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Voice Within: A Storybook by Storytellers
This podcast narrates to you short stories, poems and letters from a collective of authors. It is a simple cup of tea in hand, or a long drive kind of moment, to truly immerse yourself in a tale or two. For the love of a good story!
Voice Within: A Storybook by Storytellers
Journey Through Nature-Inspired Storytelling with Samantha Rose
Step into the enchanting world of storytelling with Samantha Rose, a captivating Sydney-born writer and storyteller whose nature-inspired narratives redefine the storytelling experience. Samantha's tales, drawn directly from the natural world, sparkle with spontaneity and ephemeral beauty, offering a sensory experience that transcends traditional creative writing methods. Join our heartfelt conversation as Samantha reveals her unique creative process, where stories are spoken aloud, born amidst the flutter of butterflies and the flow of creeks, inviting us to savor the beauty of narratives crafted for a specific moment and audience.
Celebrate the transformative power of storytelling as we share our own journeys, shaped by a rich heritage and encounters with storytelling greats like David Novak and Martin Shaw. From animated family stories to life-changing realizations amidst nature, discover how our passion for narrative art became a personal and communal adventure.
Explore storytelling's profound cultural significance, highlighted by reflections from the Oxford Storytelling Festival and the vibrant interplay between music and narrative. We ponder the contrasting storytelling traditions of the UK and Australia, examining how cultural narratives connect us to our heritage. As we embrace sacred storytelling within communities, we share aspirations for future projects created by Samantha, including storytelling courses and gatherings that nurture the innate ability we all have to weave stories. From the rhythms of life's journey to the sacred sounds of music, join us in celebrating the magic of stories that unite and inspire.
Thank you Samantha in being part of the many special guests who's blood runs with the power of courage and creativity.
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Tune in every Wednesday from 10.30am here on 2 Triple B for Storytime with Simona. We will explore local, your authors and beyond. Short stories, poems and letters will be narrated to you and we will just enjoy the love of a good story here on 2 Triple B FM. Good morning, good morning to you all story lovers out there. I hope you're having a wonderful day and a start of your day actually, and that you're looking forward to today, because I am.
Speaker 1:I have wonderful Samantha Rose in the studio, who has been travelling a little bit and for a while. We haven't seen each other for a few years and I know I'm not sure if Samantha knows this or not, but she's actually one of my muses of why I wanted to begin creating platforms where storytellers could be heard. Yeah, and Samantha's here in the studio. She's stopping by in Bellingen for a couple of days, so I grabbed her and brought her in here to record, and she's been travelling to England, overseas, but she's originally from Sydney, is that right? Yeah, yeah, so Samantha Rose, welcome. Thank you, welcome. Yeah, it's really Samantha.
Speaker 2:Rose, welcome, thank you, welcome. Yeah, it's really special to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Samantha is a writer and a narrator of her own original works inspired by nature. I have listened to many of her stories and, yes, I would say that I feel when I hear one of your stories it's actually of the moment, of what you're experiencing, and you bring the parable of the elements and the animals and the different hierarchies of society coming together and how that actually works. But this was a very long time ago. I haven't had the pleasure of listening to anything since all of your development. But today we're just going to have a lovely chat and weave some music in as well that you've chosen today. But how are you feeling here in Bellingen? You, loving?
Speaker 2:it. Yeah, well, I mean, it's so nice to hear you know how you receive the stories and how you're remembering them as well, because, yes, they have grown but they are so true to that. Still, the relationship that I have with nature has been massively inspiring to me to write. I really feel like I received the stories and I was reflecting with another writer at some writing awards and we were comparing our processes and he was like so I sit down and I'm in front of my laptop and every morning I type some words on the computer and that is my discipline, that's how I write, that's how I create the script.
Speaker 2:And I began reflecting this was years back on my own process. I was like, well, I don't sit down with a pen and paper and write in that way. I'll go for a walk in nature and stories just seem to be spoken to me through a butterfly flying past, or the creek as it's bubbling down the hill, or a bird as it's singing to its mate, or and, and I'll start to see images in my imagination, almost as like scenes. That starts to kind of write itself. So I'm always a bit it's interesting saying that I write stories because in a way I do. But the process is almost reversed. It's like I see them in my imagination and then I will put them together by speaking them out with words. So I'm painting the pictures that I can see in my imagination, so that others can also see them, and then, to save them, sometimes, I'll write them down and sometimes I won't.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like the writing almost comes at the very end for a lot of the stories, which is really different. So that's why it's like I feel like I receive the stories and somebody compared them actually recently. They were like oh, it's like I feel like I receive the stories and somebody compared them actually recently. They were like oh, it's really interesting because you share stories that are original for that particular event or the festival, and that's how it works.
Speaker 2:It's like in the lead up to an event, maybe three or four days before or a week before, I'll start receiving the imagery specifically for that event and then we'll share an original story, not just that I wrote a year ago, but that I wrote that week or two days before, and so it's like speaking what's alive. It's really spontaneous form of storytelling. But then what happens is, once they've been spoken, they almost just disappear. Sometimes I won't even write them, sometimes I'll have a recording of them in my phone. Disappear. Sometimes I won't even write them, sometimes I'll have a recording of them in my phone, sometimes I won't but the the comparison that somebody made once listening to them.
Speaker 2:They were like it's like a sand mandala you know that art form where you make something in the sand and then the waves come and wash it away, and it was for that moment in that time, and you might not ever see that artwork again. But it was the labor of love and the devotion for that moment and those people, and that was the gift and that was the unique co-creation that happened. So, yeah, I just feel to like, I felt to kind of go into the craft a little bit, because it is a unique form of receiving and writing and there is a dream to put it down into a book. But I also sometimes feel like the stories don't want to be written down.
