Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town
Presentation to 2025 Australian Society of Archivists National Conference
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 1 Intro Presentation to Australian Society of Archivists 2025 National Conference by Gionni Di Gravio OAM
This is a photograph of a “bus” by the late (and great) photographer John Ward. View The John Ward Transportation Archive
As a mark of a generous person, see his same day response when asked by the “Stockton Traveling Bowling Club” to reproduce one of his images for their polo shirts:
“Good evening John,
Yes I am very happy for the pictures I took many years ago to be used in this way!
I am fully supportive and this applies from now on to any of mine! They are donated to the UON for use by your organisation!
Thanks so much for your communication and best wishes!
John Ward” – Email JW to GDG 5/7/2021
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 2 The ‘Schizophrenic’ National Story
- The Australian national narrative is heavily focused on major metropolitan capital cities.
- In particular Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra dominate historical, cultural, and media representation.
- Regional Australia is often absent, marginalised, or stereotyped as a the ‘bush’, or in the case of Newcastle; “North of Sydney”
- This creates an incomplete and imbalanced national identity.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 3 The Missing Picture: Why Regional Stories Matter
- Dusting off the “Cinderella” City
- Regional towns are the engine rooms of Australian economic and social history.
- They hold unique stories of first nations, conflict, inspirations, migration, industry, invention, upheavals, natural heritage,and resilience.
- Ignoring these histories leads to a loss of local identity and national common sense.
- Correcting this imbalance creates richer, more inclusive national stories
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 4 Quote from the 7 Faces of Dr Lao
“Every time you watch a rainbow and feel wonder in your heart. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand.” – Dr Lao. From: George Pal (Producer) and Charles Beaumont (Screenplay). (1964). The 7 Faces of Dr Lao [Motion Picture] MGM Studios.”
The line from my favourite motion picture where the young boy wishes to join the Circus of Dr Lao, and Dr Lao explaining that there is a “circus” of wonder everywhere. Every place in Australia has a mystery and marvel about it, if we dig deeper into its history.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 5 The Solution: Collaborative Community Story Telling
- Documentary filmmaking is a powerful medium for accessible historical communication.
- The need for partnerships between funders, storytellers, memory institutions, academics, experts and filmmakers.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 6 Preliminaries (Do This Anyway!)
- Document & Preserve your place’s stories in physical form – oral traditions, documentary evidence, in all forms and formats
- Get the digital data and stories “out there” anyway you can via blogs, flickr, soundcloud, youtube, socials
- Begin the discussions and historical scrutiny, foster connections & trust
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 7 Finding the Filmmakers
- This can be tortuous.
- We contacted Tony Robinson’s Time Team (2008), hoping they would come down under to tell our story. They said “no”.
- In 2008 they said “Yes” with Tony Robinson’s “Time Walks” (2011)
- Neil Oliver’s “Coast Series 3 Episode 2 (2017)” Newcastle, Stockton and the Convict Coal Mines
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 8 Introducing the Stories of Our Town Initiative
- Enter Tony Whittaker and Chit Chat von Loopin Stab (a.k.a. Glenn Dormand)
- A collaborative documentary initiative focused on preserving and sharing Australian regional history.
- “Stories of Our Town is “the history told by those that lived it.”
- The project successfully produced over twenty documentaries on diverse regional histories.
- A Model: Showcasing how multi-stakeholder partnerships can achieve this goal.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 9 What Can Gordon Ramsay Teach us About GLAM? The Sequel
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 10 The Four Pillar Partnership: Cooking Up The History “Meal”
- The metaphor of a Michelin-star kitchen, where every pillar is essential.
- Pillar 1: Community Storytellers (The Farmers/Purveyors): Supplying the fresh, local ‘produce’ (oral histories, lived experience, family relics).
- Pillar 2: GLAM Memory Institutions (The Storeroom/Larder): Providing the essential, evidential, quality ‘ingredients’ (original sources).
- Pillar 3: Academic Researchers (The Recipe Developers): Ensuring historical rigor and context, refining the ‘recipe’.
- Pillar 4: Filmmakers (The Chefs): Directing, production, and plating the final ‘meal’ (the “documentary”).
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 11 Stories Of Our Town “History By Those Who Lived It”
Use of AI to generate design of presentation as well as imagery for badges that point to the Stories of Our Town Patreon Account (to help crowd fund the production of more films: https://www.patreon.com/storiesofourtown
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 12 Pillar 1 Heart of the Project (The Local Produce)
- Mr Geoffrey Hyde photographed with Tony Whittaker and Glenn Dormand 23 February 2021
- Community Storytellers: The authentic voice and essential knowledge keepers.
