Sharjah International Narrator Forum brings World Sea Tales
- 24 Sep 2022
Shereen Afifi
Sea has always been mystery and inspiration for tales throughout the ages. These ocean and sea stories remind us of our strength and resilience. As UAE is recognized with rich marine environment and heritage, the 22nd edition of the Sharjah International Narrator Forum (SINF) was held under the slogan of “Sea tales.” The three-day event kicked off on Wednesday and concluded on Sept. 23, at Expo Centre Sharjah.
“Sharjah International Narrator Forum in first place to celebrate and honour live human treasures. This programme launched by Unesco in taking care of narrator’s bearers of cultural heritage, Sharjah Heritage Institute took great care of this category through honouring and appreciation,” said Aysha Al Shamsi, Director of the Arabian Heritage Centre, and the General Coordinator of SINF.
“Every year at SINF, we have new activities and themes. This year’s edition visitor found a lot of activities and many workshops were directed to children and youth. Also we had sea art show called sea chanty that was related to Arab Gulf Countries. Moreover, there were releases of more than 40 titles of books, publications,” Al Shamsi added.
Highlighting the ‘Sea Tales’ slogan, SINF brings to visitors, marine stories from the Emirati, Arab and world heritage. We spoke to some participant narrators, who came from around the world.
Fabio Lisboa, storyteller from Brazil drew attention of attendees while telling stories to group of children of determination at SINF, as they were highly interacting and enjoying the tale, “It’s my fifth time here and just told stories for those amazing kids and we share a lot of different things and they connecting on their own way and I love telling stories because of connection,” said Lisbo.
“Brazil has long tradition of sea tales and music, when fishermen working they usually sing some songs. The shaker instrument I played today with sea shells inside from the indigenous people of Guarani, which they call “maraca” they use to sing songs to make connection and protect nature,” said Lisbo.
Susan Macullough, storyteller from USA who participated for the first time at SINF spoke about her experience and traditional stories she brought from America “we have a tradition of tall tales so I drafted, created series of tall tales. they are fantastic tales told as if they were real happened to someone you know, they are funny, they are bigger than life,” said Macullough.
Speaking about tall tales Macullough said, “I’ve taken that story (The Man and Whale) and turned into time my grandfather and his brother uncle Belly were fishing and uncle Belly sees the moon in the ocean and finds a mermaid who is furious and gives him pearl insisting that this is the moon. In the end, my uncle Belly believes her says, it’s funny how its small down here and so big up in the sky.”
“I love noodlehead stories because we are all really a bit of noodlehead ourselves we are have moments when we do things so silly all these stories are really about us and sometimes something magical happens sometimes mermaid comes even someone in a bad mood and give us gift like moon in the story. Folk tales are really about us children can like them and as adults we can see deeper,” said Macullough.
Denis Assad, a Palestinian storyteller spoke about her participation at SNIF, “This is my first time participating in SNIF, I have been storyteller for 20 years, I bring sea tales from around the world and adapt details to get rid of racism to reflect traditions and give good message.”
Assad also told us her favourite tale from Palestinian heritage.
“One story from Palestinian heritage is about man, his name is (Mahzooz) who wants luck, so he went to magician who told him “open your eyes and see, open your ears and listen, close your mouth and most importantly open your heart,” when we open our hearts we become better humans. I start any storytelling session or workshop with this story,” said Assad.