Speaker 1:Sometimes they just want to be spoken and then they'll go away again yeah, so I, what I can see there, what I'm reliving by you telling that tale, because I'm receiving it's like a sensory feeling of really feeling what's going on around you. Okay, so it's. Yeah, I have this same kind of feeling about when I'm in a place, a time and place, and sometimes there's always that person, that right person, that can put and craft the words together of how I'm feeling. And some people are so sensory that they don't have the words. They're like I'm experiencing all this.
Speaker 1:Some people get overwhelmed by the experience, some people are blissed out by the experience. But if you've got someone who's got the craft of bringing that experience to word and utilizing the elements that are around it in a gifting way, in a way that it's not sensationalised, not and I'm talking about TV mediums that are also storytellers you know movies and, okay, books as well, netflix, modern day stuff yeah, they're telling stories, but they're trying to create an emotion that is trying to shock or dramatize or bring into light something that may or may not exist. As opposed to what I hear, what you do and what I know that lots of storytellers are capable of doing is that experience is spoken for the people that don't know how to speak it, but are feeling it anyway.
Speaker 1:And that's beautiful, that there's such humility in that being able to go. No, this was us collectively. I'm just here channeling and I have the courage to tell this story, and then it's gone. It's gone. That's really fascinating. I didn't know that you did that like that, yeah, and it's been developing over years since I've seen you.
Speaker 2:So it's just the more that I do it, the more and it comes with, like, you know, the nervousness or the resistance that I have to meet. You know, the, the, the, the nervousness or the resistance that I have to meet. You know, in any kind of creative craft, to be able to put yourself out there and not know what you're going to say three days before, like, that requires a level of trust. And and when thoughts get in of like, you don't know what you're doing or how are you going to do that, or what are you even going to say of meaning or a value. Um, it's, it's almost refining the craft of choosing to listen more deeply. And how do I become more receptive? And now I have such faith and confidence over years of doing this that, even if I don't know the story the day before, I have such faith that it will come you know, it will just arrive and it doesn't mean that the doubt goes away.
Speaker 2:But I'm empowering the belief in my creative practice more than that. And yeah, I just feel to mention as well that, in because I'm now offering storytelling programs to support other people to write and share original stories, what comes up in the face of writing and in the face of sharing, it's like huge resistance. You know that deep, deep down it's like fear of being seen or fear of being judged or fear of being ridiculed or whatever that is. But what I've noticed is that it manifests in these different excuses that can get in the way of us doing our creative practice. And so I've caught my own excuses or distractions or the things that are stopping me from being creative. And now I'm aware of them and I choose to show up anyway.
Speaker 2:So I'm also empowering that in other people. Like, how do you show up to your creative practice anyway, being able to see what's trying to like pull you off course or steer you off track? You know, because it takes courage to do this. You know there's no script written, there's nobody telling you. Oh, you know, step one, step two, step three, it's original, like being creative, it's like we're using a whole different part of the brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely resonate with that and the refinement over the years of you know, someone's told you or something's told you or it's, you know, an accepted part of the polarity of life, of being courageous but also being doubtful, and it's really we need those polar opposites to. You can either go through the doubt and let it cripple you, through those excuses, which it does happen to all of us. It's not like you know. It could be as simple as you know, getting up one morning and doing your workout, or whatever it may be. There's always an excuse for you know the betterment of your being. But then there's the other side.
Speaker 1:When you do listen to the betterment of your being, if you do go for that run or you do write, you sit down and write or you do tell that story, you're kind of working with the polarity. You know you're working with it, you're balancing it out, you're making sure that one doesn't overcome the other. You know, and being humble to know you know. And then you can go the other way where you're just not humble and you're like, yes, I own this, I have ownership over my craft, I own it. Listen to me, this is amazing'm an influencer, I'm all this kind of stuff that really I've experienced with certain people.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to say it too much on radio, I don't want to actually come out, but it's coming out of me right now is that some people that own craft or own an entrepreneur of this world and I'm talking global, I'm not talking local, I'm talking global think they own that power. You know, because they have scraped away the doubt. But I'm going quite deep here. But what I'm trying to say is is that I totally understand it. You do wake up doubting whether you're walking the path that you're meant to be walking, and that is the beauty of your life, because your life is a story in the making, isn't it Totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Totally so. I would say for each one of us, we're our own heroes, you know of our own adventure and are we willing to live into that? Are we willing to write our own story?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so tell me let's have a beginning, middle and end here, because you've touched on a couple of things. You've touched on how you see yourself in the present moment as a storyteller, what you're offering and how you've taken that gift and you're offering onto others. But where did it all start for you?
Speaker 2:I feel like there's a couple of starting places. There was always the storyteller in me, from what my mum told me that I would be at the age of two, on the edge of the bed trying to read the storybook before I knew how to speak properly, talking about Nokia, pinocchio and Monstro and just trying to animate the story, like giving it back to my parents and my mom's an amazing storyteller, like really phenomenal, and so she was super animated and would bring things to life with costume and plays and we had epic Halloween parties when we were growing up and she just brought characters and energy and life into my sister and my imagination. And her grandmother, my great grandmother, was an amazing storyteller of her life and her adventures. So my mum grew up listening to her grandmother and inspired.