- Shared oral histories, family archives, and intimate understanding of place.
- Their involvement ensures relevance and resonance with the local audiences.
- The ultimate goal: stories “by the community, for the community.”
- “History told by those that lived it.”
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 13 Pillar 2 The GLAM Institutions (The Storeroom)
- Galleries, Archives, Libraries, and Museums are the “storeroom”of regional histories.
- Like any good kitchen, the quality of the ‘meal’ depends on the quality of the ingredients.
- GLAM provides vetted, accessible, physical and digitised sources – the fresh, unexpired materials – of ongoing value.
- The analogy of Gordon Ramsay visiting the storeroom – we ensure no ‘mouldy’ or mislabelled history is served.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 14 Pillar 3 Academics and Research (The Recipe Refiners)
- Provide the historical framework, context and scholarly rigor to the narratives.
- Ensure ethical practices in collecting and presenting evidence in all forms.
- Support the dissemination of the work through scholarly networks and public engagement.
- Bridge between community knowledge and wider historical context.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 15 Pillar 4 The Filmmakers (The Chefs)
- The chefs distill all the raw ingredients into a meal.
- They take the raw materials, apply the heat, determine the flavour profile, and ultimately ‘plate the meal’—producing the final, accessible documentary.
- But what’s a chef without ingredients? Community Storytellers, The Farmers and Purveyors supply the fresh, local produce—the unique oral histories and lived experiences that give the story its true, local flavour. They ensure the ingredients are relevant to the region, making the history authentic and resonant with communities.
- The Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums hold the essential, high-quality ingredients—the source materials, documents, and historical photos. If the storeroom is a mess, the final meal will suffer.
- The Academic Researchers and Experts are the recipe developers. They bring the rigour and context. They ensure we’re following a sound historical method, that the measurements are accurate, and that we’re using the right ‘cooking techniques’ so the history is sustainable and credible.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 16 All pillars working together to create polished, digestible narrative histories
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 17 The Challenge (Average Watch Times on TikTok and YouTube)
Average watch time on TikTok is 15-30 seconds
Average watch time on YouTube is 2-3 minutes
So the challenge of the filmmakers is to produce compelling viewing that holds the attention of the viewer to see the documentary through.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 18 The Output (The Menu)
You can view the full complement of Stories of Our Town Films here:
https://www.youtube.com/@storiesofourtown456/videos
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 19 Outcomes: The Good Things
- The Films: Twenty one (21) produced with 3 in current production using local artists, animators, academics and actors.
- Community Engagement: YouTube Channel has had close to half a million views with 5.57K Subscribers, public screenings, a heritage award and a shout out in Australian parliament.
- Taking Local Stories National: Foxtel/Binge/SBS/NITV
- Educational Resource: Films used in all levels of education, schools and local networks.
- Generous Cooperation: Sincere thanks to our GLAM colleagues who supported us and our academic colleagues who made themselves generously available
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 20 Lessons Learned: Keys to Collaboration
- Trust is Paramount: Building genuine trust between filmmakers, community storytellers, academics and institutions takes time.
- Finding The Filmmakers: It took years!
- Funding: Always a challenge.
- Accessibility: The need for clear, rapid access to hi-res GLAM digital resources.
- Succession: Developing pathways for the next gen to be trained and mentored in art & science of filmmaking.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 21 The Significance: An Inclusive Narrative
- The project fundamentally shifts the power dynamic of historical interpretation.
- Moves from a ‘top-down’ national story to a ‘bottom-up’ aggregate of regional truths.
- Demonstrates the vital role of non-traditional partners in scholarly and historical work.
- Provides a template for inclusive, collaborative approaches to telling Australian histories.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 22 Conclusion
- The metropolitan bias in the national narrative is a significant challenge.
- Collaborative documentary making is a powerful, effective tool for correction.
- The four-pillar model (Filmmakers, GLAM, Academics, Community) works.
- Regional voices are essential for a complete and honest Australian story.
Bringing Out The Stories of Your Town (ASA2025)
Slide 23 Thank You and Next Steps
- Explore Stories of Our Town YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFr0o5nIRF46pnQOkLOo1mw/videos - Hunter Living Histories Production Diaries: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/category/stories-of-our-town/
- Acknowledgements: Thanks to all the community participants, funding bodies, and partner institutions.
- Watch for forthcoming Newcastle Stories LGBTIQ Histories, Post Office, Coal..
Gionni Di Gravio OAM
University Archivist & Hunter Living Histories