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Dear storytellers,
I am writing you as one of the organizers of ‘Expeditie Ameland – storytelling adventure’.
Our festival has it’s origins in 2018, when the province of Friesland, in the north of The Netherlands, was Cultural Capital of Europe. On the island of Ameland we organized several storytelling activities as part of a bigger programme. Afterwards both the people from Ameland and the international storytellers that were on the island during the summer of 2018 were so enthusiastic about the ideas behind our activities and the location that they wanted to continue.
Expeditie Ameland is a multilingual, international storytelling festival on the island Ameland, part of the Waddensea. It combines workshops in daytime with storytelling in the evenings.We take our themes from the (stories of the) island and it’s people. Those themes relate to wider questions that are meaningful to others too.
The past few editions we chose themes that are related to sustainability. This because the council of the island has decided some years ago that they want to become a sustainable island in 2030. The 2027 theme will be ‘Grenzeloos’ (= unlimited).
A bit about the background and ideas that led to this theme. In 1777 the Ameland captain Hidde Dirks Kat went on whale hunt near Greenland. His ship and many others got stuck and were crushed in the ice. Trying to reach the mainland most sailors died. Kat and a few of his men survived and were taken in by the Inuit, who, to his astonishment, turned out to be very hospitable and friendly people. People he could also understand even though they didn’t know eachother’s language. (His diary about this adventure is the basis for the central thought with which we started the festival in 2018: we can understand eachother across language barriers.) Understanding eachother across language and culture barriers seems to get more important every day now.
Since Kat reached Greenland climate has changed and still is changing radically. The ice is melting which changes people’s view on the island and threatens the way of living of the Greenlanders. (We already planned this theme years ago and couldn’t know how poignant this would become in 2025.)
The Inuit lived with the ice and the animals around. In story, like the selkie stories, we hear about their very specific way of looking at the place of mankind in nature. The Europeans, people like Kat, already threatend this way of living by nearly eradicating the whales near Greenland. In the 1950’s another massive raid on the whales took place, also by people from Ameland. This raises the question how we can and want to live on this planet. What are we as humans in relation to nature around us? Can we use everything around us unlimited or have we crossed boundaries, thus threatening life on earth?
Through whaling Ameland (and other Wadden Islands) went through more prosperous times in the 17th and 18th century. It took till the late 20th century before these islands became really wealthy. Through tourism. But what are the limits to tourism? House prices have gone up so far that native people hardly can afford to buy or rent a house anymore. How to provide enough electricity, water or food for all these people? In small Ameland thus faces the same questions as we as mankind have to face towards the way we use our natural resources.
With all this as background the central question will be what story can teach us and how we can use story in these times.
Because of the succes of the festival we are making plans to expand our activities. One of these activities in 2027 will be ‘Bootverhalen’ (ferry stories). The ferry company of Ameland has already agreed to our idea. On each of the ferries passengers will be able to listen to short, 2 minute stories in different languages. Stories that relate to our theme of course.
Since our theme takes us up north we are looking for Scandinavian storytellers who like to contribute to this project.
What we ask is:
– a story of maximum 2 minutes in the storyteller’s native tongue
– a recording of this story (recordings can be made by mobile phone; instructions will be sent)
What do we do with these stories:
– all stories will be translated into Dutch, German and English
– through a QR-code on the ferry they will be available tp passengers of the Ameland ferry (who can choose the language they want to hear the story in)
– after the project the storeis will become available through our website (www.eilandvanverhalen.nl).
We hope you can share our question with your members.
For any questions everyone can contact me: info@opverhaal.nl.
Best wishes,
Frank Belt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Op-Verhaal/616016901763381?ref=hl
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-belt-157b5757/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opverhaal/