Speaker 2:So I feel quite strongly that there is an ancestral connection to this craft and to the delivery of the spoken word and I often call upon that support, you know. And so when I was, I studied theatre and I realised I didn't really want to get into the theatre, I didn't want to perform, it just didn't feel right, I didn't feel inspired doing it. And I'd graduated and I was with a group of friends, our friends from years back. This was eight years ago, and we'd eight years ago just over eight years now. And so we gathered around in the bush and I was written down for a workshop and one of the you know, one of my friends no, my cousin, she. She signed me up. She said come on, show us what you've done.
Speaker 4:You know share something with Chelsea Chelsea.
Speaker 2:So I went off into the bush and I just decided, like, what am I going to do? What am I going to share for these people? You know, how am I going to bring some magic and some aliveness into this event? And I started to see and feel that there was a story that was wanting to be shown, and I don't quite know how to explain that Otherwise, other than it was as if nature had kind of perfectly laid itself out and there was a beginning and a middle and an end and I could track where a character had journeyed through the landscape and what they'd experienced there. And I was like oh, I wonder if I can take people on some kind of walking adventure where we can walk alongside this story that's taken place and maybe we could participate alongside the character not realizing that that's taken place, and maybe we could participate alongside the character not realizing that.
Speaker 2:That's like immersive theatrical storytelling. But just thought it was a brilliant idea and kind of took it back. And you know I'd prepared the bits along the way and it was New Year's Eve eight years ago and you know, 50 of us got together and we ended up going off on this walking adventure and it was a couple of hours, you know, we went off right into the bush and at the end of that there was something so powerful that united us as a group, because we lived into this story and nobody could quite work out what it was. And everyone was like what was that? You know that was that like drama, therapy, was that? You know, I was like. You know, creativity and storytelling was like a whole bunch of things and something struck in my heart so clearly, it was so strong, and I knew that, whatever that was, I had to pursue it.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know it was storytelling at the time. I just wanted to create a magical experience for other people to enter into and go on a journey, you know, and experience something special and healing and connected to other humans. So after that I went. I don't know what this is, but I have to do everything in my power to follow this. You know, being young and going, you know, if I'm going to devote my life to anything, it's going to be to what I love, and that was the thing that was the most inspiring. And so I tuned my ear and went okay, I'm going to start to record these stories and found different stages and found open mic nights and started to get up in spaces and share you know, share these tales that just seemed to come.
Speaker 2:And I remember going to the International Storytelling Conference in 2016 in Sydney and there was a storyteller called David Novak, who's an American storyteller, and I remember sitting up and looking at him this was maybe two years into the storytelling journey and he just had me Absolutely. I left the room, I was flying on magic carpets and entering other universes and, you know, coming back with different characters and going down to different worlds. And I remember coming back into my body in the room after hearing him tell a story and was like, whoa, like it? It made it that much more powerful. I was like I don't know what this guy just did, but I have to learn to refine my craft so that I can be as powerful of a storyteller in my own way.
Speaker 2:So where was this two years ago. Where was this? No, this was 2016. So, this was six years ago. Six years ago.
Speaker 1:So two years after, ah, two years after your magical experience, exactly, yeah, yeah, and that started my kind of like ears going up around.
Speaker 2:Well, what other storytellers are there in the world? You know what other mythologists, what other storytellers exist on the planet right now? Where does this craft go? I wanted to dive deeper into it and I was doing everything I could to perform in every place classroom, boardroom, fireplace, you tell me. I was just there. I didn't care where it was, I just wanted to practice. I loved it so much and ended up finding out about a teacher, a mythologist called Martin Shaw, who, yeah, is a brilliant author and he was a professor at Stanford University for mythology and he's written amazing books. I really recommend checking them out.
Speaker 1:if you haven't heard of him, how do you spell Shaw again? Is it S-H-A-W?
Speaker 2:Yeah, martin Shaw and I ended up applying for his course six month program over in the United Kingdom three and a half years ago. I was like, okay, I'm ready to take this more seriously. You know, I feel like I've gotten to the point where I can and now I'm ready to learn from other teachers and develop this more. And I was 20th on the waiting list and I was like, okay, you know, might not happen, it, it's okay, kind of like, surrendered that as a possibility and a month before I get a call, I get an email, you've got a place.
Speaker 2:You know, 20 people had dropped out and and then somehow I got into this program. So I decided to relocate my life to England for six months and had absolutely no idea what was waiting for me over there. You know, I landed in what felt like a fairy tale land which is kind of very similar to Bellingen, but the English equivalent, with rolling green hills and winding rivers and amazing old forests and thatched roof houses and stone buildings that are a thousand years old. You know, just the land is full of storytelling and as you come in, you know there's a sign that says Twinned with Narnia and it's got owls on the sign and castles, and you know steam trains going through the valley and just like totally magic. You know, you feel like you're in a storybook and every part of my senses just turned on and as soon as I got there I started receiving lots of stories.
Speaker 2:Like the first week I was telling you earlier, I had a journal next to my bed and in my dreams every night I was seeing stories. I was walking through the land, I was just hearing stories and it was like I had to, like kind of a mad story scientist, just like, keep jotting down notes and had, you know big pieces of paper on my walls just to be able to write down the images that I was receiving, and I just felt so inspired to keep writing, and so I studied with him. And then I realized that there are so many storytellers in the UK, there are so many teachers in the UK, so I did a little bit more study at the School of Storytelling at Emerson College with an amazing man called Roy Galore, and the Emerson College is located where, that's underneath London, in a place called Forest Row.
