From the Mountains to the Sea
Sarah Abusarar (CA)
The story of an honour killing of a sixteen-year old shepherdess in the Hebron Hills spans 70 years and finds a connection with a four-year-old boy (father of the storyteller, Sarah Abusarar). A poetic tribute to an ancient land and its people, the shepherdess’s story opens the way into a collection of tales told by that father. His childhood stories about growing up in Palestine after the occupation are stories of child poverty, childhood resistance, and refugees. “While my mother told me fairy tales, my father told me real-life stories that also contained kings, brave young men, and monsters.”
Sarah Abusarar comes from a long line of Storytellers on her paternal side. She is an award-winning storyteller recognised by the International Academy for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Morocco and Storytelling Toronto who presented her with the Ann Smyth travel award. Sarah has performed at festivals in Canada, Cuba, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Tunisia, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates. Because Sarah grew up in several countries, she tells stories from all over the world with a focus on Palestinian and Croatian stories, where her roots lie. Her favourite stories promote social change.
Sarah has therapeutically used stories with children in refugee camps in Palestine and with refugee children in Toronto. She works at the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program using traditional storytelling to encourage parent-child bonding. Sarah belongs to a collective called “Musical Story Studio,” where stories and music are combined. Sarah tells stories so that she may go deep inside of the tales and find herself in faraway magical places that she remembers, from long, long ago.