Dad arrived in the mail yesterday. Due to the extremely reductive process of cremation, this formerly handsome man of 90 kilograms could now fit into a small cardboard box. If it were possible, he would be laughing at the absurdity of his final journey. Such is the nature of modern-day death and the available option […]
‘Genes’, as the American academic and neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky has written ‘…are not about inevitabilities; they’re about potentials and vulnerabilities’. Good genes don’t necessarily result in good outcomes – in sport or anything else. But they sure can help! My latest book – ‘It’s in the Genes, Australian Football Families’– tells the stories of some […]
The gentleman opposite was interviewed for someone else’s biography. He shared the bones of his own story. An incredible tale of migration and thriving despite childhood and other adversities. When I suggested he should write his own life story. His reply was cutting and quick. “I don’t believe in vanity projects,” he dismissed. “Not for […]
When you read a biography, do you feel like you’re in the story living the biographical subject’s life, feeling what they’re feeling and seeing what they’re seeing? To stimulate your imagination this way, biographers make hundreds of decisions. It’s these choices the biographer and LSA member, Gabriella Kelly-Davies, explores in her new podcast, Biographers in […]
‘And what did it look like?’ Thea, who was attending one of my life story workshops, looked as if a lightbulb had just been switched on. Her face became animated as she recalled leaving a smoky polluted town to move across the state to the countryside. Fresh air! Blue sky! The trees, the flowers …! […]
By Felicity Lenehan Once there was a time, dare I say its name, when there were two thing’s I couldn’t do due to lockdowns. The first was conduct life story interviews in person with my lovely clients. The other heartbreaking activity I could not do was take my children to see their grandparents. I came […]
By Sally-Anne Watson Kane All who attended the Life Stories Australia (LSA) Conference 2022 agree that it was an enormous success. LSA members who attended the all-day conference on Friday 2 December 2022 were treated to an entertaining and insightful day of presentations and discussions about topics related to documenting and preserving life stories. Jacqueline […]
Social