Southbank Story Magic

A little bit of story magic happened at Southbank this weekend. Well actually more than one bit.

First of all I was having great fun at the Brisbane International Film Festival Family Fun Day Story Creation workshops as part of the SpeakOut Team. I was working with the participants - children - helping them to create their stories and write them on a piece of butchers paper for them. These sheets of butchers paper became their 'auto cues' as they recorded their voice over and created a short movie with some help from the team on Sony Vegas.

The theme was 'Princes and Princesses' and wonderful stories about brave and courageous princes and beautiful and strong princesses and witches and castles and dragons and all sorts of wonderful creatures were being created and burnt as movies to CDs.

Now, a father and son were interested in doing the Story Creation. The son was keen but the father was clearly distracted. 'Oh my wife is over there. Our younger son has developed a curious phobia. He doesn't want to step on any pebbles.'

Sure enough, standing on the pavers just past the last of the pebblecrete was a mother hugging her worried looking son as he stood on the last of the pavers and refused to step on the pebbles.

Well something went 'Bing!' in my mind and I thought, 'A story. That might work.'

I walked over to the pair and, kneeling down, said to the boy, 'Would you like a story?' He looked a little reluctant but I began telling him a story about a pebble that was crying because he didn't like people standing on him. A good fairy came flying down and said, 'What's wrong little pebble?'

When the fairy found out she pulled out her magic wand and gave the pebble a hard head so that it didn't hurt when people stepped on him. The pebble was so happy that everytime someone walked on the pebbles he sang a little song - "I'm so happy when people step on my hard, hard head. I'm so happy when they step. I'm so happy when people step on my hard, hard head. I'm so happy when they step on me!"

Did the boy take that step off the pavers and onto the pebbles? Yes! He did!

Ahhhhhhhh! Magic Happens!

I'm glad that once upon a time, a long time ago, I read 'Annie Stories' by Doris Brett.

Digital Storytelling for Families & Children

I just got back from a great Sunday bike ride with my friend Bill around some of Brisbane's wonderful bikepaths and I don't know whether it was having coffee at the Venice Cafe or the wonderfully human conversation with the Dutton Park ferry driver about the new green bridge construction or even if it was just ironing my new 'I do digital stories' T-shirt in preparation for the BIFF Story Creation workshop down at Southbank but I thought, 'I really should put up a link or two about where people can find some more digital stories to look at.'

After all, If families do enjoy the workshop and go home with their own digital story on a CD they might be inspired to look for more.

Here are a couple of links.

For Queensland digital stories you really can't go past 'Queensland Stories'. It's a site created by the Qld State Library Service and contains digital stories created all over Queensland. If you want to see some young people's stories do a search for Chermside and there you will find some stories created by teenagers living in the Chermside/Wavell Heights area that I had the privlidge of helping.

Another fascinating site is the Shoebox Stories at the BBC Wales site. This is the school age stories link but there are adults stories there as well. I like Michael's story about his best friend.

Well there you go. I'll have to tell you how the workshop goes and maybe have some photos from it as well. Today the theme is 'Princes and Princesses' and next week it is 'Environment'. Should be lots of fun.

Let me know what you think about the Chermside stories and what your fav. Shoebox story is please. I love them but I love to know what other people think.

Regards
Daryll Bellingham

My Story Island Home

I've had a wonderful week of telling stories to young children this week. I love seeing the way children respond to stories. At one kindergarten, I had spent about 10 minutes telling a story with full on sound effects and action and kids joining in and laughing and coming up with suggestions and, at the end, a young girl right down the front put her hand up and said, "Could you tell that story again please?" Isn't that perfect.

Today there was a moment that made all of the driving worth it. A young boy had to be helped to walk into the room by the Director because of a physical disability that required him to wear some supportive legware. She also helped him sit up and helped him dance in the 'Old Man and the Drum' story. He was having a great time and at the end of the show all of the kids came over to shake my hand. He did as well and said, "That was a great story about the sheep."

It was the version of 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep' that I have been improvising and polishing over the last month or so. He said, "I'm going to tell it to my Dad." I thought 'Yes!' this is what this storytelling business is about.

It made the drive back to Brisbane along the freeway worthwhile.

Storytelling and the Law

Yesterday I arrived home from my morning performances to find some pieces of paper sticking out from under my door. I had a fair idea what they might be and I was right. Annie had dropped in with some photocopies of articles about Storytelling and the Law. I had run into her the day before in Vulture Street in West End on my way to Phil the Barber for a haircut so I stopped for a coffee and a chat and she told me about the articles.

She certainly had me interested. The drift was that if legal people had a better idea of the narrative and the personal stories of their clients and defendants they they would be better able to make informed, compassionate and appropriate judgements. Sounded good to me and I was looking forward to a read.

Well I've got to admit Annie that, when I got to read them - 'Storytelling, Postmodernism and the Law', Hon Justice Peter Heerey, The Australian Law Journal, 74:681-691 and 'Literature and the judicial role - Why judges should read novels and mandatory sentencing should be rejected', Rodney Allen - I was a little disappointed. The articles beat around the legal and academic bushes quite a bit and didn't really seem to come to the point of exploring an increased role for, or relevance of, personal narratives to any meaningful extent. Even though they were worth reading I was left with the feeling that both authors were reluctant to go out on any legal limbs in case they raised the ire of colleagues or similar.

Now here is my request does anyone know of any more specific articles about the role of storytelling and narrative structure in law?

Injecting Power into Corporate Communication

I've just been completing a web page update www.storytell.com.au/corpicte2006.html to add the details of the corporate storytelling workshop being hosted by the Institute of Continuing and TESOL Education (ICTE - UQ). I must admit that the title of the workshop embarasses me a little. It sounds almost like a military workshop. I couldn't help thinking about the power of storytelling.

Over Easter I heard many stories as my father-in-law, John Tunny, revisited the scenes of his upbringing and early married life in a number of small country towns in north west New South Wales. These were healing stories - good to hear - pleasing to the ear. They had such a positive energy.

As I was thinking about this the ABC news was playing on the radio. It came to me that the 'news' is impossible without stories. They speak of characters in settings of place and time. They detail problems and solutions. Mind you they are pretty brief and matter of fact stories, stripped of niceties and personal details. Still they have power. It's a power to communicate seriously and effeciently.

It's a different type of power to those of community stories mind you. When I think about the Charleville Generational Learning digital stories. These stories build social capital and personal power.

What's So Special About Digital Storytelling

I remember hearing about Digital Storytelling some years back at a storytelling festival, probably in Sydney. I remember thinking at the time that I would get into it some time.

Well now I have and now I'm sold on it. It wasn't just going to the First Person Conference and meeting a swag of Digital Storytellers from around the world. It hasn't just been the wonderfully challenging and rewarding process of running some Digital Storytelling projects for a range of different people.

I think that there is something quite wonderfully empowering about Digital Storytelling. I'd like to identify all of the elements and get them down.

If anyone has any thoughts let me know please.

Regards
Daryll

Enchanted Forest Stories

Wow. Just spent the better part of a day in a recording studio. No, I tell a lie, it was the music room at Ashgrove State Primary school with students from year 3H recording them telling the Enchanted Forest Stories for the new BCC playground in Dorrington Park.

It's brilliant project really. The brain child of CAO Mark Crocker, I got to work with the students to create a set of Enchanted Forest Stories - the ones we recorded today. Gavin Fenlon worked with them on playground design ideas and now the Brisbane City Council is hard at work building the playground but I won't tell how the recordings are going to be installed in the playground. You'll have to wait. Sorry.

I'm looking forward to sitting down in that playground and listening to them when it's all comppleted though.