53q0Tg/w346-h403/RHB_AccntBk_frontispiece_IMG_4892.HEIC" width="346" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frontispiece</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Well it wasn't supposed to be my grandmother's was it, even though I suspect that, like my mother, my grandmother may have been better at keeping records than my grandfather. </p><p>By the way the advert tells me that, if I want to order another all I have to do is ring B6631 or send away to P.O. Box 1649 V.
The other thing about the frontispiece entry is that I can see blue smudges on both pages. Carbon paper maybe?</p><p>Down the bottom of the frontispiece is the address of the Ever Ready Account Book Co. - 'Room 42, Equitable Life Building, Queen Street, Brisbane. </p><p>I turn again - suggestions about and examples of how to use the book. I guess if you are a business man you may now be feeling more confident that the £3/3/- that you've parted with to purchase this wonderful ACCOUNT BOOK has been worth every pound, shilling and penny.</p><p>I turn again- aah, entries - <i>Sales for the Month of July 1930</i>. ('July' and '30' are handwritten in pen and faded black ink in a clear, legible hand.)</p><p>The date tells me something - it is unlikely to be my father's account book. He was born on the 24th of August, 1917 so he was only 13.</p><p>My grandfather Robert Henry Bellingham was born on the 13th April 1893 so he was 37 years old - good candidate.</p><p>What else can I work out? </p><p>The next row has the titles for the two columns of Sales and they are for the 'Shop' and the 'Cart'.<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">- Tuesday 1st July 1930 - Shop £1/2/3 Cart £2/8/4 (2 pound 8 shillings and 4 pence) and all the way down to Thursday the 31st of July where it was recorded that the month's total sales were £113/3/1</p><p style="text-align: left;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNr6rgENuqEc7gPqzcQaTbkY7KVp967GuhgDUpO21fX953vivCPn9linkC3Hujd5meYMGhFkOv0Vm3tUnzjpkb3mnVW7PHaaHvAtd4-8ArTLTbR-lclTQODxx2HrnXD7Y_rry857I9G6GqA8w5JSQnyZw5OhXlZqcR8rVL3Ec3ZNwARWAoWA/s4032/RHB_Accnts_Jul1930_sales_IMG_4897.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="407" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNr6rgENuqEc7gPqzcQaTbkY7KVp967GuhgDUpO21fX953vivCPn9linkC3Hujd5meYMGhFkOv0Vm3tUnzjpkb3mnVW7PHaaHvAtd4-8ArTLTbR-lclTQODxx2HrnXD7Y_rry857I9G6GqA8w5JSQnyZw5OhXlZqcR8rVL3Ec3ZNwARWAoWA/w306-h407/RHB_Accnts_Jul1930_sales_IMG_4897.HEIC" width="306" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sales for July 1930<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;">What were Robert Henry Bellingham and Ettie Lavina Bellingham doing in July 1930?</p><p style="text-align: left;">A quick search of Trove reveals that they advertised in the Catholic Advocate of Brisbane:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: center;">R. H. BELLINGHAM <br />BAKER AND PASTRY COOK, <br />508 BOUNDARY STREET, SPRING HILL. <br />Picnic Parties Catered for. <br />Orders Taken and Delivered. <br />Soft Drinks, Tea, and Sandwiches, <br />always Available. 'PHONE B4085<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">That all ties in well. My father passed on some stories about when his parents and three children, Ruth, Allen and Roy, were living and running a bakery and shop at 508 Boundary St, Spring Hill. They moved there when they sold the bakery in Caboolture. They had a bakery, a shop fronting the street and a cart for delivering orders and selling around the streets.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">So this boring old Accounts Book was from the Spring Hill bakery. Whose writing? Grandpa's or Grandma's? I don't know yet but maybe I'll be able to find out with some more exploring. It is quite beautiful writing and I'm sure we can whisper a story or two out of the rest of the book. <br /></p>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-55306582815397006092021-04-10T15:57:00.003+10:002021-04-10T18:11:01.886+10:00"Take Care"I've been enjoying doing some family history lately. It's partly because I want to explore how to encourage decolonisation in Australia and partly because I like looking for stories amongst my family's history.<br><br>I came across a poignant story last night as I was filling in details on my mother's side of the family - one of the McLeans who migrated from the Isle of Skye to Australia.<br><br>Donald McLean, my great, great, great grandfather arrived in Sydney on the 13th December, 1837 on the 'Mid Lothian'. His arrival documents described him as a 'shepherd' and that he was 'fit', 'in excellent health','can read and write', and the Captain attested to his 'excellent character'.
Here he is as an older man.<br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYlLR5yxpmhRHZ7LzVLpqzCWIHsJvYx5fWEcz5liaVDokgqZ8HyGXvzRSIYDht-9ZKwSpi6UD8mRdXn0KGY1anEaEoqp4fKJvr8z-XR1y55Bq1r8oO1UMZkMroz7OYk5mEq0Qg/s1498/Donald+McLean.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1498" data-original-width="1068" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYlLR5yxpmhRHZ7LzVLpqzCWIHsJvYx5fWEcz5liaVDokgqZ8HyGXvzRSIYDht-9ZKwSpi6UD8mRdXn0KGY1anEaEoqp4fKJvr8z-XR1y55Bq1r8oO1UMZkMroz7OYk5mEq0Qg/s320/Donald+McLean.jpg"/></a></div>
Now soon after arriving, Donald and his wife Mary, (nee Carter) also from the Isle of Skye, and their first son David moved to Muswellbrook where Donald found employment as a farm labourer.<br><br>There is an interesting story about David's baptism and a tragic one about his end but they're not the ones I want to tell you about just now, interesting though they are.<br><br>You see Donald and Mary eventually had 10 children and one daughter was also called Mary. She was born on Sandilands Station in Bonalbo and eventually, on the 16th November, 1874, at age 23, she married John Mulcahy at Tooloom.<br><br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1gT-QS1V8pnQRr0jsLPwBAz_rqarHlpXbJdc2wJ83OPMZPr3Ugj4azRvbIoEQLYE-6JFtV9Dn-DYbIWStCeriASNj4ioMLLpk4nSiS0DesXqPTEf1YnzSZUnYpH67bhjQMRr/s1052/MaryMulcahy_McLean_800crop.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="1052" data-original-width="763" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1gT-QS1V8pnQRr0jsLPwBAz_rqarHlpXbJdc2wJ83OPMZPr3Ugj4azRvbIoEQLYE-6JFtV9Dn-DYbIWStCeriASNj4ioMLLpk4nSiS0DesXqPTEf1YnzSZUnYpH67bhjQMRr/s400/MaryMulcahy_McLean_800crop.jpeg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7AYMCu_TBkzb0F6vR9AU1Tpyq4pP0jpjq4ymWwN66IhRUR5iNMAqoFRMgzocql2lf1jRrAf_S-kXmHtKwDWYHiw-g3Kr23oA2KMaVqzVuFnLZbXY6yc-dOLS2eRqRXFCAocBe/s1796/John+Mulcahy.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="1796" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7AYMCu_TBkzb0F6vR9AU1Tpyq4pP0jpjq4ymWwN66IhRUR5iNMAqoFRMgzocql2lf1jRrAf_S-kXmHtKwDWYHiw-g3Kr23oA2KMaVqzVuFnLZbXY6yc-dOLS2eRqRXFCAocBe/s400/John+Mulcahy.jpg"/></a></div>
Now this is where the 'Take Care' comes in. Have a look at his photo. I think he's a pretty handsome young man and it's not surprising that Mary McLean fell for him although I can't really say why their first son was born three months before they were married except to say that it was pretty common in those days.<br><br><br>
By 1879, they had had four sons and John joined the silver rush on the Boorook silver field at Tenterfield. On Friday the 25th July, he and his work mate, William King, were working a silver reef at Addison No 1 north claim and it was Johns turn to go down the shaft with his pick to do some more digging. William King didn't say what he said to John as he started to wind him down the shaft but he said that John called out for him to stop that there was a loose stone in the pit wall that he wanted to take care of.<br><br>King asked him if he needed a stick or something to knock it out and John pointed a suitable one out, grabbed hold of it, balanced on part of the wooden frame and began to poke the stone out.<br><br>You see he was taking care that the stone wouldn't at some time fall out of the wall of the pit and strike he or his mate Bill as they were digging below.<br><br>What happened?<br><br>Ah, he over balanced and fell and landed on a ledge halfway down, struggled for a while and then, before King could get down to help, rolled and fell the rest of the way down the pit.<br><br>The Coroners Inquiry brought in a finding of 'accidental death'.<br><br>Mary and John's 4th son was just 7 months old. Must have been a shock. It took Mary 6 years to re-marry. This time to Jasper Iverson who, gossip says, jumped ship to join the Tooloom gold rush.<br><br>Did anyone say 'Take care'?<br><br><br
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9taTLyUDI77GN6Iyw_r-vxhxxiBLvweCg_ffMnuZQshtoaosoxJxeAe_E566t3vxYzIMyKwJ3h4ojj8UAIux_tWSmeXnfc2Ogy_-17iWGNDWQm9dBPg1r45LUFzYRGTpLS0r/s0/Jen+and+Mary+Iverson.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9taTLyUDI77GN6Iyw_r-vxhxxiBLvweCg_ffMnuZQshtoaosoxJxeAe_E566t3vxYzIMyKwJ3h4ojj8UAIux_tWSmeXnfc2Ogy_-17iWGNDWQm9dBPg1r45LUFzYRGTpLS0r/s0/Jen+and+Mary+Iverson.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>(Thank you to kallquistP for sharing images of Mary McLean and John Mulcahy and Jen Jasper Iverson on Ancestry. I assume that the photo of Mary and Jasper outside the farm house is at Tooloom but, take care, I'm not sure.)</i><br><br>I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country on which my ancestors selected, lived, cleared, farmed, logged and displaced the vibrant and adaptable Aboriginal communities which thrived there for untold millenia before colonisation.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-48039150548015763612020-01-10T15:13:00.003+10:002020-02-09T17:24:01.983+10:00A story about Storytelling, the narrative and Neural Coupling<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Well, I'd like to take you back to 2010. It was a big year around the world. </span></h3>
