[Music]
the project I’m going to tell you about
tonight sits firmly at the crossroads
where we are today both as a nation and
internationally the intercultural
storytelling project is designed to
bring cultures together I can see that
you’re probably looking at the
subheading at the bottom of the screen
and thinking is he serious banter can
change the world now we know that Irish
people know particularly after a couple
of points we solve all the world’s
problems and then go home and then we
wake up the next morning and find that
they’re still there but banter and
stories and yarns are at the center of
who we are as human beings and what we
do the giant of cognitive psychology
Jerome Bruner famously said that
narrative is the way we organize human
events and make sense of them Barbara
Hardy the poet and literary scholar went
further we dream in narrative with a
dream and narrative we grieve in
narrative we criticize in narrative we
love and we hate and so on all of these
human events are organized in stories
every day you’re doing it Hill walked in
when I was overtired you’re today only
and the narrative begins and we organize
our lives around these we make sense of
it
we are story beings the intercultural
storytelling project harnesses that
human superpower to build bridges
between communities and this is what
we’re trying to do with the project this
is map of Dublin from the 2011 census
we’ve not one available from the 2016
but it won’t change that much the dark
red pockets represents the population in
terms of Irish on an irish-born the non
Irish born at the darker pockets up to
if you get the darker pockets you have
seven out of ten in population
are non Irish born in some areas in
Dublin so this is a stark new reality
that Irish people are having to come to
terms with and the people who are
arriving are coming to terms with as
well I did my research in one of the
darker pockets my doctoral research in
tala in Dublin and I was very interested
in the lived experiences of the new
Irish that were coming in what I did in
this research was I got them to tell
stories not myths or legends or fairy
tales
I wanted their life stories so I was
using their life stories to understand
what was happening with them at the same
time and I’m an applied linguist which
means I’m interested in how people learn
languages I was interested in building
up their literacy true the same stories
so we have two things happening there at
the same time and what these stories
revealed when I was collecting them
where and there are other many other
researchers in the world doing similar
we call it narrative inquiry narrative
inquiry is simply looking at people’s
stories in trying to understand their
lives what came back out and stories was
postcards from the edge of social
exclusion so we had particular groups
among these people women there was a big
gender element women we’re managing
women we called build bridge builders in
terms of moving into new countries and
setting up new lives women are at the
forefront they have their families
they’re the carers so you had women
caring for extensive families one woman
was caring for a 90 year old
mother-in-law and her grandchild and the
rest of the family meanwhile holding
down a job and she was slipping into the
local library into the children’s
section to learn English so you have
these people that are on the edge and
struggling to make sense of a new social
system so you have people that are
trying to make sense of a new
educational system for their children
trying to make sense of how do I talk to
a doctor in the language I don’t know
how do I talk to my teachers at the
child of my teacher a teacher of my
child dollar and all of those social
systems that are new they are parachuted
into a new social
also we imagine that these communities
and I’m sure there may be some people
among the communities here tonight we
imagine that there are homogeneous whole
that somehow all of the Polish people
know each other and all of Chinese
people are hanging out together over
there and all of the kind of a little
affiant over here and they’re all cool
together and everything’s happening it’s
cool in my research this turned out not
to be always a case one Chinese lady I
was talking to we have a big Chinese New
Year Festival in Dublin she had been in
Dublin for four years I said so you go
to the Chinese New Year’s had never
heard of it I said so do you socialize
outside your family nope so the only two
or three people she was socializing with
were a husband to her child and her
mother-in-law so what we have here are
people who are said I have separated
from the host community which is oz or
Ireland but also segregated from their
own community so we have what’s called a
double dislocation which is a double
separation they’re separated doubly and
this is quite challenging while all this
is happening with our new communities
and only to some members of it we must
be clear some people are very happily
settled in and say and integrated and
it’s all gone well but there are people
I’ve met that aren’t it isn’t going well
but while all that’s happening in the
communities themselves more settled
members let’s call them of the
communities they’re kind of suffering a
little bit of a siege and it’s been
research into this particularly in
Dublin they’ve kind of done research
with the people of local communities and
they feel a little bit under pressure
you could almost say there’s a certain
