Every river tells a story. And so do the people who live along them. That’s why we’ve been capturing the stories of those people who love and care for our rivers. Throughout history, cultural knowledge and values have been passed from generation to generation through the use of stories. They bring to life the lessons of our past and paint pictures of our future. Yet more often river advocates and managers rely on facts and figures to influence decision makers and garner public support.
We’ve walked a different path.
For many years, we’ve found capturing stories a useful way to highlight the many social and cultural values of healthy rivers. Our first program – Your River – has been building an online living record of the people who love and care for Victoria’s great rivers and wetlands since 2004. Take a minute and explore these rivers through the eyes of these river champions.
North-East Rivers
– Campaspe River
– Goulburn River
– Loddon River
– Ovens River
– Yea River
Western Rivers
– Gellibrand River
– Glenelg River
– Wimmera River
Gippsland Rivers
– Latrobe River
– Mitchell River
Greater Melbourne Rivers
– Yarra River
– Woori Yallock Creek
In 2007 we took this work with stories to a new level with our Storylines project, which celebrates the stories of personal connection to Murray River wetlands through the use of the digital story-telling.
Telling stories through new media
Digital storytelling combines the compelling tradition of oral storytelling with new technologies, creating short, autobiographical video-clips that explore the authors’ own story and experience. The production process brings together video, photos, text, music and voice-over narration. This modern-day form of capturing and sharing stories offers a powerful way to celebrate and the personal moments, memoirs, and connections that make a place unique. Our Storylines participants tell us that they found the experience of celebrating their connection to this special place to be an empowering experience. They were left with a feeling of renewed confidence and determination to defend it. Watch some of their stories here. Each story we capture is different, but ultimately they are all the same. In an era of branding and marketing, what came through was that people love their rivers. And any damage to those rivers, damages the lives of the people who love them. Now, it’s over to you…
Tell a River story
The project is now inviting the general public to contribute their own anecdotes and memories about rivers. So far we have received a handful of evocative contributions about the Yarra. We look forward to reading many more and, more importantly, publishing them on our website.