Lots of things happened.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01719/deepwater-horizon0_1719783b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="620" height="200" src="https://secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01719/deepwater-horizon0_1719783b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UK Telegraph image of the burning platform</td></tr>
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2010 was a year for disasters, for example, the BP Deep Horizon oil drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing eleven workers and causing massive oil pollution, approx 134 million gallons, of the marine environment.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/SolarImpulse_HB-SIA_landing_Brussels_Airport_3-crop.jpg/1920px-SolarImpulse_HB-SIA_landing_Brussels_Airport_3-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="800" height="175" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/SolarImpulse_HB-SIA_landing_Brussels_Airport_3-crop.jpg/1920px-SolarImpulse_HB-SIA_landing_Brussels_Airport_3-crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="mw-mmv-source-author"><span class="mw-mmv-author"><a class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brusselsairport/" rel="nofollow">Brussels Airport</a></span> - <span class="mw-mmv-source"><a class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brusselsairport/5726152313" rel="nofollow">solarimpulse__DSC8994</a></span></span></td></tr>
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2010 was a year for technology successes, for example, the Solar Impulse, a Swiss solar electric aeroplane, was successful in achieving the first 24 hr flight for a solar plane. <br />
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<b>2010 was also a big year for the science around storytelling.</b></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Princeton_IV.jpg/1024px-Princeton_IV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="556" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Princeton_IV.jpg/1024px-Princeton_IV.jpg" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Princeton Campus Bldg - <span class="mw-mmv-source-author"><span class="mw-mmv-author"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Karlfonza" title="User:Karlfonza">Karl Thomas Moore</a></span> </span></td></tr>
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Let me take you to Princeton University, one of America's favourite and highly respected Ivy League universities in New Jersey.<br />
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Three researchers, Greg Stephens, Lauren Silbert and Uri Hasson, published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA, that recorded their findings about storytelling and neural coupling.<br />
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Here's the link for the academic paper: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922522/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922522/</a><br />
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What did they do in the depths of Princeton Uni?<br />
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They organised an fMRI scanner and recruited One native-English speaker, one native-Russian speaker, and 12
native-English listeners, ages 21–30 years.<br />
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First of all they recorded the two speakers telling a story while they scanned the neural activity in their brains. Then they told the listeners that they were going to listen to a story while having their brain scanned and they were told to "please pay attention because you will be asked to write down the story immediately after the scan."<br />
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They then compared the scans. What did they find? - <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922522/figure/fig02/" target="_blank">neural coupling</a>. <br />
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<img alt="An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is pnas.1008662107fig02.jpg" class="tileshop" src="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922522/bin/pnas.1008662107fig02.jpg" title="Click on image to zoom" /><br />
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When a listener was actively engaged in the story, the same areas of the brain lit up as the person telling the story.<br />
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When a listener couldn't engage in a story, for example, the story was told in Russian and the listener didn't understand Russian, no neural coupling occurred. In other words it wasn't enough for a storyteller to be telling with feeling or rhythm, for example, the listener had to be provided with the right information the right narrative.<br />
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Also, when a listener was actively engaged in a story, the listener would begin to predict what was going to happen in the story ahead of the storyteller. The listeners neural processing happened before the tellers.<br />
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Perhaps the most important part of the research however, in terms of communication and in terms of storytelling is that, Stephens, Silbert and Hasson showed that, the greater the degree of neural coupling between teller and listener, the greater the listener understood the story.<br /><br />Want your listeners to understand? Tell a story to them in a way that
encourages them to engage. <br />
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In the Story Space </h3>
Well for storytellers this was a big event but also no real surprise. Storytellers know when their audience is engaged. We use our own jargon to describe it - 'in the story space', 'hooked', 'right there'. Adults are usually too self-conscious, but so often children will sitting listening to a story, totally absorbed, mouth open, off with the story somewhere.<br />
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We know that storytelling is a two way process - tellers and audience actively engaged. We also know how to bring stories alive for our listeners. How to take them on the journey.<br />
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<b>Resolution? </b></h3>
So forget disasters like the BP Deep Horizon tragedy, forget triumphs like the Solar Impulse flight, the big news for 2010 was Stephens, Silbert and Hasson at Princeton demonstrating neural coupling with storytelling.<br />
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You can do it in your storytelling as well.<br />
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<br />Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-85961175949781379952013-09-19T13:01:00.001+10:002013-09-19T13:07:26.713+10:00Video about the effect of effective stories on the brain and behaviourThis video brings up all sorts of questions about storytelling and the effect of good storytelling on brain chemicals and personal behaviour. Can an effective story increase altruistic behaviour?<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DHeqQAKHh3M" width="480"></iframe><br />
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I had an interesting phone call this morning from a fundraising campaign. They wanted sponsorship for a cause that I considered reasonably appropriate - a support book for soldiers with post traumatic stress syndrone. The telemarketer was using quite emotive words that were clearly meant to make me more altruistic - 'young diggers', 'kids' etc. When I said, 'kids' don't you mean adult soldiers? He had to agree but still kept on presenting Australian soldiers as poor suffering kids. He didn't tell me a story either.<br />
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So story techniques can be used for all sorts of purposes but you can't dot point the technique though. You have to tell the story and tell it in a way that engages. <br />
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Watch out for the 'dramatic arch' idea however, on it's own it is not enough to make a good story. Listeners need to be able to recognise the setting and empathise with the characters. It helps heaps if characters in the story actually speak and there has to be a resolution. That was one thing that annoyed me about the story in the video. We weren't told the resolution. The story ended with the problem.<br />
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Hopefully Aussie Diggers will have some good resolution to their issue of getting better support for those of them suffering from the impacts of serving in the defence forces. Here's the FaceBook link<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-Diggers/127819490624464">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-Diggers/127819490624464</a>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-22506633321634245242013-09-09T12:34:00.000+10:002020-02-10T12:09:15.829+10:00Do we need stories to change our mind?Wow big election weekend over. It was great to take part in the democratic process of choosing the next Australian government in a range of ways.<br />
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I lobbied for issues that I considered important in the weeks leading up to the election. My Senate vote was below the line, took some care with 80 odd possibilities. I handed out policy scorecards for GetUp encouraging people to make their choices by taking into account important social and environmental issues rather than personalities and I handed out how to vote cards for my current favourite political party.<br />
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All of this happened in an atmosphere of relative peace and consideration for others. Mind you I did witness one voter give supporters of one party a really violent tongue lashing outside a polling booth. It was quite a surprise.<br />
