GR digital — Digital game Quest for Wisdom — AW site — AW educational — AW game
Narrative Animal Wisdom
The QFWF continues to collect animal stories from all over the world on a separate website www….?. The overarching goal of this storytelling programme is to present the symbolism in the narratives in various artistic forms, sharing the intercultural wisdom about how to be a successful and happy human being and how to build successful and happy communities.
Animal stories can be found in all corners of the world in a colorful diversity of cultural genres. Through their differences, these stories express a cross cultural elemental wisdom that these animals embody.
By developing this quest for wisdom perspective into (e-)books, teaching modules and other educational forms, these old treasures are preserved and made freshly available for new generations.
The good life in the cosmopolis
The crosscultural significance of the narrative use of animals as embodying wisdom and natural strength forms a pillar of opportunity for building bridges between cultures. Goal of the programme include the strengthening ecological and cosmopolitan values of global citizenship — such as inclusion, cultural diversity, ecological awareness and 21st century skills. In appealing artistic and educational forms, the QFWF aims to reach different target groups: children, students, parents, teachers, professionals, managers and administrators.
Further reading on the development of the programme Animal Wisdom in a series of articles (NL):
De Gulden Snede: deel 1 — deel 2 — deel 3 — deel 4 — deel 5 — deel 6 — deel 7 — deel 8
The QFWF Storytelling Programme: narrative wisdom from all corners of the world
Communities from all over the world pass on their cultural wisdom gathered over generations in the form of stories, proverbs, symbolism and rituals.
The QFWF Storytelling program unlocks this intercultural source of wisdom and gives it appealing artistic forms, focused on connecting the stories and transcultural symbolism!
Animals embody elemental wisdom
Animals represent an elementary wisdom, they display clever and vicious tricks as well as being paragons of virtue. However differently the animals are presented, according to the specific cultural and historical context in which the stories were created, in all cultural traditions animals reflect basic natural strength and wisdom.
Beautiful forms of the latter are found in the classic tales of the of the Hindu Panchatantra and the Buddhist Jatakatamala.
Also, the famous stories of the Ghanaian Anansi as well as the less famous but extraordinary adventures of cricket, chameleon and other Malagasy hero’s.
Animals in myths, legends and fairy tales present a wise natural force: proverbial is the wisdom of the owl and the cunning of spider Anansi.
Birds in fairy tales and myths often convey messages, like the raven for example, as a mediator between the world of the gods, the humans and the underworld.
In addition to similarities, there are also interesting cultural differences. For example, almost all cultures have stories about dragons. Although they differ in shape on the one hand — sometimes more serpentine, sometimes more like a giant bird or like some kind of dinosaur — they all embody an enormous (super)natural power.
Read examples of Animal Stories from the series on the website — Animal wisdom
Update 2022-07