Centre for Stories

Growing up in Margaret River and not initially taking soccer seriously as a career, Tash took an unusual route to becoming captain of the Perth Glory Women’s League, replacing Sam Kerr in 2019. Tash believes in making space for others to lead through their strength, and is honoured to join a movement of strong women paving the way for future generations of soccer-lovers. Game Changers is a collect...

Goalkeeper for international Women’s Super League clubs and Australia’s national team the Matildas, Lydia is a proud Nyungar woman who grew up playing in the red dirt of Kalgoorlie, a small town north-east of Perth, before moving to Canberra to pursue her career in soccer. She has been inducted into the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame. Game Changers is a collection of stories from WA e...

Soccer runs through the Brooking family’s veins. Thembi and her daughter Ischia both play soccer, while Thembi’s husband coaches. After migrating from Zimbabwe to Perth, Thembi started out playing soccer in an area of Perth where there was less opportunity for young girls to play and is now proud to see that changing for her daughter, Ischia, who is playing at an elite level with the Junior Matild...

Tracey Wheeler is an early champion of women in soccer, representing Australia in our national team the Matildas first as a midfielder, and later as a goalkeeper. She made her international goalkeeping debut against New Zealand in 1989, and has played 55 international matches for Australia, including three games at the 2000 Olympics. Game Changers is a collection of stories from WA elite athletes...

Sports journalist Ann Odong travels with the national Matildas team and is Digital Content Project Manager for Football Federation Australia. Ann’s story begins when her family were forced to flee Uganda as refugees. They resettled in Perth, Western Australia. Growing up in a new country, Ann found the best way to connect with other kids was through a shared passion for playing soccer. Game Change...

Jaime is a trans woman, soccer player and committee member for the South Perth Pride Football Club, an inclusive soccer club for players of all different backgrounds, races, ages, abilities and sexualities. Game Changers is a collection of stories from WA elite athletes past and present considered to be the best in the game; and from community role models who are courageously making soccer more ac...

Marilyn has the great honour of being the first West Australian female referee to crash into the male-dominated game in the late 1970’s. In 1992, she was the first woman to run the line in a national men’s soccer league game. Game Changers is a collection of stories from WA elite athletes past and present considered to be the best in the game; and from community role models who are courageously ma...

Growing up in a working-class family in Nottingham, UK, Sandra Brentnall’s dad recognised his daughter’s indisputable talent for playing soccer, and decided to relocate his family to Perth, WA to champion her rise in the game. At just 15 Sandra made it into the State team and by 17 she was flying the flag for Australia and playing for the Matildas. Game Changers is a collection of stories from WA...

What does a “good death” look like? How important is choice and control to having a dignified end-of-life? Why is death still such a taboo topic for some communities, and how might community be the very answer to some of our most difficult questions concerning death? Brought to you in partnership with Palliative Care WA, listen back to our fascinating panel conversation on these topics, all in cel...

Recipient of the Patricia Kailis International Writing Fellowship and acclaimed Indonesian writer and poet, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, sits down in conversation with local Perth author, Rashida Murphy. Together, they discuss navigating the literary world as a writer in translation, the labels of Western literature and queer Indonesian writing. This conversation was held at the University Club Banque...

At 84 years old, Betty McGeever has no plans of slowing down. Growing up as a country girl on a farm before later working as a librarian, Betty is grateful for the life she’s had. She discusses why she doesn’t grieve for those she’s lost; how her weekly kayaking keeps her sane; and why helping others less fortunate than herself brings her more joy than anything else she’s ever done. Death and Dyin...

Mother, grandmother and dressmaker, Sandy Mitchell, lives in an isolated town in the southwest region of Western Australia, with a population of around 400 people. She shares how the losses she has experienced in her life – losing her dad to dementia, her newborn baby to a heart defect and her mother to cancer – have impacted her views on life and death. Death and Dying is an oral history collecti...