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How do people change their minds and do something different to what they normally do?<br />
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Here's an interesting article that suggests that people need appropriate stories to encourage that shift from the habitual to the new. It suggests that people are reluctant to change stories. We invest a lot in our chosen stories and are reluctant to step out of them. We use stories as guides to action.<br />
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<a href="https://stevenpressfield.com/2018/08/stories-are-about-change/" target="_blank">https://stevenpressfield.com/2018/08/stories-are-about-change/</a><br />
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I don't agree with everything that Shawn Coyne says about those changes but it is worth a read.<br />
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It is clear to me that stories can help us change habits or help us make a decision or reinforce not changing, not surviving.<br />
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What would make an effective change story?<br />
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I suspect that the story should be one in which the listener can see themselves as one of the characters in the story. That character should be one that cuts through the accumulated distress, addictions and well worn grooves of life. It might remind the listener of the person they once were before they got trapped in their current persona. It might remind the story listener of the person they dream they would like to be, if only ....<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA_rxPHV3Wmz-C6FpEVuXn2vaOOIYJLfwqFUxbqTehdctbxbwj8nPNFVeMZhVInJTp1vNhUb-n1N6OUZKhrttm5bZzHGkTcvm7M5_SfII79Phyphenhyphenl8P2KbLun1s155hIJ7DlBAFF/s1600/640px-World_Trade_Center_1995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="640" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA_rxPHV3Wmz-C6FpEVuXn2vaOOIYJLfwqFUxbqTehdctbxbwj8nPNFVeMZhVInJTp1vNhUb-n1N6OUZKhrttm5bZzHGkTcvm7M5_SfII79Phyphenhyphenl8P2KbLun1s155hIJ7DlBAFF/s200/640px-World_Trade_Center_1995.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="mw-mmv-source-author"><span class="mw-mmv-author">Karl Döringer CC Wikimedia</span></span></td></tr>
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A narrative for change could even just show someone easily overcoming a problem or challenge and succeeding in change.<br />
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The example that Shawn Coyne quotes from 'The Examined Life' by Stephen Grosz is of the woman who survived the Twin Towers destruction because she was prepared to leave all of her personal baggage behind in the office and exit as soon as possible while others went back to try and save personal effects or stick to prearranged commitments. It is a good story to demonstrate effective change behaviour.<br />
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I like the Elizabeth Kubler Ross change curve diagram as well. It shows that we may have to go through emotional change in order to change stories.<br />
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I wonder what story the new Australian government managed to tell those people who voted for them? I find it a bit hard to crystalise but it seemed to revolve around how bad the central characters of the old government were for the country. It worked even though the previous government had actually had a good economic record, achieved positive change with some major projects and served a full term in a challenging minority government situation. There was another story about jobs being more important than climate action as well.<br />
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Often we can find that other stories can make it harder or easier to accept a potentially important narrative. These can be narratives that we've used to say 'this is the sort of person that I am'. So sometimes a reminder of those stories will be enough for us to decide to stay 'in them' or to keep valuing them or to get really frustrated about having to let them go.<br />
<br />Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-73895302222821328292013-09-03T11:01:00.002+10:002013-09-03T11:26:36.721+10:00Care for Carers Stories on PlaceStories<div style="text-align: left;">
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Lee FullARTOn has completed a great report about that fantastic Care for Carers 2013 project that I was involved in.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.placestories.com/pool/story/0010/0141820/lo/postcard.jpg?1377341671" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://static.placestories.com/pool/story/0010/0141820/lo/postcard.jpg?1377341671" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In between the games participants shared stories</td></tr>
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She's made good use of the PlaceStories web hub to publish the report. </div>
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Here's the link to the Postcard about my participation:</div>
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<a href="http://placestories.com/story/141820">http://placestories.com/story/141820</a></div>
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Care for Carers 2013 is a good example of how storytelling can contribute so positively and creatively in community projects. In this flood recovery project, my storytelling session was used as both warmup for the project and to provide stories that the children could offer as caring gifts to their carers. They also used the stories as the basis for other art work and performances that they created with other artists.<br />
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It was a pleasure to work with Lee again. She is amazingly creative, very organised and, like all good arts workers, flexible and responsive. Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-24086651694182979032013-05-29T14:36:00.001+10:002013-05-29T14:36:09.270+10:00Readers Cup, Owls and Enchantment of StoriesI'm feeling really good about being a storyteller this afternoon. I'm just back from a couple of shows at Redlands College Library for the local annual Readers Cup event. Had fun telling 'Clever Turtle' to the Year 4's in a way that demonstrated telling to Year 1's and 'Thomas Rhuag the Seal Catcher' to the Year 8 and 9's.<br />
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They're both well worn old favourites of mine and were well received. One of the Year 9's volunteered a thank you after the Librarian had already done so and then came over later to add her own personal thanks. Stories really do impress and involve and engage.<br />
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One of the teachers remembered me from the gig I used to do at Cleveland and Capalaba Libraries some years back. She said her then preschooler, now 20 year old son, was normally hyperactive but would sit and listen and join in so well. They were great sessions those. We were able to put so many things together well for our young audiences.<br />
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As part of my presentation I was talking about using props and keeping them simple. I demonstrated a wooden owl shaped whistle and mentioned the stories created for the Enchanted Forest Park at Ashgrove. I was pleased to be told by one of the Yr 9's that she really enjoyed the park.<br />
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Coming home I found an email from Cindy Anderson saying:<br />
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<i>'My 4 year old son has recently rediscovered the Enchanted Forest at Ashgrove. Although we have been to the park many times over the years, he has only just realised that the mushroom tells stories and is completely enthralled by them. We are now going a couple of times a week so he can sit and listen to them! It's such a great place and experience and I am truly grateful to you for your role in creating it. It's so wonderful that kids can still experience such a joy in something so age old and lovely.' </i><br />
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Isn't that wonderful!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh45kxGPsLnmOUfpMl7rhtyOBD7odjkqq70IL72D6RUvEaij2tT_5f0UdIwdhOVs233MZJbf9OyIrqnL0NrXD24uHzpQ2fQbXnzbC9FwYOvsKdaUZFnTepGDa1iGqWrlR7L0Q24/s1600/EnchtdFstPlygrnd_900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh45kxGPsLnmOUfpMl7rhtyOBD7odjkqq70IL72D6RUvEaij2tT_5f0UdIwdhOVs233MZJbf9OyIrqnL0NrXD24uHzpQ2fQbXnzbC9FwYOvsKdaUZFnTepGDa1iGqWrlR7L0Q24/s640/EnchtdFstPlygrnd_900.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Section of the Enchanted Forest Playground in Dorrington Park, Ashgrove, Brisbane</td></tr>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="350" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?safe=off&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=206854855366296276275.00048e3871ef847c80a41&ll=-27.439267,152.985751&spn=0,0&output=embed" width="425"></iframe><br />
<small>View <a href="https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?safe=off&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=206854855366296276275.00048e3871ef847c80a41&ll=-27.439267,152.985751&spn=0,0&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">Enchanted Forest Playground</a> in a larger map</small><br />
