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Community project captures North Lismore memories

October 11, 2024 BY
North Lismore Community Project

Claudie Frock and Dr Adele Wessell outside Claudie's former home in North Lismore. Photo: DAVID COPE

PEOPLE with a connection to North Lismore are being invited to share their stories, memories, and memorabilia as part of a new community project.

With many residential properties in the suburb being part of the home buyback stream of the Resilient Homes Program, Living Lab Northern Rivers and the NSW Reconstruction Authority thought it was important to capture the area’s history as it transitions to a new future.

Project coordinators, historian Dr Adele Wessell and photographic artist Cherine Fahd, will reveal more at a community workshop at the Living Lab Northern Rivers shopfront in Woodlark St from 5 pm to 7 pm on October 17.

Fahd will also be setting up photo booths to capture photos of people and their memorabilia at the old general store building in Bridge St on November 29 from 4 pm to 6 pm and November 30 from 8:30 am to 11 am.

The Living Memory team will also conduct interviews with locals from the areas where the homes are being bought back.

As well as creating a digital archive, the final series of oral histories and portraits will be showcased at an event in Lismore in 2025.

“At the moment, with all this change going on, I think we need to understand people’s relationship to place,” Dr Wessell said.

“It’s a unique project in lots of ways.”It’s not like an academic project where you’re producing a book – it will be a collection that is a resource for people in the future.

“There will be oral histories, stories, photos, and historical documents that can be used for history projects and creative projects into the future.”

Dr Wessell, from Southern Cross University, said that despite living in the area for 30 years, she didn’t previously have an understanding of the deep connections people have with North Lismore.

She said the first rainforest conservation journal in the world came out of the area.

“There are stories about women who owned land, and places like the Showground have a long continuous history of being a meeting place,” she said.

Register for the workshop at llnr.com.au/living-memory or share your story by emailing [email protected].