Sherry Norfolk —Staff Development

Interpreting Our Heritage: A Power Tool for Interpreters

Sherry believes that Storytellers and Parks are a perfect match. While parks offer access to the unique wheres of America, storytellers offer access to the elsewheres that retrieve our past and help imagine our future. Storytelling is a natural and universal means for collecting and crafting information so it may by saved, shared and remembered. Think of the facts as grain: it's hard to hold and carry in your hands, but if you weave a basket of story, that story carries and holds the facts in your mind like a basket carrying the grain.

Interpreting Our Heritage builds on the philosophies and teachings of Freeman Tilden. The story's the thing, he said in his landmark book, Interpreting Our Heritage. He goes on to recommend that an Interpreter tell a story rather than recite an inventory in order to provide a much higher service than the teaching of facts. Interpreting Our Heritage gives interpreters the tools to provide that higher service.

See the complete description of the program.