Speaker 2:So it's about an hour and a half south of London, five hours west of where I was living, east of where I was living. So storytellers are just scattered across the UK and there's festivals designated for storytellers.
Speaker 1:I was following you on many of your platforms, like particularly Instagram platform, and just seeing you surrounded by people that are receiving these stories and you experiencing that. You could just feel it, even through the photography. It didn't even have to be in that room, just understanding that craft and things.
Speaker 1:Totally, but before we go into your. I feel like we've done the beginning of your story and before we go into the middle, maybe we can share a couple of songs with our audience and then we can go into the middle part of perhaps where you are now and where you're taking it and where you're seeing it to go. But we've landed in Emerson College. What was the fellow's name that you connected with the teacher? His?
Speaker 2:name was Roy Galore. Yeah, if anybody's interested in studying storytelling. It's one of the main schools in the world for it. Roy Galore, yeah, if anybody's interested in studying storytelling, it's one of the main schools in the world for it.
Speaker 3:Oh wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and people fly all over the world to be able to attend there.
Speaker 1:So you did a Martin Shaw course that took you to Roy.
Speaker 2:No, I just knew about both of them. Okay, if there was anywhere that I could study in the UK. When I first arrived, they were the two places that I wanted to go and learn from.
Speaker 1:So you really did your you know your gypsy work and you just travelled from these places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and learned from pretty amazing teachers.
Speaker 1:All during a time where they told you not to move, which is amazing. That's amazing that you did that. So we'll share a couple of songs. Which songs would you like to share with the audience?
Speaker 2:We might do two great maybe stand like an oak by rising appalachia and mountain to move by nick mulvey and anything, anything.
Speaker 1:Would you like to share? Why they stand like an oak is just absolutely amazing. But yeah, I love Rising Appalachia and I love listening to them.
Speaker 2:You know I can just have them on for like hours on road trips and while I'm at home. Nick Mulvey I discovered him when I was in the United Kingdom at some of these festivals that I was performing at, and I was just totally in awe of him as an artist and I've been listening to lots of his music and love his lyrics and the originality in how he brings these songs to life. Basically, they're very heartful and uplifting. So, yeah, it's kind of nice that we'll end with Nick Mulvey and go into the second half of the story of my United Kingdom chapter.
Speaker 1:Cool, so we'll play Rising Appalachia Stand Like an Oak, and then followed by Nick Mulvey Mountain to Move. See you on the other side here of Storytime, and we're here with Samantha Rose.
Speaker 6:Stand like an oak, an aspen, an alder. It's in you. Don't falter, and if so, then I got you. Fake it, walk taller. Anything that makes you feel smaller, leave them by the angels of the water, push them up. Push them up, put away your cares, fold them, fold them, fold up your fears. Push them up. Push them up, put away your cares, fold them, fold them, fold up your fears. He said come to this river, give me your arms Lean back. There's nothing to be alarmed of, he said. The more I know, the more I dig and the more I return to myself around every bend. Push em up, push em up, put away your cares, fold them, fold them, fold up your fears. Push em up. Push em up, put away your cares.
Speaker 7:Fold them, fold them, fold them, fold up your fears, fears, fears. Leave them by the angels of the waters. Leave them by the angels of the waters.
Speaker 4:Yeah, ooh, caught up in specialness. I wish you could see.
Speaker 3:That we are kings of bliss Begging for misery.
Speaker 4:We get lost in comparison. Looking outside of me Now, I see this world is unraveling.
Speaker 3:I wonder who could we be? Oh, I don't want to see us lose any more time.
Speaker 6:This moment is a mountain to move yeah, yeah, so moving inside.
Speaker 3:This moment is a mountain to move. Yeah, yeah, so move it inside. Wake up now. Wake up now. Wake up now. Wake up now, cause Marianne is a healer. She had pain on the mind. She said your money's your medicine, but you're sick all the time Cause you got lost in comparison. Oh, you're pretending you knew, but everything you were looking for Was already looking at you.
Speaker 6:Oh I don't want to see us lose Any more time. This moment is a mountain to move, so move it inside and wake up now. Wake up now. Wake up now. Wake up now.
Speaker 3:Wake up now. Give it to me realness, give it to me stillness, give me some forgiveness, give it to me wholeness, cause I was lost in comparison, always pretending I knew that everything I was looking for I was looking. Wake up now. Wake up now. Wake up now.
Speaker 1:Wake up now. Wake up now. Wake up now. I'll be dead again when you come back. Welcome back to our listeners. So you just heard Nick Mulvey Mountain to Move and before that, rising Appalachia Stand Like an Oak. And we were just talking. Heard Nick Mulvey Mountain to Move and before that, rising Appalachia Stand Like an Oak. And we were just talking about Nick Mulvey, because I was just mentioning that I haven't heard of him before, but you have met him at a festival, one of these festivals that you've performed at, I'm assuming, as well. Yeah, and you were just saying about how he's got a lot of followers and he wrote a particular album around a book called buddhica, that he was so inspired by. What was it? The?
Speaker 2:it was something about the ancestry, or yeah, so buddhica, if anybody that's read it is a fiction novel by manda scott and it brings to life the celtic day-to-day life of what it would have been like for those people in tribes and their spirituality and their connection to the land and their dream time. Effectively, and this woman has just reimagined that experience of what it would have been like for them and nick I was, I was, we were around the fire like 400 people listening to him perform just beautiful music and he was just about to launch this album. Um, a new mythology, a new mythology that's the name of the album. It's just come out last year and he was saying that he was so inspired hearing and reading that text and felt such a strong connection to his ancestors that were the Celts or the Druids that he was inspired to write a whole album. And then and he did and it's called A New Mythology.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, he references Mona, which was the sacred isles of Anglesey in Wales, where the Druids and the Celts kept the sacred knowledge. There was the teaching schools and that was the last place for them to fall at the hands of the Roman invaders. So it's just beautiful, it's deep, it's soulful and yeah, just to know that undercurrent, that story of why he wrote that album, is so beautiful.
