About

Bertha Tobias is a retired educationalist, puppeteer and story-teller. She lived and worked in Cape Town, South Africa (until 1978), in New Zealand/Aotearoa (from 1978 to 2015), before settling in Australia where she now lives, in Sydney.
In South Africa she was involved in various aspects of early childhood workshops and puppet shows in some of the poorest areas, as well as fund-raising puppet shows in support of early childhood education. In addition, she was an active member of a professional puppet company in Cape Town at the Space Theatre.
When she emigrated to Aotearoa with her husband and family in 1978 she expanded on her previous interests in storytelling, puppetry and education, establishing her own puppet-
company, and running puppet workshops for several groups. She was also an active member of the New Zealand Guild of Storytellers where she took on a leadership role.
For several years she worked as a full-time volunteer at a centre for child and family guidance and undertook studies at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. In 1988 she was awarded the B.Ed degree and Teaching Certificate.
Her teaching career embraced Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Adult Education classes, and she moved to a position in the College of Education at the University
of Canterbury, where she established a new course on Teaching through Storytelling.
She has published two text books on storytelling for teachers of young children and now she has published an adventure novel Beyond the Mountains of Elbat mostly intended for children aged 6 to 12. 

Bertha loves reading to and engaging children in storytelling.