Amanda Edmiston is a freelance storyteller accredited by the Scottish Storytelling centre in Edinburgh and her passion is researching and retelling traditional stories and folklore which highlight plants, their medicinal use and the part they play in all our lives.
Her long term aim is to collect and retell stories about herbs, their uses and their place in every society on this planet in order to keep alive the knowledge and bring stories that can excite a passion for plants to as many people as possible
The therapeutic effects of storytelling is widely documented. Its ability to empower people, increase positive communication and allow personal and learned stories to communicate ideas and illustrate a broad range of situations is limitless. Specifically Amanda's herbal storytelling brings diverse groups of people together as they discover a commonality in the fairy stories and legends from around the world that highlight plants and their uses.
Amanda comes from a long line of artists, travelers, writers and storytellers, her educational background includes theatre arts, human rights law, energetic herbal medicine, and she has also studied Native American Art and Culture in New Mexico. She has lived an eclectic life, but has now found her passion in storytelling. The sessions she provides, to a diverse range of groups, can take place in a variety of settings including educational, cultural and botanical, but are also perfect for multicultural and disadvantaged groups. She provides workshops and follow up sessions designed to enable people working in these fields to share ideas and use storytelling as a tool to enthuse and energise the groups they work with.
Amanda's recent work has included 2 days of storytelling with highly sensory props telling the true uses of spices as emeshed in a traditional legend for The Spice weekend at Chelsea Physic Garden in London; 'Eat Mugworts maiden' stories exploring traditional herbal use in Scotland and how this changes as the cultural dynamic alters and how we can use this to positively impact on our health and our relationships with each other and our environment; for the Centre of Human Ecology. Tales highlighting an uplifting attitude to growing and recycling an ongoing project for Glasgows South Seeds community gardening organisation. Tiny Tales 'Around the world in five senses' sessions for the Storytelling centre in Edinburgh. 'Felted plants' for 'Sit and Knit a bit' at Tramways a day of events for International Womens day. Plus work with nurseries, primary schools and womens groups
Look at her lovely website here