NEWS Of The Area stepped into the world of Bellingen’s resident storyteller, Nathan Meola, to uncover the ancient art of oral storytelling.
Nathan’s path to storytelling is curious and meandering.
After early life challenges and a career in personal training, a pivotal encounter at a men’s event changed everything.
He met a storyteller and depth teacher, Asher Packman.
“There was something about seeing him talk,” Nathan recalls.
“The course of my life started to shift from there.”
He began exploring myth and poetry to integrate his own darker experiences.
His first actual attempt at telling a story was excruciating, but it taught him a valuable lesson in commitment and follow-through.
His journey led to completing a nature-based, eight-month residential program in the Northern Rivers called Wild School, before settling in Bellingen a year ago.
Nathan is now a well-known local oral storyteller, performing monthly to sell-out audiences through Bellingen Story Circle at Alternatives Bookshop.
He also has a new collaborative venture called Show and Tell, and co-hosts a weekly radio show, Fig Tree Tales, on 2 Triple B FM.
While society confines storytelling to professional artists and marketers, Nathan views it as an inescapable part of the human condition.
“Human beings are nothing but stories.
“We are woven with stories.
“They are happening all the time inside our minds, inside our hearts,” he says.
“Everyone, through the course of the day, will tell one story at least, if not multiple stories.”
However, we rarely share our stories with explicit intention or to adept listeners.
“The stories are coming out, so we may as well bring awareness to them,” Nathan explains.
Taking the craft seriously requires intention, competent listeners, and iteration—the traditional practice of sharing stories multiple times within a community to hone the delivery.
This deliberate practice is what separates an ‘older person’ from an ‘elder’.
“An elder is one who has consciously cultivated the art and craft of storytelling,” Nathan explains, “so they can take what they’ve experienced in their lives, package it into a form that’s digestible, and then tell it.”
Nathan points out that our stories also carry inherent power.
If we are unaware of them, they can easily have power over us; but when we bring them out into the light, they can become an ally.
To support this, he sees his role as serving a broader social function—acting as a “story catcher” who listens into the silence and holds open entry points for others to share, building deeper connections and meaning in what might otherwise seem mundane.
“Storytelling is a skill, and the more you develop the skill, the more interesting things happen to you,” he said.
Nathan Meola’s events are advertised on his social media pages.
By Jessica MILLER
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