Entering a new chapter of Multicultural Storytimes
Pictures courtesy of Anthony Cheung
Storytimes begin next week and will offer fun stories read by native language speakers.
It's the perfect place for children aged five and under to develop their language skills while exploring and connecting with both their own and other cultures. Plus, families will have the chance to connect with one another and access important Council support services.
Each of the storytimes will occur fortnightly and will be delivered according to the below schedule.
A huge thank you to our partners. This program couldn’t be delivered without support from Space2b, Better Health Network and FKA Children’s Services and the funding provided by the Victorian Government.
If you would like more information about the program or want to view the most up-to-date version of the storytime schedule, check out our Multicultural Storytimes webpage.
About our storytellers
To run specialty storytimes it takes special storytellers. We’ve partnered with Space2b to hire, train, mentor and support storytellers to provide culturally safe and inclusive storytime sessions in-language and in English.
Each storyteller will bring their own expertise and flair to their sessions.
We spoke with the storyteller running Storytimes in Hindi, Rohini. Find out more about her and her upcoming sessions below.
Meet Rohini
Rohini has more than 12 years’ experience as a storyteller, so when she moved to Melbourne from India just over a year-and-a-half ago, she knew she wanted to bring her passion for stories and culture with her.
Pictures courtesy of Anthony Cheung
When she and her family arrived in Melbourne, she noticed that her youngest child stopped speaking their native language – Hindi.
Rohini said, “I thought that maybe the work that I do will help me reignite the [cultural] connection for my children.”
This experience helped her realise how creating fun learning environments could support children to connect to culture.
Later, when she saw the Hindi storyteller role being advertised on LinkedIn for the City of Port Phillip, she jumped at the chance to apply and to be able to create safe spaces where children from all backgrounds could connect with Indian culture and the Hindi language.
Since being hired as a storyteller, Rohini has completed her training and has begun planning the structure and flow of her storytime sessions. She also participated in training the other storytellers in the cohort, sharing insights on session planning, story structure, presentation, and voice work.
As part of her storytimes, she told us that she plans to tell a lot of simplified Indian stories and mythological tales, use language elements (like counting in Hindi) and incorporate a lot of movement and music into each session – making them perfect for little listeners.
She said she also wants to, “…use the library resources and encourage the idea of borrowing and using the library.”
Ultimately, Rohini wants to make it easier for children to read and speak in Hindi and help parents and carers learn how to bring the fun of reading in another language home with them.
One thing that Rohini is especially excited about, is doing more community outreach. She can’t wait to build relationships with local families and help them connect with each other.
She said, “I see that stories can really bring communities together. They have the power to do that.”
If you would like to connect with Rohini and join her storytime sessions. She will be at St Kilda Library on the second and fourth Monday of every month, so pop by and say hi.
More stories in more languages
And the fun doesn’t stop there, our libraries offer their own storytime sessions.
These include weekly sessions in English and monthly sessions in Portuguese, German, Spanish and Russian and they are also suitable for children aged five years and under.
For more information, visit their LOTE Storytimes webpage.