2009 Environmental Storytellers Retreat

March 13-15, 2009
summary submitted by Shelby Smith & Fran Stallings
Location: Cherapa Retreat Center c/o Tipi Tellers, PO Box 101, Spurger, TX 77660 in Big Thicket National Preserve
Despite cold, rainy weather, the 2009 Eco-Tellers Retreat proved to be all that was expected and more. It was hosted at Cherapa in Spurger, Texas, by Tipi Tellers Shelby Smith, Tsagoi Jennings, and Jaye Mclaughlin.

Reba and Granville Ott, relative newcomers to the eco-telling group having been introduced at the Gatlinburg NSN Conference, arrived from Austin TX. Fran and Gordon Stallings drove in the pouring rain from Bartlesville OK. These seven hard-core eco-tellers decided to take advantage of the small group. They began Friday night by getting reacquainted, catching up, and planning goals and objectives for their time together.

At Saturday morning breakfast they discussed true-life eco-hero tales that could be crafted for telling, such as Giraffe Heroes http://www.giraffe.org/. At 10am a Big Thicket National Preserve Ranger donated her time to give the group a tour of Cherapa, the twenty acres hugging the official Big Thicket Preserve along the Neches Rive. Donning rubber boots and rain gear, they tromped out through the fields and woods, almost immediately coming upon the highway intersections of the leaf cutter ants. While marveling at the immensity of the ants and their burdens, they almost stepped on a coral snake who was so cold in the drizzle that he couldn’t move. The tour included blooming dogwoods and a toothache tree (Southern prickly ash, Zanthoxylum clava-herculis)in the woods, and the white sand bars of the Neches River. In the swamp, they visited the Storytelling Tree, a towering cypress with an opening at the bottom large enough to hold five people. Hundreds of cypress knees gathered around at its feet like rapt listeners. Along the way, the ranger pointed out flora and fauna found in the Big Thicket. In 2001 the American Bird Conservancy designated Big Thicket National Preserve a Globally Important Bird Area. The preserve is 97,500 acres and was designated an International Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1981. This protected area will provide a standard for measuring human impact on the environment.

After lunch, Fran gave the group a quick preview of the Stealth Eco-telling workshop she will present at the Northlands conference in Appleton, WI in late April. She discussed ways that non-nature stories can be interpreted and understood in support of environmental principles. For example, stories of unintended consequences demonstrate that "everything is connected." Following this discussion, they organized an Earth Stories Concert for the evening. Tipi Tellers had planned to hold the concert in one of their tipis, but in consideration of the cold rainy weather and the comfort of the guests, they decided in favor of a blazing fire indoors. During supper, they viewed a short video that Texas Parks and Wildlife had produced about the small Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve to which the evening's donations would go.
As arriving guests hugged, laughed and talked, the atmosphere was one of warmth and kinship.

The Earth Stories Concert began with Shelby's welcome and Fran's invocation of the starlight in the firelight: the light energy of our star Sol, stored in the wood, is released in flames. She then told Judy Nichols' story of "Pecos Bill and the Prairie-size Rainbow" revealing how wildflowers came to be. Granville Ott followed, recounting a very special young man he took to the Scout hike at Philmont. Reba Ott entertained everyone with a lovely rendition of "All Things Connected” a folktale from Zaire in Pleasant DeSpain’s Eleven Nature Tales. Tsagoi related an experience he once had in nature, teaching him that although the Earth has been ill used, our Mother remains compassionate and capable of healing itself and us. Jaye described the fascinating life and dedication of one of the first conservationists, John Muir. Shelby then introduced a living environmentalist, our guest of honor, 84 -year old Geraldine Watson of the Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve. She explained that Geraldine is a true hero working against all odds to preserve a piece of nature that she loves dearly. Geraldine expressed her gratitude for everyone’s support and attendance at the concert. After Fran closed the concert with Dave Carter's song “Gentle Arms of Eden”, the Big Thicket Storytelling Circle served refreshments and collected $125 in donations for the Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve. Laughter, talking and informal storytelling continued until 11:00 when Shelby finally had to ask the last diehards to leave so that the storytellers could rest up for the rest of the retreat.