amount of social exclusion for them as
well if you wanted to push it far enough
and they have a mistrust of newcomers so
these two things are happening happening
obviously contemporaneously and I was
looking for a way when I had worked with
my margaret’s I thought okay we can use
these stories in another way how can we
get the stories could we put them
together with members of local community
and get both of them to share their
lived experiences and how would that
work how would
be able to do that I’d built a model
based on our newcomers would it work
with us would we be able to sit down
with them and share those stories and I
tried it out this is the kitchen of a
small community center in Dublin the
Barbara Ward community center in Dublin
tree which is one of those pockets where
you have up to seven out of ten people
that may not be born in Ireland and this
is a Kaplan and a JIT sitting down there
and other people now I tried this out I
said okay let’s put them down and see if
we can get stories together so what’s
happening here is Catalan is telling her
story to a deity in the foreground a
dude is taking notes of her story and
Catalan does the same about his story so
they are co-authoring or co-writing
their stories they go home with the
notes they’ve taken they write it out
and then they come back the next week
read what’s happened to week before
examine and make sure it’s all okay
now what’s happening here what
intercultural storytelling does is it’s
community building to start off with it
is building up the people from the new
communities it’s building up their
literacy and their English language
skills quite powerfully actually and for
the people of the more settled community
it is informing them of the lived
experience of the person in front of
them what happens from that is these two
people then go back into their
communities such as they are and they
relate oh the other Jay I’ve met a cheat
and he told me this story and you know
and it was really amazing and so it’s
it’s bleeding back into the communities
into both communities for a start and
this work what kind of hitting two birds
with one stone here
so that’s social exclusion on the one
side from our new Irish friends and the
kind of mistrust and siege of our local
community we’re kind of tearing that
apart we’re disrupting it and it’s very
simple to administer this storytelling
themes are given out every week so I
give them this storytelling this
ticular cycle went on for 12 weeks and
we would meet for two hours and it’s
nice because it’s a kitchen if anybody
wants to try this out I would recommend
the kitchen the kitchen is where all the
stories were told when I grew up
everything happened in the kitchen all
the stories in the family from other
people that saw they all come into the
kitchen and always happened there and
what happened then is you have a very
powerful moment happening when two
people sit down for two hours a week and
listen and record each other’s stories a
very powerful bond builds up between
them for a start it’s something we
probably don’t do enough a lot of him in
the modern world is listen we’re busy
talking we’re busy consuming we’re busy
doing all those things but the act of
listening is such a powerful act in this
situation and has a very powerful effect
on the people are involved in it in
those communities I meet people when I
tell them about my job and what I do
they in Dublin going why aren’t you
walking with our people who are you
walking with tab and invariably with
this sort of project I can answer well
actually you’re involved in this this is
you so we are helping you as well you
are socially excluded these are areas of
our city and our towns around Ireland as
well that are socially excluded
themselves that have been neglected for
a long time that may have their own
problems and their own issues so it is a
two-way model and in fact it’s the
Council of Europe the stated position on
integration is a two-way model we I
cannot ask somebody or he shall be into
great widows where is it now integrate
who knows what it’s a two-way system I
have to go and meet the other I have to
know the other’s experience before
passing any judgment and this
storytelling particularly because it’s
biographical and very deep stuff comes
up I remember one of my participants was
leaving this room
and she’s from kabra and doublet Marie
when meet her in a moment I just
well Peter this is like cherub and it is
a form of social therapy I’m not saying
I don’t want to go near any of the other
stuff because that way lies madness but
it is a social therapy where people sit
they have cups of tea and you can see
there are relaxed you can see the quite
vibrant it’s it’s it’s a lot happening
in the room
and we the only expertise needed for
this activity is that human superpower
of Fanta stories and this is Sylvia and
Nasu and one of the frames the themes we
use for storytelling is something called
a bio poem and I might have to go back a
frame there to show you what a bio poem
is it’s not coming up
bio poem is simply a set of instructions
all of our narrative frames – called
narrative frames and I give them the
narrative friends it is a set of
instructions of what you need to do a
topic a theme the bio poem is a set of
instructions about tell me your first
name tell me three things you like tell
me something about your experiences tell
me how you feel about recent experiences
and so Sylvia Nasar this is Sylvia
writing about now Suze bio palm and it’s
