The Linking Lifetimes project is now in full flow and we have been busy collecting stories from both adults and children in Praze.
Becoming Story Explorers
After a whole day exploring stories, in all their forms, year 5 & 6 children from Crowan school have been granted the status of Story Explorers! Armed with their Story-Explorer packs and badges they have been busy collecting stories from people they know. The children have been surprised at what stories the adults they know have, and we have had great fun sharing these in the class. We had the story of a man who hid from German soldiers in a toilet during WW2, a story of a near drowning, a story of someones Mum who was once invited to hunt wolves, a story of the long journey to Hong Kong in the wartime, stories of romance, adventures to Africa… we could go on! It’s lovely to know that the children are listening to people they know and enjoying the process…
The Age Wheel for documenting the collected stories
As part of the story-collection process we have begun adding labels that represent each story to an age-wheel, which is hanging from the classroom ceiling. Each time a story is collected it’s hung under the age of the story-teller, with the oldest storyteller in their 90’s and youngest under 10!
Meanwhile we held our first memory-sharing workshop for adults at the Praze Institute. As many people hadn’t seen each other in a long time, this session was a perfect opportunity for a good old catch up! We heard lots of stories about Praze over the years, and have a long list of people to individually record in their homes. Many people brought along old photographs, and we are very excited about how this project might progress. Praze is a very unique place, with a fascinating history- so it will be wonderful to be able to honor this through the project. It’s worth mentioning that this project is open to anyone (after all we all have stories!) not just those who have been bred and reared in Praze!
The next session will be on Wednesday the 4th November 1-4pm at Praze Institute and everyone is welcome. As always we promise stories, cake and tea!
This project is kindly funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
Love the photos of the Praze workshop – looks like everyone had a good time!
Look forward to joining you later this month for more of the same!
Lisa