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Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-6018881633942125332013-05-22T20:37:00.002+10:002013-05-22T20:40:30.879+10:00Splashing Around the Catchment Recovery Project<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LGVMUep_qDc" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Loved this 2012 project. It really showed the value of creating and telling stories as part of recovery from disasters. Good thinks happen in the Lockyer Catchment.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-36255998126639109702013-03-01T21:42:00.002+10:002013-03-01T22:13:27.675+10:00Revolutionary OptimistsVideo, social networking and digital storytelling can support social action.<br />
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Here's a wonderful little story that send shivers up my spine and makes me teary.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/39745941?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/39745941">Revolutionary Optimists TEDxChange 2012</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/revopt">Grainger-Monsen Newnham</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
So many narrative elements and good storytelling here. It gives me heart for the future of storytelling in the digital social networking age.<br />
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Certainly a bit more effective than this effort by one of the worlds multinationals.
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3xxlEkstcwM?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Still for an advert that's not too bad.
He is telling a story in his own voice, nice settings, bit of an issue. Doesn't send shivers up my spine though.<br />
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Here's another advert with lots of little stories.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gZytIFTsQHA?list=FLiChQCDAAcS5u9gSIJjqBzQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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They are sort of inspiring but could be a lot more so.<br />
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The people are all alive. That's probably the best thing about them.<br />
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The settings are very general 'urban'. There's a limit to how much the listener/viewer can go on a journey to them.<br />
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Narrative problems? Naa. This multinational doesn't want to associated with problems.<br />
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This means the resolutions, although sweet and life affirming, are not very effective story wise. Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-7180570751329818762013-02-04T23:00:00.003+10:002013-02-04T23:02:10.845+10:00Effective stories produce brain chemicals<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Rotating_brain_colored.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Rotating_brain_colored.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Human Brain by <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BrianMSweis" title="en:User:BrianMSweis">BrianMSweis</a> <br />
hypothalamus=red, amygdala=green, <br />
hippocampus/fornix=blue, <br />
pons=gold, pituitary gland=purple<br />
CC image from Wikimedia Commons<br />
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Why do some stories 'work' really well? Why will some stories reduce an audience to tears, or silence, or a warm fuzzy glow?<br />
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I remember telling 'Oh Luck of the Ugly', a Sudanese folktale about an ugly girl and her struggle to find happiness, to some Year 12 girls in a Brisbane school. Many of them had tears in their eyes and were strongly moved by the story. We talked about it and then I asked them, "What do you think boys would do when they listen to this story?" They were collectively derisive. One said, "They would just laugh." <br />
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I said, "No. Year 12 boys listen carefully and, towards the end, go very quiet and thoughtful. This story effects them as well."<br />
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How does a 'good' story bring about this effect? Well, it seems that effective stories stimulate the brain to produce specific two brain chemicals - one, cortisol, encourages the story listener to 'concentrate' and the other, oxytocin, to 'empathise'.<br />
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As storytellers, we know that if we are going to tell a story it might as well be a good one. It needs to follow narrative structure and if you like the term, as script writers and movie directors do, the dramatic arc. It needs reachable characters, a setting we can imagine, a challenge or a problem to overcome and finally a clear resolution.<br />
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Now, if the character is similar to the audience and, if that problem is one that a particular audience has experience with or imagine they might and, if the resolution is one that has meaning in their lives then that story is going to move that audience. I bet those chemicals will start effecting the way your audience will 'be in the story space' and 'empathise' with the characters.<br />
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This video talk, <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="watch-title long-title yt-uix-expander-head" dir="ltr" title="Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc: Paul Zak at the Future of StoryTelling 2012"><i><span style="font-size: small;"></span>Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc</i>: Paul Zak at the Future of StoryTelling 2012</span></span></span></span>, is definitely worth watching. It will effect the way you think about stories.<br />
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<iframe align:="" allowfullscreen="" center="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/q1a7tiA1Qzo?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-82740393266293879932013-01-30T22:34:00.002+10:002013-10-24T16:01:35.425+10:00What is the name of the tiger in The Life of Pi by Yann Martel?We made it back to Brisbane in time for the floods this time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39123899@N06/8353666070/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Brisbane Flood Jan 2011 by Lil Foet, on Flickr"><img alt="Brisbane Flood Jan 2011" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8217/8353666070_4f335f8fc1.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great photo by Lil Foet, from Flickr, South Brisbane on the 6th January, 2013</td></tr>
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Not that our house was flooded, it was long ago placed carefully on a hillside and I'm grateful.<br />
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We did lose power however. One of our neighbourhood trees in Dorchester Street stopped holding on for a second or two in the wild wind and that was all it took. The powerlines tried to catch it and, with some help from an optus cable and at least four poles, they did, but the power leaked everywhere until some kind person or machine turned off the switch and plunged us into darkness and refused us entry into the world of the Australian Open Singles final story.<br />
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Oh well, I had worked out who was going to triumph in that particular hero's journey when ex-cyclone Oswald took his revenge.<br />
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Perhaps more meaningfully, I did get to realize how dependent on electricity I have become - no power, no fridge, no computer and no TV and not much awareness of the trauma a whole lot of people went through with the 'cyclonic event'.<br />
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We did get to enjoy lots of candles and to realise how humid Brisbane can get even the wind is 'cyclonic'. The treat last night was getting out the little green ukulele after our dinner by candlelight and playing and singing songs to each other.<br />
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Earlier we had sought refuge in a nearby cinema, air conditioned of course, and were suitably entertained by 'The Life of Pi'. As Pi and the tiger were surviving great storms in the Pacific in a lifeboat, Oswald was wreaking havoc further south and, tragically, drowning two Asian backpacking farm labourers in the Lockyer Valley.<br />
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'Life of Pi' is a quite wonderful story, magically created on screen from Yann Martel's Booker winning book. I was also suitably entertained by the main point of the story, ie 'God is the more interesting story.'<br />
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After that fertile conditioning in the air conditioning, I was most certainly ripe for the subject line of an email/facebook/blog post I bumped up against this morning when we finally got power back - '<a href="http://rwconnect.esomar.org/tall-tales-the-strength-of-storytelling/" target="_blank">Tall Tales - the strength of storytelling</a>'.<br />
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It wasn't bad and wasn't brilliant, well it lacked a bit after 'Life of Pi in 3D' and the wild Oswaldic winds. It was really an essay on why business people should tell stories. It has some nice points. One of the quotes from Alison Esse is, “Storytelling is the original and most powerful form of learning and sharing knowledge.”<br />
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That led me to thinking about<br />
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<b>'When did storytelling evolve?' 'What came first, oral stories or visual stories?'</b><br />
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I looked online and, although it is a pretty murky area of
research, it would seem that it was most likely to be oral storytelling.
