About my work as a Storyteller…
Leanne Logan
Storyteller, Educator & Author
I have told stories in one form or another for most of my life. I do so to connect, understand and inspire. Magic happens when people listen to a story being told - and that goes for adults as well as children.
In today’s world we often associate storytelling with childhood but, the reality is, oral storytelling is an age-old tradition that people of all cultures have used to not just entertain, but to explore and define meaning, to share knowledge and hypothesize, and to help shape and answer the biggest questions in life. I greatly value being part of this rich, shared, human tradition, and it is for this reason I started Storytelling at Your Service. To weave the known and the unknown. To provide a conduit for curiosity, a space to wonder, and a place where we all belong.
“To weave the known and the unknown. To provide a conduit for curiosity, a space to wonder, and a place where we all belong.”
I have been sharing oral stories and collaborating with children in storytelling workshops for well over a decade. In this space, it’s all about connecting the head, the heart and the hands. Thus collaboration is a key to my work, and it’s reflected in my role as Storyteller in Residence at a growing number of preschools. Whether we believe it or not, we are all storytellers. Creating and sharing stories brings us together, to be a part of something bigger than each of us. Yes, it may feel scary telling a story for the first time, but the world of story soon reveals itself as one of sheer intoxication, where there are no wrong answers and where anything is possible, from the sublime to the ridiculous, the important to the arcane.
In story we devour knowledge, share ideas, grow understanding … and laugh, and cry, and love. Adults are often astonished by the way children engage in storytelling - completely focused, attached to every word, soaking it all up like water to a sponge. It’s as if children have an innate predisposition for story. And when the space is provided for children to actively engage - to get their hands on intentional props and be physically involved - as happens in all my collaborative storytelling workshops, well, the depth of engagement and learning is played out right before your eyes.
The story of my storytelling began as a young child, with limericks - in essence, tiny stories of a mere five lines - that I wrote with gusto for possible publication in my local newspaper. Each limerick that made it to print earned me $5. But the bigger story is that it spawned my desire to write. So I studied, completing a Bachelor of Communications which opened a pathway to journalism - the telling of local and international stories - and eventually a longed-for career in travel writing.
“For more than two decades I combed the world as a freelance author and photographer, writing for newspapers and magazines and, eventually, Lonely Planet travel publications.”
Many have described my job with Lonely Planet as “the best in the world!” Indeed, 18 years spent seeking stories and telling tales of different cultures was a privilege and an honour that I will always cherish.
But, as with any good story, something had to happen, there needed to be a twist in the plot and, in my case, it was motherhood. To my surprise, becoming a parent was an even better – and at times harder! - job than the one I’d previously held. It offered insight into a completely new world – of children, and the importance and value of early childhood education. I reinvented myself as an educator and, upon realising that oral storytelling was our oldest form of teaching, embraced it.
“Importantly, all the stories I share – be they original stories or the retelling of folkloric tales - are worthy to be told and heard, by adults and children alike.”
My Scottish/English/Australian ancestry – and a lifetime of travel - has left me with a foot in many worlds. The common theme of these worlds is place. So the stories I tell are rooted in place – places we are familiar with, places that offer difference. The connection Australia’s First Nations people have to place inspires me enormously, with stories that tell of how everything came to be, the sharing of knowledge, the caring for country and much, much more.
My connection to place leads organically to nature, and our relationship to everything that is home here on Earth. We live on an endlessly fascinating planet, and my storytelling repertoire celebrates this. I have written a tale that honours Australia’s First Nations people. I have stories that celebrate all kinds of amazing creatures, puppet shows that appreciate abundance in its many forms, and songs that affirm the comforts we need to see us through the good times, and the hard. Interwoven throughout my repertoire’s seasonal thread is a realm of story themes – families, friendship, community, belonging, cultural diversity, social justice, emotional literacy, science and technology, mystery, wonder, curiosity, gratitude…
