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Sharing stories & experiences
An oral histories project celebrating the resilience of the Bega Valley.
What is Talking Together?
Talking Together is a Bega Valley Shire Library local 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 oral histories interviews via the Library’s catalogue [Link to catalogue] or hear the Podcast “A Closer Listen” wherever you get your podcasts.
Audio Equipment 
Loans & Workshops
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 cant make it to every session.Book Online
Craig is also available for one-on-one sessions on the library’s audio equipment, which is available for loan. Email Craig.
You can view the previous workshops by clicking on the links below:
Previous Workshops (Jan-Feb 2023)
Previous Workshops (July-Aug 2023)
“Resilience Strength Hope” Podcast [Link to landing page]
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 go them through.
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 will reconnect our community by capturing a lasting record of these pandemic years and sharing our experiences with each other.
What are oral histories?
Oral histories are recorded life stories; they're 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 will gather a collection of COVID-19 experiences from various groups, preserve them forever in the Library’s local history collection, and make them available widely for future reference. 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. We are looking to create a diverse snapshot of our community’s experience from a local point of view. 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