Colourful Stories
Have we got a story for you!
Colourful Stories is a compilation of tales and anecdotes, told right before your eyes by local residents and professional storytellers. Sometimes funny, often moving, and always true – listen as they share their true, first-person experiences, covering all sorts of topics such as belonging, the environment, a sense of place, and identity.
In the lead up to this special event, thirteen people from the Joondalup region embarked on a series of storytelling workshops facilitated by Centre for Stories. Over two workshops, the budding storytellers honed their skills with the professionals, learning how to share their experiences with confidence and authenticity.
Come down early to find your spot on the grass to see Living Sculptures: How the Birds Got Their Colours and then stay to hear these beautiful stories, orated with aplomb.
Meet the storytellers
Jerome Masamaka is a Ghanaian poet and academic who now lives and writes in Perth. He’s one of the professional storytellers and has a PhD in English and Creative Writing. The two broad themes of his storytelling are neocolonial Black experiences and contemporary ecological problems.
Lakshmi Kanchi, pen name SoulReserve, is an emerging poet of Indian descent and one of the professional storytellers. Her storytelling explores the tumultuousness of love and the complex linkages between history, language, culture and perception.
Natalie Bock is one of our local community storytellers. She is an emerging writer and poet from Perth’s northern suburbs. A Special Needs Education Assistant by day, she spends her spare time engaging in as much creativity as possible. She can be found most weekends at the Peter Cowan Writers Centre, learning how to improve her skills in the company of like-minded people.
Jenny Martin is a lived in several different cities around Australia but is by far the happiest living here in Joondalup, which has been home for the past twenty years. She is a fiercely proud mum of one and a passionate early childhood educator. She loves reading, watching films, spending time with family and relaxing with friends. Jenny’s goal is to go gently through life for the sake of both herself and those around her.
Rachel Farnay is one of our budding local storytellers who has worked in media in Perth, Tokyo and Singapore for 20 years. She now lives in Padbury and has been a high-school IT & STEM teacher for 10 years, which she juggles with writing and being a single mum to two teenage boys.
