PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2023
Christine Carlton
The past 12 months has seen many activities organised and hosted by the Australian Storytelling Guild NSW. Members, their friends and guests as well as interstate and international visitors have enjoyed the hospitality and hard work of committee members who have organised quality opportunities for skills development, networking and storytelling performance.
The major event that took a lot of time and energy in preparation was:-
Weaving Stories Together- Sydney International Storytelling Conference – GIVING VOICE TO OUR STORIES JUNE 2- 4 WITH 2 Pre-conference Masterclasses— Convenors - Christine Carlton, Kiran Shah
Attendees came from throughout Australia including migrants from, Hungary, Vietnam, China, Iraq, India, Canada and Scotland and International delegates who travelled from USA, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkiye, Northern Ireland, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India. - many said it was like a mini United Nations.
Some Key elements -
Two Pre-conference workshops - i) Stories Old and New- A Path to Healing and Resilience- Noa Baum ii) Traditional Storytelling: A Present From the Past - Colin Urwin UK
Keynote - Noa Baum, USA. 'Giving Voice to our Stories’
Featured Presenter - Dr Jodi Edwards, NSW - ‘Wayapa Wuurrk’ - Connection to Earth
A great choice of 16 conference workshops
Earned Wisdom: Telling stories for and with older people and people living with dementia - Liz Weir - UK
Planning a Storytelling Program for Community Cultural Development - Lillian Rodrigues-Pang NSW
Something Old – Something New - Colin Urwin - UK
Kamishibai: getting started or being better - Jackie Kerin - VIC
Reaching Beyond the Story: After Story Activities to Extend and Deepen Learning - Sheila Wee Singapore
To Tell or not to Tell - Political correctness and our storytelling repertoire - Tamas Osvald - TAS
Haunted Places: local ghost stories - Jo Henwood - NSW
It’s Your Story - Tell It! - Rona Leventhal - USA
Beyond Labels: Bridging Difference Through Storytelling - Noa Baum - USA
Therapeutic and wellbeing journeys with folktales - Kim Billington - VIC
Hodja, Rumi and Tea (Chai) tradition - 3 cultural heritages of the Humanity & Storytelling - Cem Alfar - Turkiye.
Soundscapes in Stories - Dee Palanisamy - VIC
Approaching Diversity in Storytelling with Kindness - Em Chandler - VIC.
Puppet Yum Cha – an introductory ‘taster’ into the world of Puppetry - Kay Yasugi - NSW
Getting to the heart of it - Donna Jacobs-Sife - NSW
Physicality In Stories: Remembering We Have A Body! - Rona Leventhal - USA
Poster presentations - An interesting variety of posters dealing with oral storytelling projects and activities in different settings and contexts.
Spreading Korean Culture through Storytelling - Alicia Dongjoo Bang - South Korea
Lycian Way Cultural Storytelling Tour - Cem Alfar -Turkiye
Talking Stories - For all lovers and tellers of Tales, Myths and Legends - Caroline Welkin - NZ
Giving Voice to Older Persons - Wong Swee Yean - Singapore
Building Resilience with Stories - Jo Henwood - NSW
Forked Tongues Storytellers - Lilli Rodrigues Pang - NSW
The Story Room – Karen Sander - NSW
FEAST – The Federation of Asian Storytellers - Sheila Wee -Singapore and Priti Modylyer -VIC
Salonline: a fairy tale web series - Jo Henwood - NSW
Sensory Storytelling for Children with Special Needs - Wong Swee Yean - Singapore
Stories that Stir - Monica Rosenfeld - NSW)
Two Conference Concerts - Featured Performers from Australia, Turkiye, UK, USA, Hungry, Singapore, South Korea - Folktales, Personal stories and puppetry.
Pre-conference Concert in Partnership with Gleneaon Steiner Jr School- Two tellers from Northern Ireland, two tellers from USA and one Australian teller.
Opportunities for participants to perform stories - Friday Night Soiree 5 minute stories and Story Circles – some great stories were told.
Conference Cartoonist - Simon Kneebone, Charity auction of artwork with proceeds of $645 going to the Indigenous literacy Foundation.
Our Team at the conference
Judy Mitchell, Christine Greenough, Michael Patterson, Dee Palanisamy, Priti Modyiyer
& Conference Convenors - Christine Carlton and Kiran Shah
We all had specific tasks as well as supporting each other at the conference. We wanted to ensure that people felt welcomed and at home in a space that was conducive to connecting with others and suitable for workshop experiences. All the things like setting up spaces, the quilt, banners, registration, signs, lists, programs, notices, sign-up sheets, photocopying presenters' materials, name tags, the fiddly things etc were done without fuss. Liaising with the outside caterers for the Soiree and also with the venue catering. Catering for Masterclass day and the Poster session, dealing with finances, vendor sales, resetting rooms for different workshops, ringing bells to keep us on time and friendly people to send you in the right direction to workshop spaces... and much more.
