Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Storytelling of our oral histories has been carried through song and dance for the Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of Canada for thousands of years. Our word for oral history translates to coming from the ice, meaning that our stories go back to … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country.  Traditional storytelling in Canada consists of different strands reaching back to Indigenous storytelling traditions, European traditions, and other immigrant and local traditions. I grew up in a multi-cultural neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario, where the city’s steel mills attracted families from around the world. As … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country.  Traditional storytelling approaches differ across the country. There are 634 First Nations in Canada with 50 distinct languages. Joseph is Nehiyo (or in the anglicized version is ‘Cree’). On the prairies, storytelling is used as a teaching tool, and certain kinds of stories are … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country.  In many villages and towns now, in Italy, we have storytelling circles. Groups of people who come together to share stories, songs, anecdotes. It was a tradition, in Italy, to sit in a circle “a veglia” in the evenings, especially in the countryside, but … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Canada is a relatively young country. Since the first visit by the vikings, newcomers have steadily landed on the shores of our ancestral peoples, and with these early global transitions came the old customs and the old stories. But the exponential evolutionary process has … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. I live in the city of Toronto, one of the greatest crossroads cities in the world. It’s in the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee people, the First People to live here before others came. The Toronto Storytelling Festival, which began in 1978, has become … Continued

With The Children’s Forest, a beautiful book – co-authored by Dawn Casey, Anna Richardson and Helen Ascoli – Hawthorn Press have scaled fresh heights in its vocation to put inspiring storytelling resources into our hands. There is a practical aim at work in providing ‘stories and songs, wild food, crafts and celebrations all year round’, … Continued

Soon on our bookshelves, Nancy Mellon’s Healing Storytelling: The Art of Imagination and Storymaking for Personal Growth, is an updated version by the superb Hawthorn Press of her classic book The Art of Storytelling. Healing Storytelling is not a primer in narrative therapy, nor a guide for medical specialist. It is about the creative release … Continued

There is no greater pleasure than the power of traditional storytelling taking listeners on a journey of the imagination. The 31st Scottish International Storytelling Festival features 60 events in Edinburgh and 22 throughout Scotland, with 20 international guests joining 60 Scottish artists to share old traditions and new connections, showcasing how music, dance and story communicate shared experiences that are ‘Beyond Words’. There … Continued

‘Canada-Scotland: Coast to Coast’ is the International Exchange for this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (18-31 October). The first leg has just ended with a tour in Canada by Scottish storytellers Jess Smith and Seoras Macpherson, which began at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival where Festival Director, Donald Smith, was also on hand to meet … Continued