Talking Together
Sharing stories & experiences
An oral histories project celebrating the resilience of the Bega Valley communities.
What is Talking Together?
Talking Together is a Bega Valley Shire Library oral histories project focusing on COVID-19. The library is collecting community stories of strength, generosity, grief and resilience, to capture an enduring record of the COVID-19 years. Talking Together celebrates the resilience of the Bega Valley by recording and sharing community stories of everyday inspiration during the pandemic. You can listen to the full interviews via the library’s catalogue or hear the Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Hope Loss Resilience Podcast
By talking together we can recognise community strengths and build resilience for the future. In this podcast we talk to people from across the Bega Valley about their experiences during the pandemic and what got them through those unpredictable times. Listen to podcast
Workshops and Audio Equipment Loans
Upcoming Workshops
FBi Radio’s national storytelling podcast All The Best will run four free narrative audio workshops for young people living in the Bega Valley. The workshops are open to people aged from 12 to 24, who have an interest in learning about storytelling through sound, for radio and podcast. They will be held at the Bega Library on the 18th-19th and 22nd-23rd of January 2024. This is a four day workshop but you can still come if you can't make it to every session. Book online.
You can view the previous workshops by clicking on the links below:
Previous Workshops (Jan-Feb 2023)
Previous Workshops (July-Aug 2023)
Equipment Loans
The library has a range of recording equipment available for you to borrow. There is a complete audio recording kit with everything you need to make your own recordings and carry out your own oral history interviews. We have portable Zoom recorders, headsets, microphones and a portable TASCAM recording and mixer console. Library staff are available for one-on-one or group sessions on learning how to use the library’s audio equipment, which is available for loan. Email library@begavalley.nsw.gov.au
Reconnecting through oral histories
The past few years have been challenging, to say the least, with drought, bushfires, floods and the pandemic all having significant impacts. Talking Together reconnects our community by capturing a lasting record of these pandemic years and sharing our experiences with each other. Together, this collection of oral histories creates a snapshot of our community’s diverse experience from a local point of view.
What are oral histories?
Oral histories are recorded life stories; people telling their own stories in their own words; and they safeguard rare and valued community insights. Oral histories represent the people of this place and add to the shire’s historical records by sharing collective experiences. The preservation of oral histories can help us respond to future challenges. You can access the Talking Together oral histories via the library online catalogue.
Our local history - connecting our community
We maintain a public local history collection unique to our shire. Talking Together gathers a collection of COVID-19 experiences from various groups, preserving them forever in the Library’s local history collection, making them widely available for future generations. This is an opportunity for you to share your story, your experiences and thoughts with the wider Bega Valley community and become a part of the history of our region.
This is not our only collection of oral history recordings. Listen to locals talk about their experiences through our other oral history collections.
Supplement your listening with a peek at some old photos. Check out our historic photograph collections.
Listen to podcast
Listen to oral histories
Talking Together has been funded under the joint Australian Government–NSW Government Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 through the NSW Reconstruction Authority