Just like any party, we gather to celebrate and connect. In the case of a language party, we gather to celebrate the linguistic diversity of our community, and we connect through the universal and particular themes of our stories. Aside from sharing stories we might enjoy time together in other ways, playing language games, eating, singing, and dancing.

Oral storytelling is as ancient as the hills. But this particular kind of multilingual storytelling event grew out of research on Indigenous language revitalisation, where public recognition for language champions leads to pride, strength, and leadership. We designed a format that balances authenticity and accessibility.

Some storytellers refer to their ancestral language as their ‘first language’, even if it is not the language they use daily. In this case, they might share a story they have memorised. Or they might share a story using the common language but incorporating words from the ancestral language. It’s about sharing from a place of strength and pride.

This is a platform for sharing stories from the heart, from the land, from the ancestors. When an elder testifies to changes in the land, to species that have disappeared, ideologies of denial are swept away. Hearts and minds can open to new conversations of how we can live well here. Stories offer wisdom, healing, and hope to communities that are struggling with the climate crisis, with the meaning crisis, and with fear of the ‘other’ in our midst.

People share stories from their ancestral lands and how the world is understood from that place. They tell stories of their lives and how they found their way here. They share important cultural words and explain their significance. They talk about traditions transplanted or abandoned. They talk about climate change, and how seasons are shifting and species appear at different times, or not at all. They tell stories of tricksters and monsters. The stories are sometimes strange, surprising, or wonderful. They transport our imaginations and we grasp something new about our neighbours.

Well, we listen to singing that we don’t understand, in opera and in rock concerts. As Oliver Sacks observed: “Speech does not consist of words alone… it consists of utterance – an uttering-forth of ones whole meaning with one’s whole being – the understanding of which involves infinitely more than mere word-recognition. With an emotionally-laden utterance the meaning may be fully grasped even when every word is missed.” Storytelling in the original languages is also a kind of strength: when storytellers share first in their language, they invoke their ancestors and their ancestral lands, a place of confidence.

Every storyteller we have worked with wanted to ensure that the audience could access the content. Some new immigrants have workshopped the translation with their language teacher, written it down, and read it out haltingly. Audiences experience a dissonance between the unfettered fluency of the oral storytelling and a delivery shoehorned into the common language.

Language parties celebrate the people who are keeping their languages and cultures strong in this place. Locals come to listen to other locals in a once-off performance. Audiences observe that the experience is a significant milestone in this civic participation of each storyteller.

It depends. It seems fair to compensate storytellers for any of their costs. We recommend paying Indigenous storytellers as an additional mark of respect for what they are sharing.

Yes. Sharing stories from the heart goes deeper than sharing cuisines and costumes. This is a vulnerable space for first-time storytellers and for their family members in the audience. Navigating risks is part of our creative facilitation practice, which we offer through coaching.

Language Parties have been held as part of local festivals. They have also been run as stand-alone ticketted events. at a theatre, a library, a bar, a cafe, a lakeside park, botanical gardens, a community centre.

Language Parties have been run in several festivals, also by a refugee centre linked to a school, by university language departments, and by Indigenous language centres.

We have posted some videos at https://vimeo.com/languageparties and some audio at https://soundcloud.com/languageparty. Some program notes are linked from our events page. These materials do not capture the feeling of being present at the live event.

Language Parties are a way of showing culturally diverse communities that everyone can belong in this place without forgetting who they are. They give us practice at mindful listening to other languages. For more on social impact please see our 2024 report.

This is the art and craft of language parties, that we have been working on since our first event in 2015. We are continuing to develop a suite of resources to support intercultural facilitation. We also provide coaching. If you’re thinking about throwing a Language Party, please let us know using this form.