Pre-Con with Russell Deal — The City of Lost Stories — In culture change, memory is everything

About the Half-Day Pre-Conference Workshop: Wednesday 23rd November 2016 from 9-12 noon

RussellDealWe constantly rebuild our cultures on the remnants of what has gone before. Who we are now, our identities, is built on narratives that have gone before but many memories fade and are forgotten. The past is readily overlooked until something cataclysmic occurs and the once forgotten is revealed. A sink hole appears overnight in a suburban Bendigo backyard unveiling an old capped mineshaft. A curious fossicker discovers some bones and an archeological dig is orchestrated.

Organisations evolve and often the origins are forgotten and perhaps the initial values and intent are morphed into something quite different. Does it matter? For some communities preserving history is important. But whose history? Is it just the stories of the rich and famous? The winners? And at a personal level what are the stories that have shaped our identities? What has been the legacy of trauma on who we are today? What if buried in our past are remnants of cultural and personality shaping events, that we may suppress or that reappear to haunt us when our defences are down.

This interactive workshop introduces a number of writing exercises, both playful and soulful, that have been used successfully to reclaim and rewrite our stories. They have been used with groups like the ‘Forgotten Australians’, and survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse but they can also be used in a wide variety of ways to interrogate the impact of cultural change on the lives of many people.

This interactive workshop is designed to invite participants to explore ways in which creative writing can un-tap stories that may have shaped our lived cultures.

Three unusual writing activities will be introduced: 6-Word Memoirs, Micro-Stories and Collaborative Story Writing, to demonstrate ways to safely recover narratives of our history and identity.

Participants will be invited to consider applying such written forms of story-telling to keep alive and reframe times of change in their lives.

About Russell Deal:

Russell is the Founder of St Luke’s Innovative Resources and now is the Director of his own freelance consultancy, ‘Metaphors Ink’. For over 25 years Russell has been the prolific creator of visual metaphors that invite people to enter into and enjoy story telling in novel and often life-changing ways. With an academic background in social work, psychology and education Russell has designed, written or published over 60 conversation-building ‘tools’ used extensively and enthusiastically by countless human service practitioners. Russell was awarded an OAM in 2014 for service to social work and the community. His highly interactive workshops are known for their humour and creativity.

| May 2nd, 2016 | Posted in Uncategorized |

One Response to “Pre-Con with Russell Deal — The City of Lost Stories — In culture change, memory is everything”

  1. A great selection of pre-conference workshops! | The Story Conference Says:

    […] Russell Deal OAM: The City of Lost Stories-In culture change, memory is everything hear Russell share more about his pre-conference workshop here in our video interview. […]

Leave a Reply