Hi everyone, It has been a long time since I blogged about our picture-book related activities. Because of my research in storytelling in musuems and my illustrations in ASEAN folktales as well as our my experience in creating picture books, I was invited to be a workshop leader and jury in the picture book contest of the 1st International Storytelling Festival at Mahasarkham University, Thailand. Mahasarakham is the uniersity town of northeast Thailand. Over the course of this 4-day Festival, I met so many inspirational people.
The brainchid of this very exciting festival is Dr Wajuppa Tossa, an extremely dynamic lecturer at Mahasarakham University. She is a tireless and passionate role model to so many of us and has a mountain of experience in storytelling. She nurtured several generations of student storytellers in her university. Here is Thai TV covering the event!
Many of the helpers and translators in this festival are Dr Wajuppa's old and current students. They are effectively bilingual in English and Thai and some in the Isan dialect. Here's are a bunch of us...international storytellers, students, educators, family supporters! There were storytellers and resource persons from 11 countries...too many to name here, but you know who you are...all the people who made this festival a huge success!
The youngest international storyteller was just just 14! She is Jasmine Wirawan from Indonesia and here she is, in full gear, telling wonderful stories WITH HER WHOLE BODY! She combines classical moves from Javanese and Balinese dances, hip hop in an amazing performance of emotions told by hand, leg, body gestures. Every single session with Jasmine brought us to faraway lands in Indonesian folktales. Jasmine plays Princess Kemang in the photogrpah above and this perfromance inspired one of the prize winners (college category) of folktale illustration contest.
Then there was Bima Anggara, a very spirited 15 year-old storyteller also from Indonesia. He worked beautifuly with his Thai interpreter and brought delightful folktales from the remote islands of Indoneisa to the festival. Here, he is all set to tell the story of Matsarasaranee who captured the sun! His story also inspired one of the prize winners (elementary category) of the folktale illustration contest.
This is Agus Rakhman ... an Indonesian storyteller who looks after a community library and also tells stories to children with specific needs. He brings humour across to the audeince effortlessly. My favourite tale told by him is Why Shrimps are Crooked. His Thai interpreter also did a wonderful job.
All 3 Indonesian storytellers presented stories written by Ibu Murti Bunanta, co-founder of Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak (Society for the Advancement of Children’s Literature). Ibu Murti is a great mentor to me during the judging session for picture books and folktale illustrations. She brought along with her 25 years of experience in children's literature and is still super active in promoting children's literacy. Find out more about her on http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/count-me-in-a-lifelong-struggle-to-promote-indonesian-childrens-literature/565500
This is Ng Kok Keong, a Malaysian storyteller who told a story of an orang utan. He did so with a lot of chemistry with Belle, his Thai interpreter who is very much a storyteller in her own right. His friendly ways and passion in storytelling proved very infectious. He brought along international participants from Malaysia and Taiwan. His story also inspired one of the finalists for the folktale illustration contest. Can you guess what the story is about just by looking at the illustration?
This is Uncle Fat from Taiwan..he becomes the story ...he made us laugh, cry, smile, grieve with the characters in his story. And when he started to sing the tribal song of the Paiwan tribe, we travelled together with him to the stone houses in the village where you can find the Bride of the Hundred Pace Snake. The song carried us to the bride who was asking her family members to take care of themselves as she sacrificed herself to the snake. I loved the way he transported us to the faraway.
Check out his Mandarin blog http://blog.udn.com/abi803
Jeeva Raghunath from Chennai and Kiran Shah from Singapore are larger than life! When these 2 storytellers joined forces at the festival, laughter exploded amongst the audience. Whether the story was about rotis or coconuts, the audience was mesmerised by their very animated style of storytelling. Prasong Saihong, a lecturer at Mahasarakham fitted in perfectly; translating the humour and lines with no effort at all. He was also highly instrumental in making the festival a success. In the pre-festival concert, Jeeva even managed to make Thai children tell an English story with hand gestures while Kiran wowed the audience with animal tales.
Here is Shelia Wee from Singapore! Seen here enjoying herself with Dr Wajuppa, they were preparing the audience to howl like coyotes. Her stories on ants also got everyone, including old grannies, laughing. Her enthusiasm shines through her stories ...she is not known as the godmother of storytelling in Singapore for nothing!
The picture cards I created for Red Hill, our Singaporean folktale were also on display! This exhibition was supported by SEAMEO-SPAFA and APCEIU to promote intercultural understanding. All ASEAN countires and Korea participated by illustrating one folktale per country. The illustrations were made into picture cards for use in classrooms. In this photograph, I was with Au a lovely pre-school teacher from Malaysia and Edwin Khaling from northeast India, a rare specimen of the Khoibu tribe. Although we were born so far apart, we could have been brother and sister...
Today, there are only 2500 Khoibu people in this world. The stories of his people are a hilariously wonderful testiment to human values of freindship, love and himour! The traditional costume he wore lent an interesting aura to the story he shared with everyone.
And if you spotted any spelling mistakes, please let me know. I also do not have photographs of everyone, do send me some if you wish!
