Tell A Tale
Umbrella Project: Lifting Minority Stories in the Nordics
Funded by
Nordic Culture Point
Nordic Culture Point
Umbrella Project Collaborators
Kotte — Sweden
Cooperative 3E — Finland
MiR — Norway
Sláturhúsið Art Center — Iceland
Kotte — Sweden
Cooperative 3E — Finland
MiR — Norway
Sláturhúsið Art Center — Iceland
Introduction
Tell A Tale is the initiative of Kotte as the Swedish collaborator under the umbrella project: Lifting Minority Stories in the Nordics. Tell A Tale centers around oral stories from immigrant populations in Sweden, in connection with published children's books written by national minorities in Sweden. There are five national minority languages in Sweden: Meänkieli, Finnish, Romani Chib, Yiddish, and Sami.
Tell A Tale: The Salt in Hungarian
Leila Natsheh shares a Hungarian folktale, told in Hungarian with English subtitles.
Leila Natsheh shares a Hungarian folktale, told in Hungarian with English subtitles.
Background
Many cultures have oral story and history traditions (for example, throughout Asia and Africa), in contrast to the mainly written tradition found in other parts of the world (for example, throughout Europe). Oral traditions have historically been under-documented, and at risk due to lack of transmission. We chose to record children's stories told orally from immigrant communities because oral stories are native to these communities and more easily relatable to them, rather than reading from a book. Additionally, oral storytelling offers new perspectives on stories, that are added by each successive storyteller, using their experiences, voices, mannerisms to tell the story in new and fun ways. Oral stories carry an imaginative power that is lost when reading from a picture book. They offer the listener a blank slate to paint a picture of the story in their mind, thus stimulating the imagination, learning, and allowing the listener to make new connections to the story.
Status
This is an ongoing project and is estimated to be completed in May/June 2025. Updates and content from the project will be posted on our website and social media.
If you want to participate in the project as a storyteller from an immigrant background, check out the assignment here explained in multiple languages.
If you are interested in participating in the project — as a translator — get in touch with us!
Special Thanks to the dedicated volunteers who generously gave their time to help bring this project to life:
Katka Mazurczak, Kiriaki Christoforidis, May Hylander, Neva Duranovic Sabo, Sahra Muse, Sari Oja, Susanne Redebo.
Katka Mazurczak, Kiriaki Christoforidis, May Hylander, Neva Duranovic Sabo, Sahra Muse, Sari Oja, Susanne Redebo.
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