Traditional Storytelling in Australasia and Oceania

Storytelling traditions vary all over the world, yet have many things in common. This section is an attempt to gather information on customs of the oral tradition world-wide. Many people today are rediscovering the pleasures of telling stories, after their culture has lost most of its traditional storytelling, yet cannot easily find out much about the countless millennia of oral traditions with all their wisdom and techniques. I hope this site will help you discover and appreciate something of the central role which traditional storytelling has played in most cultures, and in some places still does.

Your help will be welcome if you know or come across any facts or resources to add, current or historical. To begin with I'll be adding bits and pieces as I can, mainly from the perspective of musical commentators. Later on we'll have overviews and this page will split into various areas - this is a big subject!

One thing to bear in mind is that in many old traditions storytelling is synonymous with song, chant, music, or epic poetry, especially in the bardic traditions. Stories may be chanted or sung, along with musical accompaniment on a certain instrument. Therefore some who would be called folk musicians by foreign music enthusiasts are just as accurately called storytellers - their true roles are more profound, as their names reflect: bards, ashiks, jyrau, griots amongst many more. Their roles in fact are often as much spiritual teachers and exemplars, or healers, for which the stories and music are vehicles, as well as historians and tradition-bearers. For instance bakhshi, the term for bard used in central Asia, means a shaman / healer who uses music as a conduit to the world of the Spirit. You can see photos of some of the above people in the Gallery and hear some of them on world music recordings. Also see the Musical Instruments for Storytelling page, for descriptions and discussion.

For genuine initiates of these bardic disciplines, they draw directly on the conscious creative power of the Divine and transmit it through the words they speak and sing. This is not the same as merely 'being creative' or 'feeling inspired', and involves considerable spiritual training. Different cultures and religions have different ways of describing this, though in general the practice is highly secret. For example, for the West African culture of the Manding, who call this power nyama,

“It controls nature, the stars and the motions of the sea. Nyama is truly the sculptor of the universe. While nyama molds nature into its many forms, the nyamakalaw (handlers of nyama) can shape nyama into art. The nyamakalaw spend their entire lives perfecting special secret skills that are passed down from generation to generation. The nyamakalaw are the only people in Mande that can use magic and are often skilled as sorcerers, blacksmiths, leather workers or bards.”

The World of the Mande: History, Art and Ritual in the Mande Culture, and Caste Systems in Mande Society, Anthropology/Africana Studies 269 and Anthropology/Africana Studies 267, Prof. Mandy Bastian (Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA) 1997-1999

But this section isn't only for the bardic traditions of storytelling - all other less formal traditions are part of the picture too, from hearthside informal telling or street tellers engaging passers-by, to traditional dramatic presentations, so if you can offer any details at all send them to me, Tim Sheppard.

Many traditions have spread across neighbouring countries because of old patterns of migration, empires, or religion, so this site is organised by geography. An alphabetical list of countries covered so far is also provided, but for the full picture do read the regional introduction on each page.

By area:

Africa
Asia and Middle East
Europe
North America
South and Central America

Alphabetical order:

Australia
New Zealand

Australia

Storytelling is still integral to the way of life for Australian Aborigines. Stories are used to educate, to explain the history of the land and people, and give practical knowledge of nature. Traditionally storytellers are born into the role, but the role can be earned as well. As with many tribal cultures, there are public stories, but there are also stories that are sacred, secret, men-only, women-only or combinations of those restrictions, which may be used in certain ceremonies, gatherings or initiations. In the twentieth century the white population actively discouraged indigenous storytelling and many important tales were lost, but now Aborigines are struggling to re-establish their cultural identity and vitality without others appropriating or exploiting the stories that carry it.

“Gathered around the camp fire in the evening, on an expedition to a favourite waterhole, or at a landmark of special significance, parents, Elders or Aunts and Uncles use the stories as the first part of a child's education. Then, as children grow into young adults, more of the history and culture is revealed. Adults then take responsibility for passing on the stories to the following generations. In this way, the Stories of the Dreaming have been handed down over thousands of years.”