called masseuse bio Paul Nasu whose name
means advisor who is peaceful and wise
father of Ahaz husband of phallic who
loves learning English stubbornly who
loves learning about other cultures
around the world who was always worried
about Syria and its people but feels
happy to be a survivor who was scared of
losing dollars he loves he was proud of
his son and of himself for learning
English the hopes to see peace in his
country and no hunger anywhere in the
world who lives in Marino
hasari
so the bio palm starts off with your
first name then goes true those things
about who you are so it’s an identity
snapshot it gives us a quick picture but
quite a deep picture
this was our storytellers favorite
a-team all of my storyteller said they
loved this because it brought them very
close to a person in a very very very
short space of time now they did that is
Sylvia and the Sioux I’m gonna do the
opposite now I’m going to introduce you
to two more of our storytellers Murray
and Merrick Murray is from Barbara wick
where I come from in Dublin and maracas
from Poland and this is murex photograph
of Murray Murray is by upon Murray who
was determined creative generous fill
its partner to Bernhard you’ll love
sunsets early morning at birdsong and
grandchildren who feels exhausted
energized and surprised who is scared of
loneliness ignorance and a universe who
has established long lasting friendships
in Madagascar who wants to be continued
to be creative to travel and celebrate
life he lives in cabra Neary
and as her surname so people are getting
very close in these encounters even
though the first encounter I remember
the first time we did this together
these were people who had never met
before in their lives from different
cultures but yet we’re able to sit down
and use his superpower this banter
superpower tick become close and that is
something that we possibly use more in
our lives this is Lara and kitman hitman
is from Iraq Lara is an English woman
living in east wall in Dublin so the
idea of having somebody local it they
don’t have to be local fifth-generation
table now you know what I mean they can
be they can be people who are more
settled locally so remember these Lara
said to me but I’m not Irish I can’t
travel about you are more settled you’re
bringing the other person into the far
you’re near the far you
bring them into the fire and that’s
that’s the way it works built into my
stories I asked them to reflect on their
stories and opinion one of the teams I
gave and it’s a look can you tell me I
wanted to know what was happening with
them what was happening in their telling
what was happening in them inside their
telling because I couldn’t always
eavesdrop on it and kitman here this is
Kidman’s feedback and of course for
somebody who’s learning English this is
a very powerful way of improving your
language skills and your literacy skills
but also kitman
uses an interesting word here is
socialized and this is exactly what what
we were aiming at trying to socialize
people and learning from friends stories
because stories are the way we learn
very simply so all of this was happening
other impacts that have come out of the
intercultural storytelling experience
are and it’s spreading it’s spreading
pretty quickly because it’s so simple to
do
Dublin City University the intercultural
factory faculty dr. Veronica Crosby
having found out about this came to me
and set up an intercultural storytelling
in Dublin City University
she took 25 refugees from Bosnia and
these people are really isolated here
were into real social exclusion and
brought them into took the campus of
Dublin City University which is the
first University of sanctuary in Ireland
I think America’s just becoming
University of sanctuary and if we did
the storytelling with them and you can
imagine if you’re stuck out in Bosnia
and suddenly you go in and this happens
you can imagine the impact that’s
happening both on the people that are
being brought out of direct provision
but also the people that meet them so
that’s that two-way model that human
superpower at work other impacts are
near McArdle opened on dark very very
cleverly put the storytelling together
with photography about the new Irish in
Dundalk and then put on an exhibition
which again is pushing it out into the
community so here we are this is what we
want it happens in the room we wanted to
happen outside the room as well so
that’s happening the interfaith forum in
Dublin
approached me and they now want to use
it among young people of diverse faiths
so they can build up tolerance and
understand me between their diverse
beliefs and that’s and I have a meeting
next week with it with Adrian from there
to pay for him I’m gonna push that
forward after I gave a talk about this
in Dublin one lady came up to me who was
working with recovering addicts and she
said well this looks like something I
could use so it’s a it’s it’s an
adaptable – it is very powerful tool as
well a very obvious one I think why
haven’t we thought about this before why
wasn’t I doing this 40 years ago or well
many years ago and it solves a problem
in a very very simple way so I’ll ask
you to leave you with you can change it
into fate into human inter-cultural
anywhere you want if you see somewhere
you need understanding all of the tools
are available on our website and you can
get it to Ted and be use that super
power of banter to change the world
thank you
[Applause]
the project I’m going to tell you about