The first cave paintings were only 30,000 or 50,000 years ago and it
seems likely that human speech has been around for a couple of hundred
thousands of years.<br />
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So storytelling came first. Sorry writers and painters and sculptors and directors.<br />
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It also took me on a journey to another post on another electrically powered blog called - 'Your brain on narrative: evolution and the story rope' by Andrea Pitzer.<br />
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Which leads me to the story rope. I hadn't heard of them before but teachers probably have. They're a bit like charm bracelets. Imagine a 'rope' of plaited wool and inserted into it in a line is approx 7 studs - one for a character, one for the setting, one for the problem, two or three for complications and a bright sunny one for the solution.<br />
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The one in <a href="http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2011/11/04/your-brain-on-narrative-evolution-and-the-story-rope/" target="_blank">Andrea Pitzer's article</a> has a ginger bread man, a house, a cowboy boot, three small stars and a sun, respectively.<br />
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I wonder what symbols the storytelling rope for the 2013 floods would need? I think we could reuse the sun at least.<br />
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Oh the tiger was called Richard Parker. I probably should say tigers. Want more? Only go <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypOqi4yb2Lw" target="_blank">here</a> if you don't care about tiger or tigers.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-68337583531875555192012-10-14T12:48:00.002+10:002012-10-14T12:48:59.902+10:00Kuril, West End Crossing Boundaries and Ashgrove Young ExplorersHad a really enjoyable workshop at Ashgrove Library with the <a href="http://youngexplorersashgrovehistory.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Young Explorers of Ashgrove History</a>.<br />
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Uncle Nurdon Serico shared his knowledge of the local country and of the Turrbal people.<br />
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He reminded us of the Turrbal name for Ashgrove - <span class="st">Kallindarbin and of the fact that Waterworks Road was once an Aboriginal pathway leading to Mt Cootha and to the Bunya festival in the Bunya Mountains.</span><br />
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<span class="st">I remembered the Kuril Story that Vanessa Fisher told and painted for the Crossing Boundaries project in 1997- 98. <a href="http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nph-wb/19990107130000/http://brisbane-stories.powerup.com.au/west_end/west_end_frames.htm" target="_blank">Here's the link. It's been archived on the Pandora site these days but it's still all there.</a></span><br />
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<span class="st">It was a great project. It would be good to do it again sometime, get some different stories and compare results.</span>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-88017519727136063172012-10-10T10:35:00.000+10:002012-10-10T10:35:55.279+10:00Ashgrove local history stories and yarnsI had great pleasure telling my 'Clothes Props Man' story to children and adults at the Launch of the Creating Young Local Historians project at Ashgrove Library on Saturday.<br />
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Local History is all about stories really. Sure some people get bogged down in detail of dates, addresses and exactly what was said at times but really they are just getting bogged down in Narrative Structure or at least one part of it.<br />
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The other delightful story we had at the launch was the story of The Children's Coach. For some years around 1937 at St Finbarr's School in Ashgrove the kindergarten children were delivered by a horse and cart owned by the nuns. Miss Pat Fahey was there at our launch to share the story about being one of the children photographed sitting in the buggy. She's the one sucking her thumb.<br />
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She reckons that it was probably because, although the horse plodded up the hill in Jubilee Tce where she was picked up, it used gallop along at a great rate along Waterworks Road and they all had to hang on.<br />
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If you would like to see what Pat looks like now <a href="http://youngexplorersashgrovehistory.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/successful-launch-of-project-qr.html" target="_blank">have a look on our YEAH blog</a>.<br />
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Really looking foward to our first children's workshop in the library on Saturday at the Ashgrove Library. Uncle Nurdon Serico is going to come along to tell us a story or two about Turrbal enjoyment of the area.<br />
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We'll have some games, technology, more stories and fun, so if you know of any children living in the greater Ashgrove area who would like something really different to do on Saturday here's the link to the information.<br />
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<a href="http://youngexplorersashgrovehistory.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/launch-of-creating-young-local.html">http://youngexplorersashgrovehistory.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/launch-of-creating-young-local.html</a><br />
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We'll be publishing stories, local history information, podcasts etc on the YEAH blog so you might like to follow our progress.<br />
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DaryllAustorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com035 Betheden Terrace, Ashgrove QLD 4060, Australia-27.446343698738616 152.9940927028656-27.447224198738617 152.99285870286559 -27.445463198738615 152.99532670286561tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-63908189334217340762012-07-26T16:50:00.001+10:002012-07-26T17:53:27.457+10:00This Old Man He Told StoriesWonderful day today of performing at kindergartens - Samford Community Kindergarten and Chapel Hill Community Kindergarten and running off a DVD of the ANTaR forum on 'Sovereignty in the 21st Century'. <br />
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I'm really enjoying adding more ukulele to my storytelling as well. Today we went for a choof down the track with 'Down By the Station, Early In the Morning' and that led into my 'Little Blue Train takes the children to the Zoo' story. Because the children at Samford have been exploring a space theme lately, I also improvised a story that started with 'This Old Man He Played One' song. When we got to 4, he played knick, knack on the door, the door creaked open and I asked the children 'who or what came out'. One girl said a ghost, so, of course, we all screamed and ran and ran and ran all the way to the space station and took off on the Lunar Explorer Mission as fast as we could.<br />
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You wouldn't guess who we ran into on the moon? Give up? It was that dreadful space pirate Captain Hook. He stole the treasure and blasted off to Mars. Did we get back? Of course we did. Came back to earth just in time to sing 'this old man he played five'. Good fun.<br />
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Chapel Hill's Kinders were dominated by boys and the energy was .... masculine, well 4 year old masculine. I did notice that the girls were having the most fun though. We finished with The Clever Turtle. At the end of the show, the children had a choice of strumming the uke while I did some chords or playing on the djembe. What value.<br />
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Stories are so much fun for all ages. It is important that we remember that as we embrace and work with the national curriculum.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-33050974153399230482012-07-13T23:13:00.000+10:002020-02-10T10:44:24.230+10:00Bringing stories alive and joyful TedReally enjoyed running a bringing stories alive storytelling workshop for some very talented and dedicated kindergarten teachers today.<br />
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Wavell Heights Kindergarten is one of those very professional C&K kindergartens that add so much to our Qld society.<br />
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Enjoyed this Ted talk tonight.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="331" scrolling="no" src="https://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Kristin-Pedemonti-Bringing-joy/player?layout&read_more=1" width="420"><p>
Some</p>
</iframe>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-1720956345864682032012-07-11T13:09:00.000+10:002012-07-11T13:19:31.345+10:00Fair is Fair - World Folktales of Justice and Snow WhiteHave been reading some more of 'Fair is Fair - World Folktales of Justice' by Sharon Creeden. I bought this August House Publisher collection of folktales around the subject of justice at the NSW Storytelling Conference and have been dipping into it at regular intervals.<br />
