Recent Stories
These stories come from the items in our collection.
Dementia and Daily Rituals
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Sandy discusses losing her dad to dementia, her newborn baby to a heart defect and her mother to cancer – all in a small country town in southwest WA. She shares how people reacted to these different losses in different ways, and why community, ritual and celebration are so important in the healing process.
The Bliss of Knowing How I’ll Die
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Marilyn is a trauma counsellor and founder of the Metis Centre, a social justice and human rights organisation. She talks about ending her mother’s life according to her wishes, her own near-death experience, spirituality, faith, and why trauma influences our views on death.
Finding Meaning at the End
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
At 84 years old, Betty has no plans of slowing down, and discusses the lessons she has learned over her lifetime toward death and dying, why we shouldn’t grieve for those we’ve lost, how staying fit at any age keeps us sane, and why helping others less fortunate than yourself doesn’t need to start or end when you’re coming to your own end of life.
Those Who Get Left Behind
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Jaya Dantas is an expert in the health of vulnerable populations. When the COVID pandemic hit Australia, she believes at-risk communities here, such as Indigenous people and migrants, were let down in the government’s handling of its health response.
My Death, My Way, Together
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Graham and Helen discuss what it’s like to live with a ‘ticking clock’, caring for each other, and why having a choice in deciding to end your life is paramount to having a “good” death. In the end, it’s the little things in life that matter most.
A Wheelie Good Life
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Despite being close to death herself on many an occasion, or perhaps because of it, Amber Dennis embraces life with a passion.
Death on the Streets
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Natalie and Trish discuss why people are dying on the streets, what happens to them when they do, whether a homeless person’s life is valued less than others and what government’s need to do to solve the homelessness crisis in Australia.
A Mother’s Pain
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Sheryl’s baby boy Thomas was diagnosed with a rare cancer. She decided to not proceed with treatment – choosing quality of life over quantity.
Sculpting Spaces for Grief
Death and Dying
12 January 2022
Abdul-Rahman discusses how he uses art and sculpture to create open spaces that encourage conversations around death, reflects on the death of his grandfather to suicide and how the Western world has ‘sterilised’ death.
Small towns & regional cities
Dampier is a port town in the Pilbara region, twenty kilometres west of Karratha. It is named after the British explorer William Dampier who visited in 1699.
Myra Sykes to convict William Sykes
SLWA on ABC Radio
ABC Radio Perth interview about a heartbreaking set of ten original letters written from the perspective of Myra Sykes to her husband, William, who was transported to the Swan River Colony as a convict in 1867.
Spirit of the Swan Coastal Plain
Podcasts
Rare Stories from the West
Rare Stories from the West - Part 1. A podcast exploring the significance of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) in the creation of the city of Perth. Produced by Gina Pickering.