Will the stories of your family live on?

Imag­ine hav­ing a per­ma­nent live­ly record­ing of your elder’s life sto­ries. Some­thing to hand down the gen­er­a­tions. Some­thing to mark a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone such as a birth­day or a wed­ding anniver­sary. An heir­loom with so much to say.

I call these Heir­loom­i­na­tions. I have always loved talk­ing to peo­ple about their sto­ries. I find it fas­ci­nat­ing to inter­view peo­ple at the lat­ter part of their lives because I’m curi­ous to know what were their great­est chal­lenges, and how did it all turn out? What was it like to live through his­to­ry’s sig­nif­i­cant eras, like a depres­sion, a war, when cars first hit the road, when man land­ed on the moon? Exact­ly how did you feed a fam­i­ly with­out a fridge or even elec­tric­i­ty? What was it like to migrate and set­tle in a new land?

With a strong ground­ing in sen­si­tive com­mu­ni­ty prac­tice, I have acquired a friend­ly relaxed lis­ten­ing style. I would love to have a part in record­ing your fam­i­ly heir­loom. I am sure it is a great way to say to your elder that you care about them and that you val­ue their expe­ri­ence.

Heirloomination is an opportunity to share your family’s stories in a significant way.

How do we create an Heirloomination?

Most impor­tant­ly, it’s up to you. I can come to the elder’s home or some­where they are com­fort­able. We can look over old pho­tos and mem­o­ra­bil­ia over a cup of tea. I will gain some basic details before­hand to pre­pare for the inter­view, such as year and place of birth etc. We will agree before­hand on any ‘no-go’ areas, and inter­view length. Then I can present you with the inter­view in your pre­ferred for­mat. I would sug­gest just an audio inter­view as most peo­ple feel uncom­fort­able being videoed. But if your elder does­n’t mind we can cre­ate a video too. You are free to make as many copies as you like to share with fam­i­ly and friends. If you would like, the audio can be mon­taged with old pho­tos into a slide show. You can do that your­self or I am hap­py to do that too.

How much does an Heirloomination cost?

My basic rate is $60 an hour which includes prepa­ra­tion time, inter­view time and any trav­el­ling over 30mins to the inter­view site. So a stan­dard audio Heir­loom­i­na­tion pre­sent­ed on a CD would cost approx­i­mate­ly $175 (plus a cup of tea) where the inter­view site is no more than 30mins from Wyn­num and the inter­view lasts 90mins.

How do I arrange an Heirloomination?

The most impor­tant thing is to give your­self plen­ty of prepa­ra­tion time. If you are doing this to mark a spe­cial occa­sion, allow a cou­ple of months. You will want to find any old pho­tos and mem­o­ra­bil­ia. I will also want to spend time research­ing the rel­e­vant his­to­ry accord­ing to your elder’s year of birth and areas lived in. Please feel free to give me a call to talk it over. My phone is 0413 931 870.

Until we meet some sun­ny day (don’t know where, don’t know when)

Regards

Tama­ra Playne (B. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Grad Dip Edu­ca­tion)