Story Collections
Learn from our experienced story trainers with unique resources developed right here at Centre for Stories, custom designed for your specific needs and desired outcomes.
With our oral story collection service, we help you and your organisation to record the vital stories of people important to you and share them with the world. We’ve created permanent and moving story collections that people can enjoy and ponder over forever – find out how we can do the same for you.
Previous clients we’ve developed story collections for include the State Library of Western Australia, Curtin University, Western Australian Museum, Act Belong Commit, and the Town of Victoria Park.
What is a story collection?
A story collection is a series of orally recorded stories, conversational interviews or podcast that discuss a particular theme or topic, such as love, death, culture or identity, or focuses on a particular cohort of storytellers, such as migrants, members of the LGBTQIA+ community or older people.
Whoever we interview, we ensure that we engage with storytellers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and communities that have perhaps historically been ignored, silenced or marginalised. With our vast community networks across Western Australia and beyond, we can find the best storytellers for your next collection.
We record these oral stories with our own in-house equipment, edit them, and then give them to you to share as you please. We also house them on our Centre for Stories website and online streaming platforms such as Spotify and Soundcloud as a podcast.
What we deliver:
- A series of recorded interviews in the audio format of your choice
- Edited transcripts for accessibility purposes
- Beautifully shot and edited photos of the participants
- Signed talent consent forms
- We can also organise a launch event for your collection to garner further public engagement
You can now use all of the above to share your story collection wherever you like! Let’s get started.
Types of story collections
Interviews
These are a conversational format where we record Q&A style dialogue between an interviewer and a subject. There is minimal editing involved, beyond cutting out certain meandering answers or background noises – we get straight to the good stuff while keeping it authentic and raw. Interviews might range from 20 minutes to over an hour.
Check out an example here from our collection Roaring Nineties.
Podcasts
These are like our conversational interviews but with a bit more of a dramatic flourish! There’s far more editing involved, including adding music, sound effects, and narration, which we record ourselves in-house. These are perfect to promote on streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Check out an example here from our episodes in the collection Untold Stories of Perth.
Performed Stories
This is where we record a story that you have perfected through our story training resources, whether it was from our online course with Sisonke Msimang, or from a corporate or community project where you received our training. These are often short and sweet, ranging from 5 minutes to 15 minutes, and have been rehearsed and performed before-hand.
Check out an example here from our collection Forbidden Love.
How to work with us
Step 1: Email us about your story collection idea, the type of collection you’d prefer, what your desired outcome is, and who you want to reach. We’ll send you a general quote for our services.
Step 2: We’ll arrange a time to chat online or in-person and get to know you and your organisation better, and how we can best curate our services to fit your needs. We’ll follow up with an official written proposal and quote for our services. We usually ask for a 50% of the total fee up-front, and 50% at completion of said project.
Step 3: Story collections may take time – curating, pre-interviewing, actually interviewing, transcribing, and editing. This may take up to 6 months, and timeline will depend on our workload. Luckily for you, you get to sit back, relax and wait for a fantastic final product. We will deliver all final assets to you upon completion!
Now’s the fun part. Sharing your stories with the world! Get started today.
What our past interviewees are saying
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I wholeheartedly recommend Centre for Stories – their communication is clear, the process was known, and their experience to ensure I was in the best mindset to share was fantastic. I have been interviewed by a number of people, and this experience is a stand-out. – Leon Ruri
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Working with Centre for Stories was a joy and privilege. Capturing stories from our community is so important and working with the team was an experience. I felt supported and encouraged to express myself authentically and their professional service also ensured integrity to all. – Leanne O’Shea
Explore our latest story collection: Death and Dying
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Death and Dying
Betty McGeever – Finding Meaning at the End
Read MoreAt 84 years old, Betty McGeever has no plans of slowing down. She’s using the time she has left to help others.
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Death and Dying
Sandy Mitchell – Dementia and Daily Rituals
Read MoreSandy Mitchell shares how losing her dad to dementia and other people in her life while living in a small country town have impacted her so deeply.
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Death and Dying
Graham and Helen Bullock – My Death, My Way, Together
Read MoreGraham Bullock was shocked when, at the age of 65, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and only given a few year’s to live. His wife Helen, a retired nurse, became his full-time carer.