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There's quite a range of stories both from different cultures and about different issues. One I enjoyed was 'The Two Otters and the Fox'. It's a short folktale from India and Indonesia about otters who are fighting over who should get the bigger share of the fish they've both caught. They ask the fox to solve the question for them and, of course, he makes off with the biggest share. The otters are left with an unexpected moral - fighting leads to losses.<br />
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This story can be used in so many ways, about bullying for example, but what came to my mind, I must admit, is the current fighting by the Australian political parties over refugees. We all lose by that fight, especially the refugees. More importantly though the political parties lose respect.<br />
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Another story in the book is 'Mr Fox'. I used to tell it a lot when I first started telling stories but I stopped. It is a pretty gruesome story. Sharon Creeden compares it to the serial killing of Ted Bundy. He was certainly gruesome. I still don't know if I want to tell it. It does have a brave hero, Lady Mary, and justice is done but it is capital punishment.<br />
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I find myself turning off TV a lot lately because of all of the murderous crime stories. Who needs them? I know I don't. What effect do they have on viewers? I don't know but I suspect that the balance is not positive. So should I tell Mr Fox or not? And in the words of a panto I saw as a child, 'That's the burning question. Let's have your suggestion.'<br />
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Who's seen 'Snow White and the Huntsman'?<br />
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I enjoyed it. Thought it was good storytelling in general. I liked the way they played with the Snow White story and brought in all sorts of other references from other folk tales, legends, movies, genres etc. - the three drops of blood on the snow, the rose, the witch and the ravens, the white hart and many more.<br />
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Snow White was quite Joan of Arc-ish riding into battle. If she was a contemporary country or nation which one would she be? What about the scarred women with the head scarves in the village by the lake? Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam?<br />
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The troll was cool but it was a bit of an anticlimax when he just slunk off. It demonstrated Snow Whites compassionate power but really they missed a good opportunity there. They went for mono-cultural or mono-specific heroes. The closest thing to a non white human team members were the dwarfs and they were clearly white human, just a little quirky in a easily loveable way.<br />
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I thought it was interesting that, while there was lots of killing in the movie, most of the means of dying were not directly presented. I guess this was a way of making the killing more acceptable. It certainly worked.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-48913029159516205472012-06-20T14:30:00.001+10:002012-06-20T14:33:10.993+10:00Back in Bris, Little Tots and the Single StoryBack in Brisbane after corporate storytelling trip to Perth. It was a bit quick and I didn't manage to catch up with Perth storytellers. (Sorry about that WA storytellers.)<br />
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The session with Honda Australia salespeople and managers at the Burswood Entertainment Complex went well. It was good working with a local jazz band, John Bannister and The Charisma Brothers, as well. One thing I like about these corporate awards nights is the smiles on peoples faces as they are acknowledged for their hard work.<br />
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Really enjoyed our visit to the Art Gallery of WA. The Warholl to Picasso exhibition is definitely worth it and the general gallery collection is quite special. Good to see some old favourites again like Lin Onus's 'Maralinga'.<br />
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In my corporate storytelling presentation to Honda, I've been making the assertion that, 'If you want to oppress a culture one of the easiest ways to do it is to stop the people from telling their stories and especially stop them from telling their stories in their language.'<br />
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So today I was pleased to hear that idea expanded on in a Ted talk by Chimamanda Adichie: 'The danger of a single story.' She won me over very quickly with 'I'm a storyteller and I'd like to tell you a few personal stories about ...' In her talk Chmamanda argues very eloquently about the effect of our tendency to simplify our perceptions of peoples and culture into - 'single stories'.<br />
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She says, among many other things, - 'Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person but to make it the definitive story of that person.'<br />
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She finishes her talk with:<br />
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'When we reject the single story, when we realise that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.'<br />
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I like that. <br />
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Told three different stories to some Little Tots children at Stretton today. So many different faces and cultures, all hungry for fun and stories. We had both but I do see that it is easy to slip into one type of story.<br />
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<br />Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-24917016170710113192012-06-07T17:44:00.001+10:002012-06-07T17:44:51.611+10:00Weaving corporates, festivals and dramatic boys.Last weekend was great hobnobbing with storytellers from around Australia and overseas at the NSW storytelling guild's 'Weaving Stories Together' Conference in Sydney.<br />
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I can't decide if the highlight was listening to Dianne Ferlatte the keynote speaker and featured storyteller from the USA or the energy of the primary school boys who won the children's storytelling competition. Then again I did really enjoy the workshop by Graham Ross called 'Enriching the Perspective and Power of Historical Storytelling' and the 'Improvised Storytelling' workshop by Lillian Rodrigues Pang. Jenni Cargill Strong's workshop on bullying was really informative as well.<br />
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I've also been enjoying the corporate storytelling I've been doing with Honda Australia. An adult corporate audience is so different from a school or a community audience. There is so much content wrapped around the stories I've been presenting them. It is a buzz to do that walk on stage with the spotlight and the musicians providing backup. So if you walk into a Honda salesroom in the next 6 months and get told a story or two by the salesperson, you'll know why.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.panoramio.com/photos/1920x1280/28647668.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://static.panoramio.com/photos/1920x1280/28647668.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kalinga Park playground, image with thanks by Graeme Lanham (Panoramio)</td></tr>
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A funny thing happened on Tuesday - World Environment Day. I was doing some performances for the Brisbane City Council Catchment Coordinators under a marquee beside Kedron Brook - lovely setting. My audiences were Catchment Kids - primary school children from different schools involved in the junior catchment protection programs. They were short shows, just 30 minutes which usually meant telling one story and improvising a second one with the audience about the catchment. At the end of the last show, I invited the audience to do a little drumming each on my African djembe.<br />
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I noticed one boy, probably in about Year 6 or so, stepping up quite excitedly. He was obviously planning how we would play the drum in a different way as I saw him clench his fists ready to punch it. I said, "No not with your fists please."<br />
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I saw him unclench is fists and I thought 'that's good,' but I wasn't ready for what he did next.<br />
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He head butted the drum, twice! and unfortunately split the skin, duh! Needless to say I wasn't very happy.<br />
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Still that drum and that goat skin has had a lot of use in the 10 years or so since I bought it. I dropped it in a Eumundi Drums yesterday for a new skin and for the time being I'm djembe-less. I'm experiencing some withdrawal symptoms, oh well.<br />
