My Story
Let me tell you a little about my story and how I became a storyteller…
I was born on a snowy February morning in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden; a city of islands where I spent my first years of life on the island of Kungsholmen. From the age of four, I grew up at the foot of Mauao, Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcanic cone in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Mauao means “caught by the dawn” and I grew up learning the story of how Mauao was given this name, while also exploring the deep fairytale forests of the land where I was born through the storybooks my mother brought with us from Sweden. Stories from both my homes and from all around the world filled my childhood.
In my teens, I survived a severe depression that almost cost me my life. This experience was a rebirth that opened my eyes to how precious life is and kindled within me a desire to really live my life to the fullest. At the age of sixteen, I returned to Sweden with a longing to reconnect with my ancestral roots in Northern Europe and relearn my mother tongue – a language I forced myself to forget as a stubborn five-year-old, wanting to fit in and be like the other kids at school. Now I think and dream in both Swedish and English, and I tell and write stories in both languages in my work as a storyteller and writer. I live by the Lake Möckeln where the provinces of Närke and Värmland meet in the southern Bergslagen region in central Sweden, and I also spend a lot of time in Tuscany, Italy, where my husband Riccardo comes from.
It is here in Sweden, as well as on my travels in the British Isles where I also have ancestral roots, that I really began to pursue the path of the storyteller. I took my first step onto the storytelling stage at around the age of nineteen during an open mic night at a festival at Mundekulla Retreat Center in southern Sweden. I was so nervous! But I held a story in my hands like a butterfly: it had to be set free. So, with wobbly legs and shaking hands, I stepped onto that stage and told my story – a story inspired by a dream that I now call the story of Varga the Wolf Girl. I am so happy I faced my fear and shared my story that evening. It was such an important step on my storytelling path. People in the audience came to me afterwards to share how deeply moved they were by my story and the way I told it. Their feedback inspired me to learn more about the art of telling stories.
I trained as a storyteller in 2016 with Anna Julia Agoston at Art of Storytelling in Stockholm and Gnesta. Important storytelling teachers for me also include Inger Lise Oelrich, Isa Lilja Tibbling, Laila Spik, Ellika Lindén and Manitonquat Medicine Story. I have a bachelor’s degree in ethnology from Stockholm University, which can be described as the study of humans as cultural beings, and I have completed a one-year, full-time course on bushcraft and leadership skills at Sjövik Folk High School in Dalarna.
I began telling stories professionally in 2017 when I worked as a guide and storyteller during the summer season and autumn school holidays at Skansen Open-Air Museum in Stockholm.