Other Volunteers
Edgar Richards, Kiran's husband, was an invaluable help throughout the conference where he was on hand to assist where and when needed.
Cherie Burns from Darwin who handmade individual thank you cards for our presenters.
Jo Henwood who offered walking tours around parts of Sydney before and after the conference for our travelling visitors to Sydney.
Sophie Thi Phan who assisted with Facebook posts to community groups
Dr Mary Mooney who assisted with programming, and donation of wine
The Conference received very positive feedback with people expressing appreciation for the professional and friendly aspects of the conference. It was a great time of networking, skills development and performance experiences.
Other Storytelling events
Monthly Online Events.
Inner West Story Circle - hosted by Liz Locksley on the 1st Tuesday of the month- This is a group that meets to share ideas, and processes to explore storytelling concepts and do improvisations in preparation for developing stories.
Blue Mountains Story Circle - hosted by Jill Webster and Kiran Shah, has been meeting regularly once a month on a Sunday afternoon mostly via Zoom with one in-person meeting in November 2022. The Circle offers a wonderful platform for tellers to practise a new story and receive feedback, or share a story or just as important be a listener. Have between 6-14 participants from NSW, ACT, Victoria, India, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Canada and the U.S.
Story Swap - hosted by Christine Carlton with tech support from Susan Ida Boucaud meets on the third Wednesday of each month. There are usually about 25 people each session attending from a wide variety of countries around the world. Each month there is a different creative theme or prompt offered as a focus for the prepared 6-minute stories to be shared and also a time for breakout groups for networking, discussion and cultural exchange. A great session to experience different styles and genres of oral storytelling.
Special Online Storytelling workshops/events
Rock the Zoom - Explore ideas for presenting engaging storytelling via zoom - Jeff Gere - USA
The Playful Storyteller’s Guide to Puppetry - Jill Webster - NSW
Visioning and Planning Day
In-person events
‘Gentle Young Men’ Story Swap - Kate Forsyth - Joint gathering with the Sydney Story Ring
‘Stories by the Sea’ - Afternoon tea gathering and story sharing at the home of member Sue Alvarez in Manly.
Podcasts - ‘Share Your Voice, Tell Your Story’ - short podcast interviews that spotlight Australian Storytellers members. - Committee Caroline Welkin, Ashleigh Mythen, Christine Carlton, Christine Greenough, Liz Locksley, Lorinda Curnow, Michael Patterson - Discussed process and format for podcasts, experimented and then recorded. Two have been uploaded, others have been recorded and will be uploaded to the website soon.
Newsletter - Susan Ida Boucaud and I work together on the newsletter. Susan has been developing her use and understanding of the quirks of Mailchimp.
Facebook - Christine Carlton, Kiran Shah and Jill Webster have kept our members and international followers updated about relevant storytelling events. Facebook was instrumental in promoting the conference to a wide audience.
Accreditation - This year we saw the accreditation of 3 members. Congratulations to Zanette Burr, Dee Palanisamy and Dorothy Makasa. (This took place at the Storytelling Conference facilitated by Christine Greenough our Accreditation coordinator.)
Involvement with Storytelling for wider community
Some of our members have contributed their skills at other Australian storytelling events and also a number have presented storytelling workshops for International conferences and associations such as FEAST and NSN
Thanks to Action Committee
I wish to thank the members of the action committee for their time and energy in working for all the members of the Guild. –
Kiran Shah - Vice- President and co-convenor of the Sydney International Storytelling Conference, and host of the bm story circle for her commitment to keeping storytelling alive and active and encouraging people in developing their performance skills.
Michael Patterson - Guild membership secretary and treasurer who has efficiently kept our books in order and is a part of the podcast committee.
Dee Palanisamy - secretary and enthusiastic and creative contributions to committee meetings and the conference.
Christine Greenough - Accreditation coordinator and part of the podcast committee and The Conference Programming Committee.
Judy Mitchell - hospitality and encouraging support for our members and visitors at online events and the conference.
Susan Ida Boucaud - Tech support for zoom gatherings and who has worked with me to keep the members up to date with our monthly online newsletter compilation. Although Susan is located in Canada she has been a dedicated supporter and contributor to our Storytelling Guild.
Leanne Logan - for her support and contribution of ideas whilst she was part of the committee
Priti Modyiyer - who joined us earlier this year when she moved to Australia. She has contributed an enthusiastic energy, ideas and practical work and attention to details at the conference.
This year has required energy and commitment with much time on promoting our events and the conference especially since 5 years had passed since the last conference. During Covid we all have been invited and challenged to extend our online and social media skills.
It is through the efforts of a team with varied skills and a willingness to share them that we have achieved so much throughout the year. I am confident that the Guild will continue to contribute to nurturing storytellers and story listeners through offering good quality storytelling experiences.
Christine Carlton
President - Australian Storytelling Guild (NSW) Inc.