Speaker 1:And there are a couple of people within this community that I know that are storytellers that are very connected to the whole Druid ship Celtic culture as well around you know the stories that come out of that land. So it's yeah, it's quite yeah, and so basically you were taken on this journey and the beginning was basically it was an aha for you. It was like this is a must. I'm getting so much from this, I'm able to give so much. You know as well of myself and through channeling all these stories, and then you ended up seeking some of the best, if not your path, schools and teachers and things like that. So did you end up going to Emerson College, or was that? Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2:They've got, they've got they've got a three month program like a deep dive immersion, where you kind of live at the college for three months. I didn't do that. I was very tempted, but I did like a like a four month weekend program with them and that was really helpful. I got some amazing coaching by the teachers there and, yeah, just kind of learned a bit more about the craft, about how to craft storytelling, because there's quite a there's so much to learn, I feel like the deeper I've gone into storytelling as a craft, it goes off in numerous different directions and niches and are you telling real life stories?
Speaker 2:Are you telling traditional tales?
Speaker 3:Are you?
Speaker 2:telling folk tales? Are you telling original tales? Are you telling, you know, there's, you know. And then there's the whole coaching scene in the corporate world that storytelling is so big. Now you can, you know, coach people how to tell their real life stories. And I was getting people asking me all different kinds of requests Can you teach me how to do this? You know, can you help me write a speech and weave storytelling in it? And so I just decided, like, what is my connection here? You know, how do I find my way into this? What do I love? And I realized it was that process of opening myself up to receive images, inspiration, ideas, messages and then translate it into stories. And I was seeing, I was kind of based in the local Devon community around where my teacher was, and I decided that I wanted to stay in the land. I was feeling immensely inspired.
Speaker 2:The storytelling culture is thriving over there. You know, bardic tradition is still very much alive and being taught. And what's this Bardic tradition? So the Bards are the local storytellers. That would have gone back to the druidic times.
Speaker 2:So from the very beginning, our ancestors had storytellers, otherwise known as minstrels, wandering bards, with so many stories that they held, they were story keepers, they were story carriers and they were poets. They were musicians and they were very well-respected people and they were poets. They were musicians and they were very well-respected people and they would be welcomed into communities, into houses, into homes. They would be well-fed. In exchange for a story, you know, to enliven the spirit and the soul, to teach them something, you know something from the mythic lands, people really respected the bards, you know, and there's still bardic culture, you, there's. It's amazing just to see that storytellers are really well received over in the uk and not by the mainstream, you know, the majority of the population maybe not, but around the fringes and in the like, in the countryside and in the you know the folk festival scenes and like it's, it's really strong what does that look like in the sense of that receiving of someone that has these tales to share?
Speaker 1:Is it just someone who sits down and awaits people to come and tell a story, or is it something that they are invited to in a household, in a private setting, in a festival setting, or how does it work?
Speaker 2:I'd say that there's everything that you've said and in between, in a private setting, in a festival setting, how does it work? I'd say that there's everything that you've said and in between right. You know. So there are definitely the wandering ones who you'll sit down and you'll get a story from, or the ones that kind of look a bit like wizards, that travel around with little guitars and ukuleles and want to make little magical.
Speaker 4:I can't believe that's a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then there's also the like you know, magical, yeah, and. But then there's also the like you know it's a real respected craft over there and so people will come to the cities you know, to london, to bristol, to go and see these storytellers. You know they sell out these events, um, they're really well respected. These guys have been in the field, um, some of the storytellers I've been going to see for like 30, 40 years. You know they're older, they're in their prime.
Speaker 1:That's such a dream.
Speaker 2:And it's like let's go and hear this profound storyteller reimagine an old tale. You know how is he going to bring it to life in a modern version. And I went to and I performed at the Oxford Storytelling Festival, which was amazing. I did that last year alongside some of the best storytellers in the country, which is incredible, you know, like the Queens and the Kings and the field kind of thing. So yeah, I was really excited to meet a lot of them, like see totally powerful female storytellers, which was really inspiring for me because there's a lot of men and it was just really cool to see like women also in the field and in the craft holding their own, also in the field and in the craft holding their own.
Speaker 2:But one of the male storytellers his name was Nick Hennessy and he had reimagined like an old Finnish story with the most modern use of music and technology and he had his harp linked up to loop pedals and he was creating the most exquisite sounds and he had his drum you know that he was beating, that he'd loop up and so he'd create these epic soundscapes with music that he'd build and that would become really chaotic and that would go down again. And it was like it showed me of what's possible. It's like how the old is meeting the new and how, like, new creativity is being sparked, like so much is is original now, and the way that people are doing it is really creative and experimental and I was like, oh, I can do so much more with this. You know like, how am I gonna? Where am I gonna take this craft? How do I want to grow it and expand it and and do something different with it? So that was really cool.
Speaker 1:So the difference between being there and letting you had fertile ground to blossom as a flower in your storytelling. And you were. You were in a garden of flowers that are exactly the same kind of blossom not exactly the same. But I'm just trying to say you are in the collective. The soil was was fertile.
Speaker 2:The soil was fertile.