tonight sits firmly at the crossroads
where we are today both as a nation and
internationally the intercultural
storytelling project is designed to
bring cultures together I can see that
you’re probably looking at the
subheading at the bottom of the screen
and thinking is he serious banter can
change the world now we know that Irish
people know particularly after a couple
of points we solve all the world’s
problems and then go home and then we
wake up the next morning and find that
they’re still there but banter and
stories and yarns are at the center of
who we are as human beings and what we
do the giant of cognitive psychology
Jerome Bruner famously said that
narrative is the way we organize human
events and make sense of them Barbara
Hardy the poet and literary scholar went
further we dream in narrative with a
dream and narrative we grieve in
narrative we criticize in narrative we
love and we hate and so on all of these
human events are organized in stories
every day you’re doing it Hill walked in
when I was overtired you’re today only
and the narrative begins and we organize
our lives around these we make sense of
it
we are story beings the intercultural
storytelling project harnesses that
human superpower to build bridges
between communities and this is what
we’re trying to do with the project this
is map of Dublin from the 2011 census
we’ve not one available from the 2016
but it won’t change that much the dark
red pockets represents the population in
terms of Irish on an irish-born the non
Irish born at the darker pockets up to
if you get the darker pockets you have
seven out of ten in population
are non Irish born in some areas in
Dublin so this is a stark new reality
that Irish people are having to come to
terms with and the people who are
arriving are coming to terms with as
well I did my research in one of the
darker pockets my doctoral research in
tala in Dublin and I was very interested
in the lived experiences of the new
Irish that were coming in what I did in
this research was I got them to tell
stories not myths or legends or fairy
tales
I wanted their life stories so I was
using their life stories to understand
what was happening with them at the same
time and I’m an applied linguist which
means I’m interested in how people learn
languages I was interested in building
up their literacy true the same stories
so we have two things happening there at
the same time and what these stories
revealed when I was collecting them
where and there are other many other
researchers in the world doing similar
we call it narrative inquiry narrative
inquiry is simply looking at people’s
stories in trying to understand their
lives what came back out and stories was
postcards from the edge of social
exclusion so we had particular groups
among these people women there was a big
gender element women we’re managing
women we called build bridge builders in
terms of moving into new countries and
setting up new lives women are at the
forefront they have their families
they’re the carers so you had women
caring for extensive families one woman
was caring for a 90 year old
mother-in-law and her grandchild and the
rest of the family meanwhile holding
down a job and she was slipping into the
local library into the children’s
section to learn English so you have
these people that are on the edge and
struggling to make sense of a new social
system so you have people that are
trying to make sense of a new
educational system for their children
trying to make sense of how do I talk to
a doctor in the language I don’t know
how do I talk to my teachers at the
child of my teacher a teacher of my
child dollar and all of those social
systems that are new they are parachuted
into a new social
also we imagine that these communities
and I’m sure there may be some people
among the communities here tonight we
imagine that there are homogeneous whole
that somehow all of the Polish people
know each other and all of Chinese
people are hanging out together over
there and all of the kind of a little
affiant over here and they’re all cool
together and everything’s happening it’s
cool in my research this turned out not
to be always a case one Chinese lady I
was talking to we have a big Chinese New
Year Festival in Dublin she had been in
Dublin for four years I said so you go
to the Chinese New Year’s had never
heard of it I said so do you socialize
outside your family nope so the only two
or three people she was socializing with
were a husband to her child and her
mother-in-law so what we have here are
people who are said I have separated
from the host community which is oz or
Ireland but also segregated from their
own community so we have what’s called a
double dislocation which is a double
separation they’re separated doubly and
this is quite challenging while all this
is happening with our new communities
and only to some members of it we must
be clear some people are very happily
settled in and say and integrated and
it’s all gone well but there are people
I’ve met that aren’t it isn’t going well
but while all that’s happening in the
communities themselves more settled
members let’s call them of the
communities they’re kind of suffering a
little bit of a siege and it’s been
research into this particularly in
Dublin they’ve kind of done research
with the people of local communities and
they feel a little bit under pressure
you could almost say there’s a certain
amount of social exclusion for them as
