Storytellers gathering at Trent next week

Storytelling artists from across Canada will gather at Trent University next week for annual conference.

Storytellers of Canada – the country’s only national arts organization for the art of storytelling – is hosting a symposium from July 4 to 8.

The theme of the 26th annual event is The Honour of One is the Honour of All.

The event includes workshops, master classes, field trips and three evening concerts.

Norwood resident John Bennett is cochairing the conference.

He and his wife Betty – who is a storyteller – had a hand in bringing the national conference to Peterborough.

For the first time in its history, the conference has added an Indigenous component, Bennett said.

Storytelling from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens will be shared and studied as a means of reconciliation.

As the oldest artform that’s common to every culture, storytelling must play and can play a role in reconciliation, Bennett said.

Drew Hayden Taylor – an award-winning author from Curve Lake First Nation – is the conference’s keynote speaker. He’ll be speaking on July 6.

The evening concerts include two public storytelling sessions and a one-act play that tells fiddler Anne Lederman’s story of entering the world of Indigenous fiddling in northern Manitoba. The concerts are open to the public and start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20.

During the conference, the organization will launch its 19th Story Save storytelling recording, recorded by Louise Profeit Le Blanc. She’s an Indigenous artist from Quebec, who hails from Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation in northeastern Yukon.

Story Save records the voices of elders from the Canadian storytelling community.

Bennett said many people have the mistaken impression that storytelling is just for kids. And while that is true, the artform goes beyond that.

“It turns out to be very popular with all ages,” he said.

NOTE: Storytellers of Canada’s website is at www.storytellers-conteurs.ca