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