well if you wanted to push it far enough
and they have a mistrust of newcomers so
these two things are happening happening
obviously contemporaneously and I was
looking for a way when I had worked with
my margaret’s I thought okay we can use
these stories in another way how can we
get the stories could we put them
together with members of local community
and get both of them to share their
lived experiences and how would that
work how would
be able to do that I’d built a model
based on our newcomers would it work
with us would we be able to sit down
with them and share those stories and I
tried it out this is the kitchen of a
small community center in Dublin the
Barbara Ward community center in Dublin
tree which is one of those pockets where
you have up to seven out of ten people
that may not be born in Ireland and this
is a Kaplan and a JIT sitting down there
and other people now I tried this out I
said okay let’s put them down and see if
we can get stories together so what’s
happening here is Catalan is telling her
story to a deity in the foreground a
dude is taking notes of her story and
Catalan does the same about his story so
they are co-authoring or co-writing
their stories they go home with the
notes they’ve taken they write it out
and then they come back the next week
read what’s happened to week before
examine and make sure it’s all okay
now what’s happening here what
intercultural storytelling does is it’s
community building to start off with it
is building up the people from the new
communities it’s building up their
literacy and their English language
skills quite powerfully actually and for
the people of the more settled community
it is informing them of the lived
experience of the person in front of
them what happens from that is these two
people then go back into their
communities such as they are and they
relate oh the other Jay I’ve met a cheat
and he told me this story and you know
and it was really amazing and so it’s
it’s bleeding back into the communities
into both communities for a start and
this work what kind of hitting two birds
with one stone here
so that’s social exclusion on the one
side from our new Irish friends and the
kind of mistrust and siege of our local
community we’re kind of tearing that
apart we’re disrupting it and it’s very
simple to administer this storytelling
themes are given out every week so I
give them this storytelling this
ticular cycle went on for 12 weeks and
we would meet for two hours and it’s
nice because it’s a kitchen if anybody
wants to try this out I would recommend
the kitchen the kitchen is where all the
stories were told when I grew up
everything happened in the kitchen all
the stories in the family from other
people that saw they all come into the
kitchen and always happened there and
what happened then is you have a very
powerful moment happening when two
people sit down for two hours a week and
listen and record each other’s stories a
very powerful bond builds up between
them for a start it’s something we
probably don’t do enough a lot of him in
the modern world is listen we’re busy
talking we’re busy consuming we’re busy
doing all those things but the act of
listening is such a powerful act in this
situation and has a very powerful effect
on the people are involved in it in
those communities I meet people when I
tell them about my job and what I do
they in Dublin going why aren’t you
walking with our people who are you
walking with tab and invariably with
this sort of project I can answer well
actually you’re involved in this this is
you so we are helping you as well you
are socially excluded these are areas of
our city and our towns around Ireland as
well that are socially excluded
themselves that have been neglected for
a long time that may have their own
problems and their own issues so it is a
two-way model and in fact it’s the
Council of Europe the stated position on
integration is a two-way model we I
cannot ask somebody or he shall be into
great widows where is it now integrate
who knows what it’s a two-way system I
have to go and meet the other I have to
know the other’s experience before
passing any judgment and this
storytelling particularly because it’s
biographical and very deep stuff comes
up I remember one of my participants was
leaving this room
and she’s from kabra and doublet Marie
when meet her in a moment I just
well Peter this is like cherub and it is
a form of social therapy I’m not saying
I don’t want to go near any of the other
stuff because that way lies madness but
it is a social therapy where people sit
they have cups of tea and you can see
there are relaxed you can see the quite
vibrant it’s it’s it’s a lot happening
in the room
and we the only expertise needed for
this activity is that human superpower
of Fanta stories and this is Sylvia and
Nasu and one of the frames the themes we
use for storytelling is something called
a bio poem and I might have to go back a
frame there to show you what a bio poem
is it’s not coming up
bio poem is simply a set of instructions
all of our narrative frames – called
narrative frames and I give them the
narrative friends it is a set of
instructions of what you need to do a
topic a theme the bio poem is a set of
instructions about tell me your first
name tell me three things you like tell
me something about your experiences tell
me how you feel about recent experiences
and so Sylvia Nasar this is Sylvia
writing about now Suze bio palm and it’s
