Storytelling Starters ~ Memory Work 2
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
Back in London, I’ve been walking round my local park thinking about one of my favourite stories. It’s a West African story about the Sun and the Moon and how they got into the sky. Whether with adults or children, I find it a great story for telling. It’s also a highly productive story on which to base a workshop. It gives plenty of opportunities for image-rounds,visualisation, storymapping, hot-seating and other types of workshop activity which can all be seen as contributing to memory work. The story essentially deals with change, a theme which affects us all deeply. It stood me in excellent stead at a conference, now years ago, to celebrate and lament the end of the ILEA, the Inner London Education Authority, when Mrs Thatcher closed it down.
Here’s the story retold very briefly:
How Sun and Moon Got Into the Sky
When Sun and Moon still lived down on this earth, Sun used to go often to visit his friend. His friend was Water and one day Sun asked him why he was always the one to be making the visits. Why didn’t Water ever come and see him? Water said the reason was that he’d never been invited. Sun was apologetic. But when he asked Water to come and visit, maybe even that very day, Water expressed a worry that Sun’s house might not be big enough for him. When Sun assured him that all would be fine, Water suggested that Sun should go and make his house bigger. It wasn’t just him, Water explained to Sun; there was an awful lot in him besides. (more…)