Morgan Schatz Blackrose International Storyteller

I was born at the foot of the Snowy Mountains in NSW, Australia. I grew up on a farm outside a small town called Tumbarumba (a Wiradjuri word meaning "sounding ground"). I now live on the East coast of Australia and for the past 22 years have worked as a professional storyteller, writer and educator. My stories have taken me to schools, hospitals, libraries, homes, festivals and conferences in Australia and overseas. I tell stories to celebrate our diversity, impart a sense of wonder in our being but also because storytelling is fun. My primary purpose is to get everyone sharing their stories, so as well as performing I run professional development and diversity workshops for educators, and storytelling workshops for primary and secondary school students. I am passionate about the role of folktales as a powerful teaching tool in fostering cultural identity and forging tolerance between cultures, in addition to being an entertaining medium for the transmission of global cultural values. All of my programmes include traditional tales from the country where I am telling. My other storytelling focus is training early childhood professionals in storytelling, so that their storytimes and language programmes are inclusive, multi-cultural and interactive.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. Albert Einstein