On Sunday, the tellers rose to a pancake breakfast and immediately began working. Jaye handed out her extremely thorough report on grants: where to find information on applying, how to prepare a request for financial aid, and guidelines for collaboration. Shelby brought the group up to date on “educator-ese” and how to translate it. Fran supplied some of Oklahoma’s state science standards with which she had been grappling. Shelby explained how the testing system operates and how the teachers are charged with teaching the standards. These subjects will help Eco-tellers get work in schools strapped for funds.
The group then ate a quick bite of lunch and whisked themselves off to the Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve for a somewhat soggy tour. The carnivorous pitcher plants (Saracenia alata) were blooming in abundance and Fran just had to see them! Larry Williams, the preserve manager and a storyteller in his own right, made a special trip to the preserve to give the tellers an individualized tour of the unique flora. The outing began in the Watson studio stuffed with her paintings of the animals, plants and the human scenarios which had been common in the Big Thicket when she was a young girl. The eco-tellers then hiked through almost all the biomes offered in the Big Thicket, on a small scale. They walked through slope forest, swamp Reba and Granville had to begin their journey back to Austin at this point and they shared hugs all around before they left. At the end of the trail, Geraldine was waiting in the multilevel A-frame house she had built with her own hands on the preserve. The tiny house has four levels, including a root cellar backed up to a cistern, and a wood stove whose indoor woodpile is home to her rat snake. She explained that the ancient Greeks welcomed snakes in their houses, believing them to go down into the underworld and report on the behavior of the occupants. She hoped that the report on her would be a good one. Geraldine also showed them her most recent paintings and the shelves that she was installing for her many books.
To chase the chill of the drizzle, the remaining group stopped by the home of a couple from the concert the night before. Tori and John had a fire in the fireplace and coffee, tea and wine at the ready. Again they laughed until they cried sharing stories and a tour of their artistic and wacky house. They create displays for natural history museums and their house is like stepping into one of their projects, only all mixed together!

Back at Cherapa they ate supper, told more stories and critiqued each other's tales around a glowing fire before agreeing somewhat grudgingly that they needed to sleep sometime.

After breakfast on Monday, Fran told one last story before she and Gordon packed up their Prius and moved on to the next adventure. Jaye stayed behind to help Shelby and Tsagoi tidy up and work on tipi poles before heading back to Fort Worth herself.
Everyone agreed that this retreat renewed their purpose and energy, produced momentum and resolve and provided much needed networking, resources and information to tackle the coming year.
Posted with Permission from Fran Stallings Storytelling Website

2008 Environmental Storytellers' Retreat

Report on the 2008 Environmental Storytellers' Retreat summary submitted by Fran Stallings
(NOTE: the 2008 retreat was originally scheduled for Friday 2/22-Sunday 2/24 at Shaw Nature Reserve in Pacific MO, but severe winter weather forced a one-day delay and motel accomodations instead. Thanks to everyone's flexibility, all turned out well.)
Saturday Feb 23

Once all twelve retreaters had arrived safely, we held an introduction circle and then heard presentations about successful environmental storytelling projects. Our circle included veteran environmental tellers, experienced tellers who want to address environmental issues, and a beginner whose connection we still can't explain, but who finished the weekend determined to jump in with both feet.

Larry and Marilyn Kinsella told about recreating the "wood henge" of strategically located redcedar poles at Cahokia Mounds east of St Louis; solstice and equinox stories; and rediscovering the uses of stone blades by hands-on experiments. Gary Schimmelpfenig reviewed a project of native plant restoration at Forest Park with "The Giving Tree" performed by Gale and boys, including a new ending about giving back. A motel can feel like you are anywhere and nowhere, but these presentations, with fine PowerPoint pictures, helped us to feel WHERE we had come.

We then carpooled to Michelle's Cafe in Eureka MO for a buffet and story concert. Sue Hinkel (representing our cosponsor MO-TELL) and Gale Portman (our local organizer) set up a sound system for three sets of tellers, with dessert and coffee in the breaks. Stories were told by retreat attendees plus our afternoon speakers. The energy of this audience was wonderful! We could almost have flown back to our motel.
Sunday Feb 24

When we had carpooled through the snowy countryside to Shaw Nature Reserve http://www.shawnature.org/ for the day, we saw why it would have been wonderful for the whole retreat. Shaw staff had started a fire in the Assembly Center's stone fireplace. Light reflected off the snow into the center's wide windows, no electricity needed. We set up long tables to display books and resources we had brought to recommend to each other (annotated lists will be posted online). Gale set out a bounty of snacks to keep us going, and we settled into a day of intense discussion about environmental storytelling.

The Tipi Tellers (Jaye McLaughlin, Shelby Smith, and Tsagoi) from Texas described the programs they do at schools, pitching one or more huge tipis to "bring a field trip to your campus" creating intimacy, offering an alternate learning style through stories, and making a difference in student attitudes toward nature and each other. Tsagoi, "a recovering mental health professional," said that he also leads weekend retreats for teens and tells "Stories for a Change" for adults. They provide educators with lists of suggested follow-up activities and study guides to reinforce their programs' messages about Respect, Native American culture, and Ecology. They also work through the Texas Touring Roster and Arts Partners, but the cost of bringing in three tellers can be a problem (especially with the great distances in Texas).

During our informal discussions, I introduced my coinage "Aware Care Dare" which I originally composed in the context of Character Education stories and now use with environmental telling: our stories can inform (Aware) and touch hearts (Care), but we also hope that listeners will Dare to change their behaviors even if peers think that's dorky.