Graham 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. They discuss why Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) is the most compassionate way to face the end for people with painful terminal illnesses like Graham. Death and Dying is an oral history collection commissione...

Natalie Bogoias is a Homeless Healthcare street nurse and Trish Owen is a survivor of homelessness. They discuss why people are dying on the streets, what happens to them when they do, and why society deems a homeless person’s life to be of less value than others. Death and Dying is an oral history collection commissioned by the State Library of Western Australia and produced by Centre for Stories...

Lena Van Hale, manager of the sex worker rights organisation, Magenta, is a sex worker activist and trans person. In this interview she breaks down the misinformation around violence and death for sex workers, why (and when) suicide is actually prevalent among trans people, and how deaths from the HIV pandemic affect everyone today. Death and Dying is an oral history collection commissioned by the...

Lifeline WA ambassadors Leon and Adrian discuss men’s mental health, dance and haka as a medicine, and suicide prevention. Death and Dying is an oral history collection commissioned by the State Library of WA and produced by Centre for Stories. Head to centreforstories.com to find out more.

Leanne is the founder and owner of South West Grief and Loss Centre and is an experienced grief and bereavement counsellor. Here she discusses how grief is not linear, but rather made up of a million tiny moments; why our communities need to come together to better support people in their mourning; and how living our values and having self-awareness are key to healing and moving forward after loss...

Trigger warning: This story discusses suicide. Award-winning artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah discusses how he uses art and sculpture to create open spaces that encourage conversations around death and grief. He reflects on the loss of his grandfather to suicide, capturing his feelings on death through his sculpture, Pretty Beach, how he believes the Western world has ‘sterilised’ death, and the ways...

Dr Marilyn Metta is a trauma counsellor and founder of the Metis Centre, a social justice and human rights organisation. In this interview, Marilyn talks about ending her mother’s life in Malaysia according to her mother's wishes; her own near-death experience; spirituality and Buddhism; and why trauma influences our views on death. Death and Dying is an oral history collection funded by the State...

Professor Jaya Dantas is Dean International in the Faculty of Health Sciences and is Professor of International Health in the School of Public Health at Curtin University, where she leads a programme of research in refugee and migrant health. Jaya discusses how she believes vulnerable populations were let down in the Australian government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly migrants...

Karijarri and Yawuru woman Judy Anne Edgar and her daughter, Japanese Yawuru woman, Maya Shioji, discuss their multicultural upbringings in Broome, Western Australia, and the rituals and customs that occur during their traditional Indigenous funerals, as well as Japanese funerals. Death and Dying is an oral history collection funded by the State Library of Western Australia and produced by Centre...

Amber Dennis was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and has been in a wheelchair for most of her life. She is also the founder of Wheelie Good Perth, an accessibility auditing business which she was inspired to create after the passing of her father and grandmother. Amber discusses why, despite being close to death herself on many an occasion, she embraces life with a passion and has used h...

Sheryl Blanksby moved to Australia from the Philippines when she was a young woman, in search of a better life. In this episode, she shares the harrowing journey of her baby boy Thomas being diagnosed with cancer and making the decision to not proceed with treatment - choosing quality of life over quantity. This is her journey of unimaginable loss, Facebook support groups, and finding strength fro...

Forbidden Love is a Centre for Stories project dedicated to love in all its forms. Four storytellers worked along-side story trainer Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa to perfect their stories for a series of live events. Whether it’s waiting at a bar for an hour to meet your next Tinder date or putting up with your partner’s questionable taste in music, love makes us do strange and wonderful things. So let’s ce...

Forbidden Love is a Centre for Stories project dedicated to love in all its forms. Four storytellers worked along-side story trainer Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa to perfect their stories for a series of live events. Whether it’s waiting at a bar for an hour to meet your next Tinder date or putting up with your partner’s questionable taste in music, love makes us do strange and wonderful things. So let’s ce...