Autumn 2021 summary

In the fall of 2021, Storuman, Storytelling Municipality of the Year 21/22, could finally kick off its storytelling year in earnest. After a kick-off on August 29, the storytelling year has taken off with a variety of activities. Here is a summary: signed by Theresa Eriksson, the Nordic Storytelling Center's project manager for the Storytelling Municipality of the Year.

Inauguration of ÅBK
The first inauguration of Storuman as Storytelling Municipality of the Year was held on September 22, 2020, with the idea that Storuman would bear the title during 2020/2021. Then the Covid pandemic hit with full force. Storuman went into emergency mode and planning for storytelling events felt neither urgent nor feasible. A decision was then made to wait and postpone the start of the storytelling year. However, the work of preparing for a new year was set in motion. A working group was formed, a local project manager was appointed and the planning work took off.

On August 29, 2021, the new inauguration was held at Folkets Hus in Storuman both in the form of a digital broadcast and as a limited public event. Storuman will be the Storyteller Municipality of the Year 2021/2022.

The working group
The working group has had regular monthly check-in meetings throughout the year. Thanks to the familiarization with digital tools during the pandemic, the opportunity to meet has worked very well. In 2021, a total of 11 working group meetings have been held via Zoom. The working group has consisted of representatives of culture and leisure, the Culture Academy, the school in Tärnaby and Storuman, the Folk High School, study associations, Sami coordinators and private individuals who have an interest in culture and storytelling. In addition to these, representatives from Västerbotten Museum and the Nordic Storytelling Center have participated. The group has worked on concrete assignments such as a program for the inauguration and to disseminate information in the municipality about planned storytelling activities.

Activities carried out in Storuman and Tärnaby and the surrounding area:

Inauguration - kick-off
It was a two-hour long opening for the invited audience and for those who chose to watch the broadcast online. Everything was recorded and can be viewed here on Youtube " The program offered stories performed by both young and old, music and inspiration for upcoming events during the year.

Stories by the fire
With limitations and restrictions due to Covid, but with a great desire to get started with storytelling, the idea was born to use Tärnaby's absolute strongest side - nature. The idea was to offer opportunities to meet outdoors, around a fire and, based on a special theme, invite participants to Stories by the Fire. Two storytelling sessions were organized with old members of Tärna IK Fjällvinden's ladies club. It was much appreciated and the hope is to continue with this in 2022.

Ankarsund has also had a number of meetings with stories around the fire, and more are planned in 2022.

In Joeström/Joesjö, a storytelling café has been held in the village hall.

Author visits
Several author visits have been carried out during the fall; Kent Lundholm, 35 visitors. Karin Alfredsson, 24 visitors, Carl-Axel & Berit Nordenberg, 35 visitors. Book release with author Rebecka Rhenstedt, who works at the photo archive and wrote the book about Stensele, 18 visitors. Maria Broberg, 10 visitors. During all these evenings there have been many nice stories by both the authors and the visitors, very much appreciated.

Live storytelling evenings at the library
We have also had three live broadcasts with story evenings at the library in collaboration with V8 libraries and the Adult School. There have been between 5-12 visitors each time and many great stories were told.

Poetry as storytelling
The Storuman Poetry and Writing Society has met 6 times and written texts together and practiced performing them. They are planning to put the texts together into a book and are planning a book release, perhaps in connection with the ÅBK graduation.

Facilitator training
As part of the collaboration with the Museum of Västerbotten, Marianne Folkedotter, a storyteller, offers training in how to run a Storyteller Café and what the role of a word distributor can look like. Two such trainings have been held during the fall. The first in Storuman on August 28 and the second in Tärnaby on September 25.

Workshops in life stories
The Nordic Storytelling Center's storytelling consultant Lillemor Skogheden has during the autumn offered a workshop in Life Stories on 19-20/11 in Storuman, but due to too few registrations it has been postponed until spring 2022. Then it will also be held in Hemavan on 4-5/2 and during March in collaboration with the Sami center Aejlies.

Films that tell stories
Kulturakademin has an ongoing film project that they now combine with the storytelling year. Plans for future work have started during the fall. They have had a meeting with representatives of Långsjöby who told them that they have several activities (café, "stickis" etc.) where the villagers will meet and talk about different things. Some of these meetings will be filmed and it will be both informal and informative.

Study associations that engage and inspire storytelling
Medborgarskolan and ABF have been active as organizers and have collaborated on life story workshops, vocabulary training and storytelling sessions in the villages. They also serve as a good resource in disseminating information about the ongoing work with the Storytelling Municipality of the Year.