This lead to a discussion of Doug McKensie-Mohr's research in "Community-Based Social Marketing" http://www.cbsm.com/. Dr MM has found that information and attitude-change alone do not guarantee behavior changes! In (my) other words, Aware and Care are not enough; but he reports on actions local environmental groups have tried to help people Dare to change their behaviors. I don't know of any CBSM projects using storytelling for the first two steps, but some of us might want to try partnering with local eco groups for the follow-through.

After lunch (during which several retreaters experimented with paperfolding Butterfly Balls to climax a performance--summer library theme is insects! http://www.spitenet.com/origami/ButterflyBall-v.shtml ), some stayed in for a nap while others took a snowy hike with Gale, a veteran guide at Shaw. We saw animal and bird tracks in the snow and visited several biomes in this extraordinary site, which many vowed to revisit when the tallgrass is high (over our heads, judging by the still-standing stalks). During a stop in a high viewing tower, Gale explained how she tells students that the sweet rising sap is "baby food" for the tiny leaves in tree buds.

Our afternoon program featured Jonatha and Harold Wright's programs for 4th graders at a Children's Water Festival in Ohio. In a unique tandem style, Jonatha presented science background interspersed with Harold's historical vignettes of Ohio's Black Swamp and the tragic Dayton Flood, his own boyhood experiences, and experiences in the modern environment. They added suggestions for things a 4th grader can DO to protect water resources. Many of us were inspired by this versatile tandem format for compressing lots of information into an appealing program.

This program triggered more discussion of ways to inspire listeners and convey information through story. We hope to collect information about other colleagues who are telling environmental stories or working with local groups and agencies to go beyond Aware and Care, to Dare.

Two of our weekend retreaters had to depart after supper, but stayed with us in spirit as the remaining ten gathered around a table in the motel to reflect, evaluate, and plan for next time after we swapped some more stories and songs. We discussed the difference between "Environmental Storytelling" (informative andsometimes inspiring, but not controversial) and "Ecotelling" (with intent to motivate change). In other words, Ecotelling is not just an abbreviation for Environmental Storytelling.We had an intense discussion of whether we should call ourselves Ecotellers. Not all were comfortable with the advocacy angle--until Sycamore pointed out that HSA members are committed to healing, and YES members want to see their students learn via storytelling. We decided we want to advocate for change too. We are EcoTellers.

Participants were well satisfied with the retreat. Our goals were met: we had overcome our isolation by getting together to share ideas, resources, possibilities of funding, materials and inspiration. Many got ideas for new types of stories and new formats for presenting them.

Somehow we need to hook the program into school curriculum. Shelby and Sycamore, who are familiar with the language of education, will research the national standards from which all State education standards are taken and will translate the standards into language we could each use when working with teachers, to show where eco-telling fits into their curriculum needs.

Fran mentioned that at the 2004 Conference there was an Environmental Storytelling pre-conference but it had no effect on the conference itself. We discussed EthNohTek's plan to end each Green Grow the Stories performance by suggesting 3 things listeners can do to join the solution and help. This inspired us to develop a Consciousness Statement that we wanted to offer from our retreat, giving the 2008 NSN conference attendees 3 simple things they could do:
1.Bring your own re-usable coffee mug (or refillable water bottle).
2.Recycle your name tag holder from last year and if you have more, bring one for a friend
3.Carry in, Carry out: take your owngarbage home to recycle, if facilities are not offered at conference (but we hope they will be).
AWARE CARE DARE We will print a sticker, a three-lobed sycamore leaf carrying the words "AWARE, CARE, DARE " as asymbol of committing to become AWARE of thefacts, CARE enough about Mother Earth and DARE to take an action. People could put this sticker on the paper label inside their name tag holders. And Jaye volunteered to bring a box of reusable mugs for those that do not bring their own, asking to put it by the registration table.
For 2009:

Shelby and Tsagoi offered their place in Southeast TX (Cherapa) for the next EcoTellers retreat, dates either March, 6-8 or 13-15. Shelby says the daffodils, peach and pear trees were already blooming in Cheropa in late February!
Topics suggested for 09:
o Evaluate good and bad examples of storieswhich are offered for eco-telling
o Find sources of funding and networking tosupport community-based social marketing efforts
o Build several new "hero" tales together
o Sweat lodge
o Help with "translating"educational jargon
o Be ready to publicize the event in advance, and afterwards
o Provide time to be out in nature
o Offer: arrive early and/or stay late.
We gathered in a closing circle and were dismissed with a prayer from Gale and a one-word summary from everyone else.
Monday February 25

We drove off with plenty to talk and think about, under sunny skies with only a few patches of snow to remind us of Friday's storm. Texas weather may be much more predictable!
Taken from Fran Stallings storyteller Webiste

Welcome!!

We are the eco-storytellers and story lovers who will be coming to Yellow Springs, Ohio located near Dayton, Ohio in the Miami Valley. We will be meeting the 2nd weekend of April and you're welcome to attended - fees may be charged at a latter date. Check back here for details.