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Fifth Annual Canadian Storytelling Night–Soirée nationale du conte

2016-05-03
Fifth Annual Canadian Storytelling Night–Soirée nationale du conte

Fifth Annual Canadian Storytelling NightSoirée nationale du conte

November 5, 2016

What on Earth?
Stories Rooted in Land and Nature

Give us all the dirt, the low down! Dig deep for your stories! The theme forCanadian Storytelling Night Soirée nationale du conte in 2016 is What on Earth?Stories Rooted in Land and Nature.

This year, CSN-SNC begins a cycle of themes based on the medicine wheel. Thefour sections of the wheel each have a colour, direction, and element.

Traditionally, the journey around the wheel begins in the East, with the elementof earth, according to Mark Douglas, an elder of the Chippewas of Rama FirstNation (Mnjikaning), and member of Storytelling Orillia (SO...).

Mark notes that there are many medicine wheel teachings from all over TurtleIsland, and that he follows Ojibway teachings. Mark is a respected leader of theOrillia group that began CSN-SNC in 2012, and which suggests a theme each yearfor the national event.

"Components for the earth element are what we eat, like the plant life, the fishlife, the bird life, and the animal life as well as respect for the land in general,"according to Mark.

This means you'll need to root around and find deep, rich stories for your next or your first CSN-SNC gathering in 2016.

This year's celebration lands on November 5. An event can be any time in theweeks before or after and still be on solid ground.

This national event took root in more than a dozen storytelling communitiesacross the country in 2015, including Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Saskatoon,Winnipeg, Cambridge, Toronto, Orillia, Peterborough, Durham, Ottawa, Montréaland Halifax.

Use the theme, or create your own event for our home and native land. Enjoy aget-together that suits you and is useful to your community, so that it helpspromote storytelling in your area.

Storytellers can apply for funding through Storytellers of CanadaConteurs duCanada, thanks to the assistance of the Canada Council. Please find an applicationin the Member's Area at http://www.storytellers-conteurs.ca.

Post your event the CSN-SNC Facebook page, www.facebook.com/csn.snc. Or,contact Susan Charters, at suecharters@gmail.com, to have your gathering addedto the growing list of CSN-SNC communities.

Canadian Storytelling NightSoirée nationale du conte in late fall gives storytellinggroups a reason to gather at the turn of the year when the nights grow longer andcolder, a traditional time to meet around a fire or move indoors and start awinter’s storytelling season. It can be held as a companion event to WorldStorytelling Day in March, another event that also started in a small way, inSweden, and grew.

Halifax organizer Claire Miller reports from her 2014 CSN-SNC evening:

You might be interested to know that of the 32 audience members, 10 had neverbefore heard a storyteller – new converts! ...I put the CSN logo on the printedprogram. When I told everyone we were part of a nation-wide event, there was acollective whispered "Wow!" 

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