Internationally acclaimed storyteller, Shonaleigh Cumbers has utilised the power of oral storytelling to enable communities to come together to create a new positive outlook. In May 2014, she offered this gift to the people of Christchurch through the workshop ‘Tale, Tongue, and Community’ , held at the Avon Loop Community Cottage. By telling our own story we tell the story of the community in which we live. Places hold the memories of the people that have inhabited them. The workshop incorporated a range of techniques from personal/family stories and anecdotes through to folktales.
After this engaging workshop the fun continued in the evening with Shonaleigh’s telling of ‘The Tower of Bagel’ – an epic tale of terrible dreams, soaring hope, titanic despair and a crib made of pastry. As Shonaleigh summarised the wise words of her mother, ‘Stories, schmories, just tell the buggers.’