called masseuse bio Paul Nasu whose name
means advisor who is peaceful and wise
father of Ahaz husband of phallic who
loves learning English stubbornly who
loves learning about other cultures
around the world who was always worried
about Syria and its people but feels
happy to be a survivor who was scared of
losing dollars he loves he was proud of
his son and of himself for learning
English the hopes to see peace in his
country and no hunger anywhere in the
world who lives in Marino
hasari
so the bio palm starts off with your
first name then goes true those things
about who you are so it’s an identity
snapshot it gives us a quick picture but
quite a deep picture
this was our storytellers favorite
a-team all of my storyteller said they
loved this because it brought them very
close to a person in a very very very
short space of time now they did that is
Sylvia and the Sioux I’m gonna do the
opposite now I’m going to introduce you
to two more of our storytellers Murray
and Merrick Murray is from Barbara wick
where I come from in Dublin and maracas
from Poland and this is murex photograph
of Murray Murray is by upon Murray who
was determined creative generous fill
its partner to Bernhard you’ll love
sunsets early morning at birdsong and
grandchildren who feels exhausted
energized and surprised who is scared of
loneliness ignorance and a universe who
has established long lasting friendships
in Madagascar who wants to be continued
to be creative to travel and celebrate
life he lives in cabra Neary
and as her surname so people are getting
very close in these encounters even
though the first encounter I remember
the first time we did this together
these were people who had never met
before in their lives from different
cultures but yet we’re able to sit down
and use his superpower this banter
superpower tick become close and that is
something that we possibly use more in
our lives this is Lara and kitman hitman
is from Iraq Lara is an English woman
living in east wall in Dublin so the
idea of having somebody local it they
don’t have to be local fifth-generation
table now you know what I mean they can
be they can be people who are more
settled locally so remember these Lara
said to me but I’m not Irish I can’t
travel about you are more settled you’re
bringing the other person into the far
you’re near the far you
bring them into the fire and that’s
that’s the way it works built into my
stories I asked them to reflect on their
stories and opinion one of the teams I
gave and it’s a look can you tell me I
wanted to know what was happening with
them what was happening in their telling
what was happening in them inside their
telling because I couldn’t always
eavesdrop on it and kitman here this is
Kidman’s feedback and of course for
somebody who’s learning English this is
a very powerful way of improving your
language skills and your literacy skills
but also kitman
uses an interesting word here is
socialized and this is exactly what what
we were aiming at trying to socialize
people and learning from friends stories
because stories are the way we learn
very simply so all of this was happening
other impacts that have come out of the
intercultural storytelling experience
are and it’s spreading it’s spreading
pretty quickly because it’s so simple to
do
Dublin City University the intercultural
factory faculty dr. Veronica Crosby
having found out about this came to me
and set up an intercultural storytelling
in Dublin City University
she took 25 refugees from Bosnia and
these people are really isolated here
were into real social exclusion and
brought them into took the campus of
Dublin City University which is the
first University of sanctuary in Ireland
I think America’s just becoming
University of sanctuary and if we did
the storytelling with them and you can
imagine if you’re stuck out in Bosnia
and suddenly you go in and this happens
you can imagine the impact that’s
happening both on the people that are
being brought out of direct provision
but also the people that meet them so
that’s that two-way model that human
superpower at work other impacts are
near McArdle opened on dark very very
cleverly put the storytelling together
with photography about the new Irish in
Dundalk and then put on an exhibition
which again is pushing it out into the
community so here we are this is what we
want it happens in the room we wanted to
happen outside the room as well so
that’s happening the interfaith forum in
Dublin
approached me and they now want to use
it among young people of diverse faiths
so they can build up tolerance and
understand me between their diverse
beliefs and that’s and I have a meeting
next week with it with Adrian from there
to pay for him I’m gonna push that
forward after I gave a talk about this
in Dublin one lady came up to me who was
working with recovering addicts and she
said well this looks like something I
could use so it’s a it’s it’s an
adaptable – it is very powerful tool as
well a very obvious one I think why
haven’t we thought about this before why
wasn’t I doing this 40 years ago or well
many years ago and it solves a problem
in a very very simple way so I’ll ask
you to leave you with you can change it
into fate into human inter-cultural
anywhere you want if you see somewhere
you need understanding all of the tools
are available on our website and you can
get it to Ted and be use that super
power of banter to change the world
thank you
[Applause]
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