IMPACT REPORT
A message from the creative team
For many years, up until 2009, I was creating theatre in a school on the Mornington Peninsula. One of the activities I was involved with was a grandparent’s afternoon, and I asked the kids to bring in memorabilia they had inherited or received from their grandparents: cards, letters, clothing, photos. We had things like a copper bed warmer, Lady Ansett’s ballgown she wore to meet the Queen. It very quickly became a way of discussing history and heritage and that history is a living, breathing phenomenon involving and affecting us all. I then imagined turning the tables and rather than having their stories told, having elders get up and share their own stories, focusing on all the things we know Tale Tellers to be, keepers of valuable life learning
Evelyn Krape
What have we done?
Over the past ten years Telling Tales has been staged in the local government regions of Mornington Peninsula, the City of Frankston, City of Boroondara and the City of Casey. Telling Tales has worked with 44 Tale Tellers and reached an audience of over 1200 through their theatrical presentations. Their 2020 Podcast during Seniors Month, was broadcast to community radio stations as well to residential aged care homes, reaching a large audience in metro and well as regional Victoria.
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To empower older people to share their stories with their families and communities, creating meaningful social connections and creating a legacy of tales and life lessons for generations to learn from.
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Promote healthy and positive ageing through the creative arts
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Centering the voice of older people
Increased social participation and inclusion.
Enhanced positive attitude to ageing for Tale Tellers (e.g. life has meaning, enjoying life and having fun)
Stronger connection to family, friends and community
Intergenerational contact and respect
Positive community attitudes to ageing promoted (i.e. challenging the negative stereotypes and deficit models of ageing)
Respect for older people
Peter Harms was a Tale Teller in 2019. We asked him to reflect on his experience of the program and its impact on him. He expressed:
Gratitude for the opportunity to tell a little of my story after 50 years as a GP.
Gratitude for the way I was guided on this journey by the skills of Evelyn, Lorraine and Vivienne. They were clever in dropping hints but leaving us to give details of special episodes of our lives – didn’t really know what the program was going to be until the first meeting.
Gratitude for the friendships made working with the other players (Tale Tellers).
The interwoven journey of the participants was remarkable – Lloyd’s poem and Pham. Tale Tellers Lloyd Knight, Pham Ho and Brian Fitzgerald all in Vietnam in the early seventies.
Gratitude for the confidence given to us all to express our thoughts and memories.
Gratitude for what it led to – Soul Journey after retracing my childhood in photos and poetry for my family after I have departed.