Speaker 1:But what do you feel or think about our culture? Because I personally have experienced where storytelling was a part of a particular scenario and then it was dropped off. Can you give me an example? Yeah, I, unfortunately it's a local story, but basically it was before COVID. It was inclusive in an event and then after COVID it just became something that wasn't necessary to include anymore. So this storyteller was a bit lost, a bit amiss, you know, kind of like not understanding where their place was and everything like that, and there was no actual collective to go. No, but we do need this. And can you explain to me what you witness? Explain to me what you witness why Australia in particular doesn't really is not fertile ground, basically fertile soil, for people that really want to tell a story like receive the story.
Speaker 2:Is that too? No, I absolutely love that you've asked the question and, in a way, I don't know if I have the answer, but I'm just really glad that you brought it up because there was something. So just to acknowledge, actually, firstly, that the community that you and I were part of years ago, that was solid and fertile because there was a huge energy of acceptance and a desire to support people with their unique way of expressing, and I feel that allowed storytelling to shine.
Speaker 2:You know, it was like let's hear your story, what do you have to say? And there was a receptivity and an energy of holding and support around that that allowed it to come to the fore and it was received. You know, for years of traveling up and down the East Coast in certain ways, but I noticed that there was something missing and I think you're right about a level of importance placed on the art over here itself. Like music is elevated up, you know to, and this and this does happen in the uk too. You know like music is is on up on a pedestal and the spoken word is just kind of making like a comeback up in the uk. You know like um spoken word and poetry and the spoken word is just kind of making like a comeback up in the UK.
Speaker 2:You know like spoken word and poetry and storytellers are just like on the rise over there. But why does it not exist? Why is there not as much support for it over here? And I think it's something about the fact that we are a, we are part of the colonial empire, but we've almost lost our connection to our ancestral stories. Like we didn't lost our connection to our ancestral stories, like we didn't come over here with our own stories. You know what are. What really are the Australian stories Like? What are the stories that we tell each other, apart from nursery rhymes that we grew up?
Speaker 1:with, and we did destroy Dreamtime in that process.
Speaker 2:So we're talking about white Australian culture here right, because the Aboriginal Dreamtime and the stories of the Aboriginal people are, are strong, like you want to talk about. You know powerful stories, they've got them, you know. But for the white culture it's like we appropriated our motherland england's, like you know, christmas in the middle of summer and easter in autumn and it doesn't really make sense why we celebrate what we celebrate. And my question is where were the stories that connected us to our roots? It was almost like something kind of got cut in that process. And so, because in the land of England the stories are so embedded in the land and the stones and the rocks and they've been passed on and on and on and on, there's a different level of respect there and understanding of the importance of myth and story that never got disconnected.
Speaker 2:And I think, in this massive move that the white population did over to this side of the world, that that wasn't an art form, that came with it. And maybe I'm wrong and I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love somebody to, you know, reach out to me if they know of stories that they grew up with, but I didn't experience that. You know in the same way.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I also don't feel like that movement of coming over here where you know, dreamtime was really quite strong in the rocks and the stones and the rivers and the animals here through the First Nations people, that it wasn't. Also, that wasn't respected collectively, you know, by oh wow, there's a culture here that has storytelling through nature elements and that's probably where it got destroyed is the fact that not only it would have been extremely traumatic, for whatever reasons the people had to move over here. We can demonise a lot of the things that have occurred, but they are still people that had to move from their places for whatever reason they were told to, and also, when they arrived, the respect of the people that were here was not there. So, understanding that we're not going into that, but it's interesting how that receptivity in Australia has been severed in a way Like it hasn't been cultivated no, cultivated yet like it hasn't been passed down in some
Speaker 2:respect and so it's been really interesting returning, you know, from a really captive audience, which I haven't really spoken about how the work evolved in the uk, but just because we're here, it's like coming back and I I told a story around a big bonfire with like 40, 50 people and and you and I we were talking about this earlier it was so striking to me the difference in receptivity between telling a story in the United Kingdom with the people that attend those stories and, yeah, telling a story in the UK and also telling a story in Australia.
Speaker 2:Like you know, telling a story in the UK and also telling a story in Australia, like you know, there was distraction and there was chattering and there was. It was almost like people aren't wired to know how to receive a story over here and sadly, there's a part of me that wants to be able to return here and go and bring the gifts. You know, be like from the motherland and be like. You know. These are our roots for many of us, of us white people. You know, how do we bring that bardic culture over and establish, establish it in these lands because there's so much healing and medicine, this old way of sitting together and receiving stories, but I don't.
Speaker 4:I really hope it changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do really hope it changes and you doing this right, like you raising an awareness of the importance of storytelling and running this channel and having your inst, you know, like the more of us that are talking about it speaking, I do think it's changing and people are becoming more aware. But how does that get cultivated in the culture? You know, to really receive them and welcome storytellers. That time I'd yeah, I'd love to know.
Speaker 1:I'd really love to know and I hope it does change, because I'd love to be able to come back and tell lots of stories here too, and come from a heart space, you know, and allowing people to have the courage, you could create something that may not get momentum in the first few years but eventually, with the right people and the right place, and following that you know that storyline of creation, that you might be able to find something like that, and if you do, I'm going to work with you. Okay, woo-hoo, might be able to find something like that, and if you do, I'm going to work with you. Okay, woo-hoo.
Speaker 3:But until that.
Speaker 2:What would you like to play for your listeners right now? Maybe? We could play the Singularity by the Dry Stones and We'll just stick to the Singularity because the Drystones actually deserve their own thing.
