Shirley leading discussion in Darwin August 2010
As all ways Shirley guided us through discussions that she had planned for the event
A report is to follow,
In the interim some thoughts from Lilly from a report she wrote for the NSW Guild. Thanks Lilly for letting me reprint on the blog, her thoughts in italics
Darwin talk fest began with a debrief about each performers experience of the Darwin festival.
As Lilly notes in her report there was different perceptions and approaches to getting to Darwin and responses to how it went. I’m hoping other storytellers might feedback as well and Shirley and Ruth I am sure will be preparing some conclusions from the festival.
Overall the response by audience was great.
The festival began with a number of smaller events that all lead to the big one on the civic park called Under the Banyan Tree. We had a great audience who stayed families and all for 2 hours. All of those involved feel it was a success, particularly for a first hit. Mary and Rosario are completing book week and then putting in a report to the festival.
As a group we felt that joining onto a larger festival was a good thing. There are some difficulties with this. The Darwin festival offered free workshops to schools which undercut us in a significant way. Although the large festival had the crowd, audience access and promotional advantage.
Also on a very personal level I feel it is an advantage to me as a performing storyteller to say I am "straight from the Darwin Festival". The kudos is a good thing for me :-)
The group then discussed the national website/conversation/list serve. Are there three levels? Members/storytellers, members/listeners and supporters and people who want information about events/tellers etc but are not members.
If that is our split then what membership rates should be charge? What information is appropriate for each? A tricky point is the separation between inclusion of profession and volunteer storytellers - significant for SA.
Of course how to pay? We need professional design. Is it possible for all guilds to do a fund raising event to go towards the website development.
Also before it goes to design we need to have all the content as close as possible to agreed level as changes of content take tme and are costly. We need design and then hand off content responsibility to someone (Jesse, Shirley, Daryl).
Christine everyone likes you logo. One problem = different names, mainly NSW and QLD have different name structure which will create some confusion on the national website. Need to investigate if guilds are willing to change and to what. I feel (in agreement with some and not with others) that the guild part of the name should go. One idea was Australian storytellers Assoc- state. Not sure of the process or ramification of each state if this were to occur. The focus was a unified identity/approach to storytelling being taken seriously and into the new age.
The end of the day was spent discussing the idea of a national association. There would be many benefits of this. Promoting and advocating for storytellers. Gail spoke of the national curriculum where storytellers did not have a unified voice or way of inclusion. This was a fantastic opportunity lost that musicians, theater players etc were involved in.
Well that’s it for me folks
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