“The expression 'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of all things', while 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality.”

“Because the "Stories of the Dreaming" have been handed down through the generations, they are not 'owned' by individuals. They belong to a group or nation, and the storytellers of that nation are carrying out an obligation to pass the stories along. The Elders of a nation might appoint a particularly skilful and knowledgeable storyteller as 'custodian' of the stories of that people.”

Stories of the Dreaming, Australian Museum.

“As dusk falls and the bunggul (traditional dance) ceremony gets underway, the yidaki [didgeridoo] assumes its traditional role. A call to people to come together in unity, its age-old sound is also a vital component in the retelling of the oral history of the Yolngu people. The Yolngu are the hosts of the five-day Garma Festival of Traditional Culture [held at Gulkula in the Northern Territory].

Tonight alongside a group of men singing and clapping bilma sticks, Djalu's circular breathing provides the rhythmic foundation for the Manikay: song cycles featureing the various ancestral spirit beings of the Yolngu clans. Music and dance are inseparable: bare-chested, body-painted male dancers in red skirts whirl through the sand, telling stories of birds, stars, rain and first contact with the outside world. Women with white-chalked faces shuffle on, heads down, elbows pumping, twitching sprigs of gum leaves. When things stop abruptly, a great and unsettling 'Whooo!' rises from huddles of Yongu in the audience.”

“You can be a yarnteller - telling about something that may or may not have happened down the street or in the community - but it lacks the lessons. The true role of the storyteller is to pass on the lessons from the beginning of time.”

“For me to be a reciter of stories--no--I don't want to be a reciter. I see myself as a traditional storyteller and therefore, the stories I tell are the ones in which I understand the laws, rules, culture and spirituality behind them--the Dreamtime stories.”

Pauline McLeod, Aboriginal Perspective on Storytelling

Resources

Stories of the Dreaming - A project by the Australian Museum explains about the role of storytelling in indigenous Australian culture, and for twenty stories gives text, audio clips and video clips of traditional storytellers. Elsewhere on the site there is lots of information about traditional Australian culture.

Aboriginal Perspective on Storytelling - a long interview with traditional storyteller Pauline McLeod, where she explains the nature and role of stories in the culture, and the role of the storyteller, both traditionally and in today's challenging climate, and gives advice to people who are keen to become tellers or tell traditional tales.

Garma Festival - Australia's premier indigenous cultural event. Entry is booked exclusively with World Expeditions, and the permits required to enter Aboriginal land are granted with registration. Places for the public at Garma, prohibited before 2001, are limited to around fifty.

New Zealand

The whare wananga of the Maori are professionals responsible for keeping and reciting the oral history of the tribe.

Resources

The World of Storytelling, by Anne Pellowski.

This book is a prime source of information on storytelling traditions around the world, and includes a useful multilingual dictionary of terms. The revised second edition has extra material. The book covers types of storytelling, including bardic, folk, religious, theatrical, library, and campfire; styles of telling, including gesture and voice, musical accompaniment, use of pictures and objects, openings and closings; the training of storytellers, including inherited positions, apprenticeships, and informal training. All these elements are compared and contrasted in cultures around the world, to give an excellent overview with lots of detail.

'World Music: The Rough Guide', ed. Simon Broughton et al, 1994. [Now available in a new revised edition.]

A very large and thorough celebration, by many experts, of the musical traditions and styles of the world. As noted in the introduction above, storytelling traditions are often intimately bound up with music, so this is also a treasure trove of hard-to-find and up-to-date information on the keepers of the oral tradition worldwide.

'Traditional Epics', Guida M. Jackson. OUP 1994.

A huge book covering 1400 epics from all over the world - definitely the most comprehensive reference available, though the entries are mainly confined to the history and summary of the epics themselves rather than the traditions of telling them. Includes useful geographical, chronological, and genre indices, plus a long bibliography.

See the Cultural Traditions of Storytelling section of my storytelling web-links page for sites giving information on various specific places.