Speaker 1:I listen to it.
Speaker 2:I haven't heard of it.
Speaker 1:I love it, you're introducing me to some new music today, totally.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're from the UK and they don't have a huge following, but their music's absolutely stunning and really inspires the mythic imaginations.
Speaker 1:Is it a fiddle or a violin?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I think it's a violin. Yeah, but yeah, it's a duo. Yeah, and they're just, yeah, their music's incredible, so enjoy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wonderful, yeah. So we've got the Singularity by the Drystones. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:absolutely love that sound, the singularity, the dry stones, yes, yes, um bringing the celtic vibes in bringing the celtic anything gypsy celtic with that? Violin focus. Yeah, I know, gets me every time.
Speaker 1:Totally makes me want to dance, yeah so where are you now and where is your craft going? What are you aspiring to as you develop through time?
Speaker 2:So I actually just made a post yesterday just to kind of check in with what it is that I've been sharing for the last year and what's grown actually in the UK since I've been there. And just to acknowledge where I am now is to acknowledge that for the last year I've been offering these sacred storytelling ceremonies, so opportunities for local emerging artists over in the southwest of England to come together around a fire in the same way that our ancestors used to, in big yurts, you know, with around 50, 60 people attending each one of these and having an opportunity to mark a sacred earth celebration, a solstice and equinox, using the old calendar, nature's wheel of time. And so artists will get up and share, whether it's poets or storytellers or musicians, and I'm holding the event and then at the end of the event I tell an original story that the whole group can get involved in and take on roles and characters and create the ambience which is kind of what you must remember from back in the day here too.
Speaker 2:So these events, these ceremonies, have taken on a life of their own, and it's an opportunity to keep developing the stories and allowing original content to come through that are inextricably related to the land and those celebrations that happen at the different phases of the Celtic calendar, and so I'm really excited because they've been picked up and received by the community in a way that I didn't even think was going to happen or imagine was possible, and so I'm just wondering what they want to grow into. You know, what do these sort of sacred storytelling spaces want to evolve into? I'm thinking maybe to run like a day festival this year around the harvest season, which is like August in the UK. I've got lots of dreams of putting down the stories that I've received. It's been about 200 stories that I've received around about that in the last three years of living in the UK. It's like, what am I going to do with these? How do I best honor them? What kind of book or album or how do they want to be recorded? So I've got a dream of putting together some kind of storytelling album, whether it be an ambient track that people can sit back and listen to, with different instruments coming into support and bring that ambience alive. But also, like a dance storytelling track, you know, that allows people to move with different mythic imagery.
Speaker 2:So there's some ideas and dreams that I'm keeping alive and I think these are going to happen. It's just a matter of time. But now I'm also focused on well, how do? Because there's been such a strong reception didn't think that a lot of people wanted to do this write and tell stories but I've had lots of people say can you teach me how you do that? So I've got now two programs which I'm developing and focused on and offering. One is the Sacred Storyteller seven-week online course to help people write and craft original stories. And then there's the apprenticeship, which is a nine month journey to really go deep into the art form, um, from symbology to the embodiment how do you, you know, use your body?
Speaker 4:as a storyteller to.
Speaker 2:How do you weave ceremony and ritual into your storytelling?
Speaker 4:to how do you?
Speaker 2:craft details, beginnings and endings, and so I'm really devoted to it. I I know that, like over the last what eight years of solidly embracing this craft, I'm just going to keep going and and keep sharing it and keep being visible and keep performing at festivals and keep, you know, the craft alive and and I'm starting to learn the harp, which is really exciting so yeah yeah, so that's cool and my my focus is how do I create space every day or a couple of times a week for this craft?
Speaker 2:you know whether I'm walking or talking or writing or practicing the harp, like how do I hone in even more now as an artist, as a crafts woman, you know, how do I bring that alive in my day-to-day life? That's what I'm curious about and does this um?
Speaker 1:does that mean day-to-day, for you looks like extremely embodied in the present moment, or are you scanning constantly? Are you allowing it to be coming towards you or are you actually seeking?
Speaker 2:it. Yeah, I think that's a great question and I think it's a bit of both, yeah, and that makes the discipline and the practice a little bit, both very freeing and dynamic. But also a little bit you can be distracted because at any one time storytelling research could be going for a walk in in the bush or swimming in the river. You could receive a whole story just lying in you know, the never, never a promised land, and that is like your devotion to storytelling.
Speaker 1:But, have you have.
Speaker 2:You received a story here, being in Bellingen yet there's definitely a strong energy that I've felt connected to that might want to emerge into a story. I've received some imagery since I've been here, so I would be curious to follow that and see what it would want to become and if so, maybe you know there'd be an opportunity to share it, or, you know, with the Bellingen community. I don't know how that would happen, but yeah, yeah, I feel like if there's a story that wants to be told, it definitely lets you know.
Speaker 1:Maybe we should, before you go, get you back into the studio just to record it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see what ones I'm going tomorrow.
Speaker 1:so you see I know, I know you are going to, but that's okay. Yeah, it's all right. It's one of those moments.
Speaker 2:Yes, so so, yes to writing and yes to like letting it come, you know by being receptive, but then also taking action and going actually for this hour in this morning I'm going to write or I'm going to draw or I'm going to you know work with the stories consciously. So I think it's a balance Labor of love.
Speaker 1:Labor of love. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm just honoring you and your presence and I've just, yeah, just seeing you around that fire and then seeing you be you and taking us on to a magical journey.
Speaker 1:And you know, it's not hard to not fall in love with you Like it's really easy to fall in love with your craft and you and what you bring, because you come from a place that is so authentically gifting Like you want to gift it. It's not like something that you are doing. You know you are doing because you know it's actually something that's so alive and it runs throughout your whole cell system. I've seen you, I've seen you, I've seen you perform, I've seen you be you. I've seen you be vulnerable. I've seen you being happy. I've seen you hold space. I've seen you on different not as close as some people in the tribe I, I'm sure and family, but I've always admired you and you've been such a muse to me as well to be able to I mean for me. I created this platform for people like you. I created it because it was so strong that storytelling needs to be alive and yeah, so thank you for doing what you do. I really admire you so much.
Speaker 2:Thanks, honey, and thank you for doing what you're like. Thank you for giving people a platform to speak and share so we can all tune in and listen. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1:And we shouldn't be. I think we should really evolve away from thinking that we're too much by being authentic or we're too much for wanting to to be seen. It's okay, you know.
Speaker 2:It's okay to be seen in your beauty, of you know of, of whatever you've got to offer people in the world, and it is so more than okay, it's like desperately needed more than ever you know, and so it's like I would just encourage anybody who's feeling it you know, or wants to share, or wants to put them, just do it you know, yeah, do it and then, do it again and do it again, and even if you're scared, do it again you know, find a space like an open mic night or like an event locally that's happening, or someone that you can speak a poem aloud to, or go for a walk in nature and just speak some ramblings that are alive in your heart, like all that kind of stuff matters and is important.
Speaker 2:And we gain more confidence doing that. You know what? I mean so definitely. I just feel like more. I would love to see more people radiantly expressed in what they want to share, cause, yeah, it's one of the best things about being alive and human.
Speaker 1:We do stories. We do stories really well, totally. Yeah, we're storytelling creatures. Yeah, we are. We are, oh, wonderful. So thank you for being here. I hope the rest of your stay is amazing here in Bellingen, thank you. And we've got a couple of more songs. We've got yes, it's you, and Tempo by Marcus Gad. Yeah, do you?
Speaker 2:know Marcus Gad. No, oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:He's a character isn't he?
Speaker 2:He's a reggae artist. Yes, he's young and he's got a band. And when I was in the UK, this was another artist that I saw on stage and I'd heard people say, you know like, go and check out Marcus Gad. And I was like, oh, I don't know if reggae is really my thing, but I'll go and check it out. And he teleported all of us in that dome. There would have been, like, you know, a thousand of us watching him and he was just like I don't know how to quite explain it, except like I felt like I went to reggae church and he was just preaching these epic truths and you could just feel everyone was just absolutely loving it, and I've never received messages so clear in music before and the way that he spoke to my heart was so strong and he was a real inspiration of someone on stage deeply connected to what they were speaking about.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I just I put him in there because he's been a real inspiration for me recently.
Speaker 1:Damn, I miss musical experiences like that yeah so powerful.
Speaker 3:I'm craving that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1:Check out Marcus Gad. Cool so Tempo, marcus Gad. And we've got yes, it's you by Evan Fraser, rising Appalachia and Vier McCoy.
Speaker 2:Is that right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, maybe end with that one. That's a nice one to kind of like temper out. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Well, I hope you've all enjoyed this last hour here on 2 Triple B. I know I have indeed, so thank you for tuning in. We'll see each other, same time, same place next week. And, yeah, just keep doing your thing, and I'm so excited to share and journey with you in some ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so nice to be here and thanks everyone for listening. Yay, bye.
Speaker 6:Bye.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5:Yes, it's you, poised perfectly over this, this overtly lavish afternoon. Yes, it's you where stillness is the only common law, the law of this full Scorpio moon. Yes, it's you, ageless and arcing the stickiness like a ruthless summer call of the moon. Yes, it's you, outrageous, laughing, thrashing, duck-diving, everlasting Touch, the saturated unleavening. It's breathless. It's breathless. I can't keep my feet down. I keep flying cause I'm starbound. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, man, the flow lyrically, vocally, thank you. Sweet summer, little bit spicy Travel. And I see where the colors are plenty, Ancient city where the streets never empty. Inna di block sipping up a minty With the people. I go talk and I share a pastry. Rockin' inna di wall, I go bear a fig tree. What I seen in my scene, history's a victory. All around town. Man, I take inna trip. If I cross inna di road, cup of coin. Man I flip no fear inna way for the path I well lead and I trust inna me, I'm a man of faith.
Speaker 3:I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith.
Speaker 4:I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of faith. I Thanks and a praise to the Lord above, round and around the planet. We are going. So if you drop out of the line and follow the tempo, thank you, discover the heart of the rhythm of this country. Me wonder how them a grow up. This sense Inna me way said the path get rocky when I come steeper road.
Speaker 4:When me pack pack a heavy but a suit, look what is this? Inna the distance I see a green place, so me rush suit fi check this Down inna valley there is an oasis. As I reach fi see what the surprise is. See the people. A come out of dem places and the shining of come out a dem places and a shining a. The smile pan dem faces Make mi see the definition a what wealth is Round and around di planet. Mi a go Getting a di work. A follow di tempo. Follow the tempo. Thanks and praise to the Lord above, round and around the planet we are going. So if you drop out of the line, now follow the tempo.
Speaker 1:Tune in every Wednesday from 10.30am here on 2 TripleB for Storytime with Simona. We will explore local, local, your authors and beyond. Short stories, poems and letters will be narrated to you and we will just enjoy the love of a good story here on two triple b fm.
