Storytelling has been around for as long as humans have been recognizably human. We seem to be built for telling and listening to stories. Since the early days of swapping stories around the hearth-fire, the ways in which we communicate stories have proliferated: First the printed word, then radio, television, movies and now the internet. While our ancestors would not recognize the new mediums of story or the content of some of those stories, they would still recognize their basic structure. Not much has changed there.
Early stories were meant to instruct as much as entertain. The old tales taught people how to live in relation to each other and to the environment in which they dwelt. The current renaissance in oral storytelling has come about at the same time as our recognition of the damage we are doing to the ecosystem. On these pages I explore the connections between the return to oral storytelling and the healing of humanity’s relationship with the Earth.
I have begun a series of podcasts with storytellers from around the world about their experiences of storytelling in relation to environmental education and activism. These podcasts can be found at: Storylistening.
If you know of environmental projects that involve oral storytelling, please get in contact with me:
