Clunes Booktown for Kids 31 Oct- 1 November 2014

I'm very excited to be part of the team heading off to the Inaugural Clunes Booktown for Kids. The theme: A time before Vegemite.

This little gold mining town has a new life as a place famous for its bookshops and festivals. In April 2012 Clunes gained international Organisation of Booktowns membership becoming the 15th international booktown and the only booktown in the southern hemisphere.

Booktown for Kids covers two days - a schools day and a family day. There are workshops, readings, a Children's Village of Lost Trades and more ...

I'll be there with my books Phar lap the wonder horse and Lyrebird! A true story and on both days I'll be running storytelling workshops and shows: telling stories the old-fashioned way.

Check out the website to see the full program HERE

Love the poster!

The Ways of Winged Ones and Women

Thanks to Melbourne City Council Grants, The Dock Library and Storytelling Australia Victoria for supporting a new idea and collaboration.

These are stories inspired by the migratory shore birds who travel the East Asian Australasian Flyway and migratory women from our past.

Thanks to Anne E Stewart for curating the series, Teena Hartnett for being an awesome story collaborator, John Kean for painting the birds for me and my beautiful friend, Christine, who took a few photos.

Out and about with the Kamishibai: Moorabool Literacy Trail 2014

So love the photos, so I have to share. I reckon I have the best job in the world!

Moorabool Literacy Trail, Bacchus Marsh 2014

Had a wonderful day in Bacchus Marsh taking stories to the streets for the Moorabool Literacy Trail. The main street of Bacchus Marsh was lined jugglers, fire eaters, a dog circus but most significantly the trail was peppered with storytellers and readers. The trail has been going for some years and has been honoured with awards. Yesterday over 1300 people enjoyed the entertainment; this is an event where the whole town is invited to participate in the celebration of literacy. 

In their own words: 'The Literacy Trail invites primary and preschool children across the Shire to participate in a number of fun activities designed to promote their love of reading, writing and counting.

The Literacy Trail is brought to the streets of Moorabool thanks to the State Government’s Best Start Program. It brings together local business, emergency services, health and welfare organisations, community groups and local government, as well as schools, kindergartens, childcare centres and playgroups.'

NB Bridge for the Billy Goats created by the Men's Shed. Life is so much better since men's Sheds!

The Ways of Winged Ones and Women 18 September 2014

My friend Teen Hartnett and I are working on the an idea for the Words on the Wind project curated by Anne E Stewart for Storytelling Australia Victoria. I have been enjoying building a small set from bamboo tripods and suspending papier mache, life-sized migratory shore birds from a pole slung across the top.

The Ways of Winged Ones and Women, a weave of folktale, myth and history. Created with the environment of the Docklands especially in mind, this tale contemplates the nomadic and migratory movements of women and birds. Through the air and across oceans, these precarious journeys create webs of deep connection. For millennia, the migratory birds of our wetlands have journeyed annually to the arctic tundra and back again following the East Asian Australasian Flyway. Without instinct or wings but with beating hearts, thousands of women crossed oceans, disembarking in the burgeoning colony to begin new lives, for better or for worse. 

Jackie Kerin and Teena Hartnett are two women whose passion for history and folk tale is contagious. Insatiably curious and delightfully mischievous, time spent with these two is never dull.

Thursday 18th September
Theatre Doors open 5.30pm for 6pm start
Where: The Library at The Dock
107 Victoria Harbour Promenade
Docklands Vic 3008
Getting there:
Tram from City: 31, 48 , 11 (stop D18).
Short walk from Southern Cross Station

Eastern Curlew beautifully painted by John Kean. Not normally sighted in suburban back yards!

The Sydney International Storytelling Conference 2014

I for one, am very grateful that the Australian Storytelling Guild NSW host a storytelling conference every second year. We are so spread out across this vast continent; the conference provides a great focus for us to gather, make new friends and strengthen old alliances not only across Australia but around the world. I think video skills are improving!

Congratulations Claire Saxby: ‘Emu’ hits the shelves

Friend Claire Saxby has launched Emu (illustrator Graham Byrne, publisher, Walker Books Australia).  The shelf I have dedicated to my picture book collection, is starting to bow – thanks Claire! My favourite is always the one I'm using at the moment. This week I have been up to my kneecaps with very young people so There was and Old Sailor has been getting a big work out.

Claire has been steadily adding to the list of beautifully illustrated nonfiction titles available for older children.  With Kangaroo and now Emu, the marriage of her rich text with Graham Byrne’s illustrations is evocative of arid Australia and the monumental animals that the stride and leap through the bush.

Emu was launched at my local independent bookshop Book and Paper on National Independent Bookshop Day. The window is wonderful celebration of Claire Saxby’s achievement in the world of Children’s books.

Kangaroo has been listed as an Eve Pownell Notable Book 2014. I wouldn't be surprised to see Emu listed in 2015

Read more about Claire HERE