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Still being without the drum will spur me into experimenting with some new story support activities such as my green ukulele.<br />
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I've already improvised a new story that starts with the song 'This Old Man' it's pretty simple chords and lots of opportunities to branch out into different stories.<br />
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Today I was at Augusta State School out by Redbank Plains and had fun with the students there. I'll be back there tomorrow to do another three shows looking forward to telling and creating some more stories with them.<br />
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Daryll<br />
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<br />Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-26415099738584129922012-03-30T12:20:00.001+10:002012-03-30T12:40:04.935+10:00Library Storytelling and Creative AdvertisingHave just enjoyed two Brisbane City Council library performance gigs in the last two days:<br />
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- Wynnum Library storytime for the Wynnum up late program<br />
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- and the opening of the new Carindale Branch Library.<br />
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The Carindale Library children's area is really cute. Works pretty well for storytime as well.<br />
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While I was at Wynnum I was making up a song:<br />
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'Pelicans and Seagulls, Pelicans and Seagulls are flying overhead, are flying overhead,<br />
Pelicans and Seagulls like eating fish and chips.'<br />
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I like Pelicans but sometimes those Seagulls get just a bit pesky. <br />
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Someone sent me an email with a great advert on YouTube where a seagull gets his just deserts from some well organised crabs. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuVPnW0s3Vo&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Here's the link</a>. (It's fine for children so long as you take some parental care around some of the other YouTube content that might pop up around it.)<br /><br />
I can see a story coming on with crabs in it for sure.<br />
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Regards<br />
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DaryllAustorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-55408035973318260482012-02-05T14:49:00.000+10:002012-02-05T14:56:39.765+10:00Riverview Stories and the Aboriginal FrogEnjoying my participation in the Riverview School Artist in Residence project. I'm helping students enjoy the experience of telling stories and creating them.<br />
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<a href="http://www.qt.com.au/story/2012/02/01/pictures-painting-students-words/" target="_blank">There's a great photo and article about the project on the Queensland Times newspaper website.</a><br />
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It was great to have Aunty Ruth Moffat drop in to listen to some of her grandchildren taking part. She told us some of her stories of working as a Teacher's Aid at Riverview (among other places). One of the little anecdotes she shared was of a young girl telling her that she had 'seen an Aboriginal frog' at her place. When Aunty Ruth asked her why it was an Aboriginal frog, the girl said, "That's because it's covered in dots."<br />
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The students loved the story of course so we added it to the story we created about a visit by the Riverview School Christmas Choir visit to Riverview Gardens Retirement Village.<br />
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I love this sort of working, being able to share stories and retell them in completely different settings.<br />
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Mind you, you have to be quite flexible working in a school. We were recording our story as we created it and I had 4 students singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer as if they were performing at the retirement village. It sounded great. We advanced the story and got in the frog and I turned to our 'choir' to record them singing again but I had found that 3 of the 4 had left to catch buses. Our remaining choir member rose to the occasion however and sang our improvised song quite brilliantly.<br />
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Another quite wonderful adaption was finding out that one of the original choir members 'wasn't really in the choir' and that, despite a disability, had won the school comedy competition last year. I asked her if we could record her pretending to tell a joke at Riverview Gardens. She did so swimmingly:<br />
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'Why did the fish cross the sea?"<br />
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"Why?"<br />
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"To get to the other tide."<br />
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I'm hoping Aunty Ruth will come back and tell us some of her stolen generation story. The multipurpose hall at Riverview is named after her husband Uncle Jack who sadly passed away in 2008.<br />
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You can read some of her story on the Goodna State School website at:<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodnaschool.net/indig_perspective/ruth_moffatt.html" target="_blank">http://www.goodnaschool.net/indig_perspective/ruth_moffatt.html </a>Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-64579158304959056062012-02-02T21:21:00.000+10:002012-02-05T14:56:39.786+10:00Riverview, Storytelling Guild and National GatheringGreat day at Riverview Primary today. The school has a good feel about it. I've been enjoying pushing my technology boundaries with the new iPad, well enjoying in the sense of great when it works and frustrating when something goes wrong. Mind you what went wrong was my forgetting about setting the recording length to 'automatic'. I guess it must default to 8 bars. Good for musos not so good for story'os.<br />
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I just love it deeply storytelling works with people. It's great seeing those special moments.<br />
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I've started a special blog for the project at <a href="http://www.ourriverviewstories.blogspot.com%20/" target="_blank">www.ourriverviewstories.blogspot.com </a><br />
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Queensland Storytelling Guild AGM and storycircle on Sunday at Bettina Nissens house at D'bay. So, if you're a member, or, if you're thinking of getting involved now is a good time. We're a great bunch of warm, creative people who love stories and storytelling. We've got some more home tellings planned and likely a fundraising concert. Here's the Guild blog page link <a href="http://qldstorytelling.blogspot.com.au/">qldstorytelling.blogspot.com.au</a><br />
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There is a Sydney Storytelling Festival coming up on the first weekend on June. There will be tellers from around Australia and visitors from overseas as well. Should be a buzz.<br />
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Watched a great story about Shannon Noll the country singer from Condobolin on the ABC tonight. They made really good use of video and his family and their old photos. It was a bit Australian Stories like.<br />
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Was tempted to watch the next show about The Straits by the same people who did The Slap but enough TV for one night. So in compensation here's a story about a slap. It's not any story it's a Hodja Story. I've pinched it from a very nice collection of Hodja Stories on <a href="http://www.readliterature.com/hodjastories.htm">http://www.readliterature.com/hodjastories.htm</a> Thanks Lale. They're really worth a read. Here's one:<br />
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<i>One day Nasreddin Hodja was walking on the street, when
a total stranger came up to him and slapped him on the back of his
neck. The Hodja demanded some kind of rectification. But the man was
unapologetic. He had thought the Hodja was a good friend of his, whom he
was accustomed to greeting with such gesture.</i>
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<div class="bodyc">
<i><a href="" name="pgfId-1070608"></a> </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i>`It is not an incidence of great
significance, Effendi,' he said to the Hodja, `I thought you were my
friend, I shouldn't be paying for such a small mistake.' </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<br /></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i>Nasreddin Hodja
was not convinced. He was wronged and he had to receive the damages.
