The Biblio Blogazine

I love to read a good story. I love the tangibility of a book — its paper, the heft as I lift and open it. However, prior to that, any story I knew and grew to love had been read to me. 

Other than an audio book, when was the last time anyone read to you, or told you a story? How often in your life have you been exposed to a true storyteller?

Storytelling is a form of oral tradition, which dates back centuries and contains within it not only traditional knowledge, but also a method of preserving the heritage of a culture. It is more than an art form. It is an enduring legacy handed down from one generation to the next, and as such, should be preserved and protected. 

This legacy is a database of wisdom, which teaches and conveys morals and values, as well as societal rules and responsibilities. Folklore unites communities because, “. . . the experience of the oral narrative, of telling and listening to stories, has been a vital part of the development of the body of thought and tradition that has formed culture and united diverse peoples.” (Rocio G. Davis)

In Australia, in the Aboriginal culture, storytelling is an essential component of their society. They relate important information about their belief system as well as educate members of the community regarding societal rules and responsibilities. 

This is very different from the culture I grew up in, for here in America, folklore and folktales have a made up quality that hold no specific meaning or truth to the listener. However, in the Aboriginal culture, stories are more than that, and have been, for close to forty thousand years. It is nearly unimaginable that a culture has maintained such a strong sense of identity and passed this along through storytelling, but it has.

In many cultures, education comes through storytelling. Folktales, music, and poetry teach traditions, values, and belief systems. All members of the community, especially children, learn honesty, kindness, and respect. This is especially essential in countries where education is not readily available to everyone, and where the literacy rate remains well below an acceptable level.

Unfortunately, many of these cultures are facing the loss of this vital resource. It is all well and good to help these people bring up their literacy rates through the building of schools, the teaching reading and writing. However, the downside to this modernization is in some ways detrimental to the maintaining and preservation of indigenous traditional knowledge.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:

The preservation, protection, and promotion of the traditional knowledge…is of key importance for developing countries. Their rich endowment of traditional knowledge and biodiversity plays a critical role in their health care…culture, religion, identity, environment, sustainable development, and trade. It is particularly crucial for the most vulnerable segments of their societies and for indigenous peoples worldwide.

Traditional knowledge, as expressed in storytelling, does much for the cultures where it has been developed and is still practiced. It is also an aspect of culture we should all share and preserve, as in a way; it is part of us all as a society. 

We can only benefit from the richness and diversity it offers, and we will lose much if it is exploited, or worse destroyed.

Want to learn more? Here are some links of sites devoted to storytelling and storytellers: 

• Storyteller.net
• National Storytelling Network
• The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn (Article by Jeremy Hsu from Scientific American Online)
• PBS’s Circle of Stories: Storytellers (Native American)

Works cited and/or used for researching this essay: 

• Australian Museum Online
• Time Before Morning: Art and Myth of the Australian Aborigines by Louis A. Allen
• Dreamkeepers: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia by Harvey Arden
• “Oral Narrative as Short Story Cycle: Forging Community in Edwidge Danticat’s ‘Krik? Krak!‘”
  by Rocio G. Davis MELUS 26.2 (2001)
• Storytelling Encyclopedia: Historical, Cultural, and Multiethnic Approaches to Oral Traditions Around the World by David Adams
• Ricupero, Rubens (Preface) Protecting and Promoting Traditional Knowledge: Systems, National Experiences and International Dimensions by Sophia Twarog, and Promila Kapoor, editors
• Aboriginal Storytelling and Writing by Rosemary Van den Berg
• Wisdom from the Earth: The Living Legacy of the Aboriginal Dreamtimeby Anna Voigt and Nevill Drury