I have just come home from a wonderful week in sunny, beautiful Townsville. The dynamic librarians up there collaborate with the Townsville City Council, local schools and various community partners to put together an action packed programme which includes the 'Books North Literature Festival'. Over 7000 of Townsville's students 'immerse themselves in a feast of literary culture' as they engage with visiting storytellers, authors and illustrators. I saw 700 students from Prep to Grade 9.
Townsville has a high population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and so there were many indigenous children in the audience, which I especially enjoyed. Even though non- indigenous children adore stories and listen attentively and delightedly, there is a special deep quality of listening that indigenous children have that makes telling to them even more exquisite. I told 'Gowondo' the Kombumerri tale of a man who becomes a dolphin and 'Kondalili' a Ramindjeri tale of a man who becomes a whale. I encouraged the children to learn stories from their country. Unfortunately it seems there is generally a very low level of access in the community to local Aboriginal tales, even though there are teachers, librarians and others actively seeking them out. Government policies caused severe cultural disruption and those repercussions are still being felt.
I also facilitated my workshop 'Rekindling the Storytelling Flame' with 35 enthusiastic librarians, teacher librarians, teachers and child care workers. We had a brilliant time in the beautiful big workshop space at Thuringowa Library. (What beautiful libraries Queensland has- maybe one day NSW may see at last see some decent funding for our vastly underfunded libraries!)
It was an action packed four hours. We went through my ''Seven Golden Guides to Good Storytelling' ; brainstormed solutions to common problems; discussed the value of folktales; the differences in impact between story reading and storytelling; played 'pass the face' and warmed up our voices and silly muscles by chanting lines from characters in 'The Three Bears', 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. I don't yet have any photo's from the workshop as we were too busy learning to stop for a photo opportunity!
In exchange I was put up in a beautiful hotel, forced to eat at a fine restaurant every evening and picked up and driven to each engagement! Performer heaven! The teachers and librarians treated me exceptionally well, so a very big thank you to them all, especially Shan Boller and Malcom Campbell the main organisers of the Festival.
The collage above represents the things I saw when I went for my morning and afternoon strolls along the popular Strand walkway by the beach, looking out to Magnetic Island- or 'Maggie' as the locals call her. There was a cyclone that hit the Strand decades ago and afterwards it got beautified and is full of beautiful artwork and a delightful water playground for children. It was tough I can tell you! Perfect weather and gorgeous scenery!
You can see more about the activities on offer through the Books North Literature Festival and May Month of Learning at www.townsville.qld.gov.au or email library@townsville.qld.gov.au.