Since the discussion was going nowhere, they decided to consult the
kadi. However, unbeknownst to the Hodja, the man and the kadi were
friends. </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i><a href="" name="pgfId-1070618"></a> </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i>The kadi listened to them both, and although
it looked like the Hodja was right, he was still determined to get his
friend out of this without having to pay a penalty.</i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i><a href="" name="pgfId-1070617"></a> </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i>`Hodja Effendi is right,' the kadi said,
winking to his friend, `you have to pay him a gold coin.' The friend,
reassured with kadi's wink, said that he didn't have a gold coin on him
but if they waited a few minutes, he would go and get it. Kadi allowed
him to go fetch the money and Nasreddin Hodja started to wait. After
waiting quite a while, and recalling the familiarity between the kadi
and the man, the Hodja figured out that he was tricked and that the man
was never going to come back. He approached the kadi and startled him
with a forceful slap on the back of his neck.</i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i><a href="" name="pgfId-1070619"></a> </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i>`Hodja Effendi, what did you do that for?' the kadi said in pain.</i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i><a href="" name="pgfId-1070620"></a> </i></div>
<div class="bodyc">
<i>`Kadi Effendi, I am a little late for my errands, I can't wait any longer. When the man comes back, <em class="emphasis">you</em> take the gold coin!' </i></div>
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<br />Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-1551421000460471072012-01-31T20:14:00.001+10:002012-02-02T11:59:22.510+10:00Riverview StoriesThe Riverview School Artists in Residence Project is underway! The adventure has begun.<br />
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I enjoyed the warmup session with the teachers on the third of their start of year professional development days. The energy was interesting - professional but playful. The story we created together is rough. It had to be, we didn't have enough time for anything but rough, but it does have all the components I'm hoping for in this project, local setting - the skate bowl in Pickering Street, students as characters and some local flavour.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM3TSmnl4lhNdmORF7QhYxlHIhmhtcCugbEcyhOorE5Z12YpSrWFtsd8SA5pbC1Mu10Six-dtg3A3Nb1FezAG8BFqwMtku2lXvE1eM6776mGNJj39yEgSuxfOyiJylfOABZPxs/s1600/RiverviewSkateBowl.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM3TSmnl4lhNdmORF7QhYxlHIhmhtcCugbEcyhOorE5Z12YpSrWFtsd8SA5pbC1Mu10Six-dtg3A3Nb1FezAG8BFqwMtku2lXvE1eM6776mGNJj39yEgSuxfOyiJylfOABZPxs/s320/RiverviewSkateBowl.tiff" width="320" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Skate Bowl from Google Street View in Hayden St, Riverview</i></span></div>
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It was good watching the teachers working out how to have a bit of fun with the process. One way was their choosing students who had been a little challenging for them last year as the characters in their story. I got so much pleasure out of seeing their linocuts and look forward to putting them together with the text of the story on the project blog.<br />
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Stories of place are such an important part of community and cultural development. We all live in place and are shaped by place. Our stories are shaped by place and our stories shape our places. Telling stories about our places helps us take pride in our country, our town and in ourselves.<br />
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The four introductory storytelling and story creation sessions in the library with the whole of school were rich and textured. Most of the sessions went well although the years 4,5,6 year session didn't get off to as good a start as I would have wished because the Queensland Times journo and photographer had arrived just before the start. <br />
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I'm looking forward to meeting with the four participation classes this week and working with them to develop their stories.<br />
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DaryllAustorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-76588847979675763722011-12-15T10:18:00.004+10:002011-12-15T10:41:16.748+10:00Time to listen in 2012This morning I put some suggestions into a project plan for a school Artist In Residence project happening in Riverview first term. It's all about encouraging students to listen to, tell, collect and share stories orally. Planning out the timing of valuable projects like this takes time. The session we had on Tuesday was a two coffee, 5 hour job. It will be worth it though when the stories start flowing.<br />
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As I sent my email reply off, I glanced at my incoming emails and it only took one response to a request to sign a petition about whaling and I was into Facebook. Facebook takes time but it is usually worth it. I found a link from shared by US storyteller Robert Bela Wilhelm to a New York Times article about taking time to listen to stories in Africa by Swedish author Henning Mankel called <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/in-africa-the-art-of-listening.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=africa+storytelling+listening&st=cse" target="_blank">'The Art of Listening'</a>.<br />
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He's lived in Mozambique for twenty odd years and learned a thing or two about listening. I love his anecdote about overhearing two men talking about a friend who had died before he could tell the rest of an important story. What I like about it is not the sadness that he didn't get to finish the story but that the friend had originally agreed to come back the next day to hear the rest of the story. True friend.<br />
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So my friends, what do I wish for you all in 2012?<br />
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Well time of course. Time enough to listen well to lots of stories.<br />
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I'm looking forward to my Riverview collaboration with Narelle Oliver, Lee FullARTon and all the teachers, students and parents at Riverview. It's called the Art of Story but maybe it should have been called The Art of ListenAustorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-53312457102929485562011-11-29T17:19:00.000+10:002011-11-29T17:19:16.336+10:00Grandpa Chris Catches Fish for ChristmasIt's still November but, for kinder children, it's definitely Christmas.<br />
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I had fun today at <a href="http://www.jamboreekindy.com/">Jamboree Community Kindergarten</a>. I did some of my usual jokes to start off with and I slipped in one about Christmas already being over and that I was sorry that they had missed out.<br />
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It's strange doing the northern winter snow stories in subtropical Brisbane. They like it though. This time I did my version of the First Gift of Christmas.<br />
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After that was my 'The Possum and the Garbage Truck Driver." It's good. They get lots of laughs about the garbage truck driver being outwitted by a possum and then by the kookaburra. Of course it finishes in a spirit of cooperation and friendship so that's appropriate for Christmas.<br />
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I had planned to do 'Grandpa Chris' which starts with the song 'Grandpa Chris catches fish to give to all his friends' and goes on to say what the other grandpa's are doing for the community in their active retirement. It didn't quite feel right for this group though.<br />
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I wanted something that involved Christmas and the children more so we created a new Grandpa Chris story called 'Grandpa Chris saves Santa Clause'. Some children get to help as well of course. It worked well and it definitely much more local coastal Australian summer in feel. (Santa's sleigh crash landed in a mangrove.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgerus/2448185937/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Mangroves by Tatters:), on Flickr"><img alt="Mangroves" height="180" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2145/2448185937_035e813a99_m.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>'Ho, Ho, Ho. Deck the halls with lots of mangroves' <br />
(photo Tatters; on Flickr)</i></div><br />
I'm looking forward to retelling it over the next couple of weeks.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11096681.post-32197056827008482242011-11-25T15:59:00.000+10:002020-01-11T16:20:48.652+10:00Giant With No Heart Rocks TerraceHad the pleasure of performing the folktale 'Giant With No Heart' to approximately 900 Terrace students today for their End of Year Liturgy service.<br />
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Connor Finn was looking for a good story that would stimulate some thoughts about appropriate student behaviour over the Christmas holidays and that would fit in with the Christmas message. I gave him the choice of 6 or 7 folktales that I thought would work with boys of that age group and he picked the one I thought would be best.<br />
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'Giant With No Heart' is both a dramatic and interesting story from northern Europe. It basically talks about how men get to be 'giants with no heart' and what to do about it.<br />
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I asked for some music students to play drums and cymbal to add some more atmosphere to the story and we went for it.<br />
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It worked. It's great to have 900 teenagers interested, involved and challenged. Hearing their energy as they debated how the story should end was amazing. Would the oldest brother win as he went for revenge or would the youngest brother win as pleaded for his friend? The story hung in the balance for some time. <br /><br />Our percussionists were spot on. Loved the orchestral base drum but I couldn't talk them into loading it into my van after the show.<br />
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It was a really good try out for the Queensland Storytelling Guild's 70w amplifier system as well. It filled the hall quite well. I was able to play a mp3 sound effects recording straight from a memory stick.<br />
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One little moment afterwards was when I was just driving out of the school grounds. One of the students looked up and recognised me. It was good to see his smile.Austorieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08534829900161155303noreply@blogger.com0Spring Hill QLD 4000, Australia-27.457446 153.02536199999997-27.464149000000003 153.01703949999998 -27.450743 153.03368449999996